The Story of American Toys
Author: Richard O'Brien
Publisher:
Published: 1990
Total Pages: 260
ISBN-13:
DOWNLOAD EBOOKEvokes the wonder and nostalgia of toys in America with the story of the inventors, manufacturers, and marketers behind the toys.
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Toys and American Culture
Author: Sharon M. Scott
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA
Published: 2009-12-09
Total Pages: 536
ISBN-13:
DOWNLOAD EBOOKTracing developments in toy making and marketing across the evolving landscape of the 20th century, this encyclopedia is a comprehensive reference guide to America's most popular playthings and the culture to which they belong. From the origins of favorite playthings to their associations with events and activities, the study of a nation's toys reveals the hopes, goals, values, and priorities of its people. Toys have influenced the science, art, and religion of the United States, and have contributed to the development of business, politics, and medicine. Toys and American Culture: An Encyclopedia documents America's shifting cultural values as they are embedded within and transmitted by the nation's favorite playthings. Alphabetically arranged entries trace developments in toy making and toy marketing across the evolving landscape of 20th-century America. In addition to discussing the history of America's most influential toys, the book contains specific entries on the individuals, organizations, companies, and publications that gave shape to America's culture of play from 1900 to 2000. Toys from the two decades that frame the 20th century are also included, as bridges to the fascinating past—and the inspiring future—of American toys.
The Wonder of American Toys, 1920-1950
Author: Charles Dee Sharp
Publisher: Collectors Press, Inc.
Published: 2002
Total Pages: 351
ISBN-13: 1888054700
DOWNLOAD EBOOKThe Wonder of American Toys reflects not only the toys of perhaps the most formative era of American history, but what they meant to the children who played with them and to the society that produced them.
Researching American-made Toy Soldiers
Author: Richard O'Brien
Publisher: Lulu.com
Published: 2009
Total Pages: 266
ISBN-13: 1605433101
DOWNLOAD EBOOKFor the first time, Richard O'Brien has collected hundreds of articles and features he wrote for various toy soldier collecting magazines in one compelling book. Filled with pictures and information on the best known -- and the most obscure -- toy soldiers of the past century.
The Real Toy Story
Author: Eric Clark
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Published: 2007-01-09
Total Pages: 256
ISBN-13: 0743298896
DOWNLOAD EBOOKThe American toy business is massive, world dominating, cutthroat, exciting, and increasingly willing to sacrifice our kids in its frantic rush for profit. And yet, for all its rapaciousness, the industry is in the business of delighting and fascinating our children. Toys are one of the most emotive subjects in the world. We all remember our own toys; we care desperately about those we choose for our kids, knowing these objects help shape children's lives. They are also a constantly newsworthy item: every Christmas, which toys are hot -- and the scramble by parents to grab them before the stores are empty -- is front-page and TV bulletin news. The Real Toy Story tells the tales of these toys and of the vast, world-dominating $22 billion American industry that creates them. The rewards for success are enormous: a top toy can earn billions -- H. Ty Warner shot into Forbes's World's Richest People list with his creation of Beanie Babies. The price of failure is just as huge -- the battlefield is littered with the corpses of once-successful toy companies whose multimillion-dollar gambles did not pay off. It is a world of contrasts. The Real Toy Story looks at both sides: at Slinky, Elmo, Barbie, Transformers, and their creators, but also at the dark side of an industry that leads the way in cold-blooded marketing targeted at children. Parents will want to learn about how this seemingly benign industry exploits, sometimes surreptitiously, the many new media: cable television, the internet, CD-ROMs, sometimes even invading the playgrounds to peddle their wares to unsuspecting young people. Perhaps more disturbingly, this hard-hitting book examines the vast gap between the cuddly image of toys and how almost all toys destined for America are actually produced in China under sweatshop conditions. Today the toy industry is in the midst of rapid change. Tapping into the concern millions of adults have about the toys they choose for the children in their lives, this riveting exposé is essential reading for everyone who cares about kids.
Boys and Their Toys
Author: Roger Horowitz
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 2013-10-18
Total Pages: 289
ISBN-13: 1135304483
DOWNLOAD EBOOKNegotiating the divide between "respectable manhood" and "rough manhood" this book explores masculinity at work and at play through provocative essays on labor unions, railroads, vocational training programs, and NASCAR racing.
Dictionary of Toys and Games in American Popular Culture
Author: Frank Hoffmann
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 2013-10-08
Total Pages: 152
ISBN-13: 1135418462
DOWNLOAD EBOOKKeep the information you need on playthings and pop culture at your fingertips! The Dictionary of Toys and Games in American Popular Culture is an A-to-Z reference guide to the playthings that amused us as children and fascinate us as adults. This enlightening—and entertaining—resource, complete with cross-references, provides easy access to concise but detailed descriptions that place toys and board games in their social and cultural contexts. From action figures to yo-yos, the book is your tour guide through the museum of sought-after collectibles and forgotten treasures that mirror the fads and fashions that helped define pop culture in the United States. The Dictionary of Toys and Games in American Popular Culture is a historical, yet current, reflection of society’s ever-changing attitudes toward childhood and its cultural touchstones. The book is filled with physical descriptions of each entry, including size, color, and material composition, and the age group most often associated with the item. It also includes biographical sketches of inventors, manufacturers, and distributors— a virtual “Who’s Who” of the American toy industry, including Milton Bradley, Walt Disney, and Jim Henson. With a brief glimpse through its pages or a lengthy look from cover to cover, you’ll discover (or re-discover) real hero action figures, toys with commercial tie-ins, fast-food promotional giveaways, penny prize package toys, and advertising icons and characters in addition to beloved toys and board games like Etch-a-Sketch®, Lincoln Logs®, Colorforms®, Yahtzee®, and Burp Gun, the first toy advertised on nationwide television. The Dictionary of Toys and Games in American Popular Culture presents easy-to-access and easy-to-read descriptions of such toys as: Barbie®, bendies, and Beanie Babies® Monopoly®, Mr. Machine®, and Mr. Potato Head™ Pez®, Plah-Doh®, and Pound Puppies® Scrabble®, Silly Putty®, and Slinky® Tiddly Winks®, Tinker Toys®, and Twister™ and looks at the people behind the scenes of the biggest names in toys, including LEGO® (Ole Kirk Christiansen) Fisher-Price® (Homer G. Fisher) Mattel® (Ruth and Elliott Handler) Hasbro™ (Alan, Merrill, and Stephen Hassenfeld) Toys R Us® (Charles Lazarus) Parker Brothers® (Edward and George Parker) F.A.O. Schwartz (Frederick Schwartz) Kenner® (Albert Steiner) Tonka® (Russell L. Wenkstern) The Dictionary of Toys and Games in American Popular Culture also includes an index and a selected bibliography to meet your casual or professional research needs. Faster (and more entertaining) than searching through a vast assortment of Web sites for information, the book is a vital resource for librarians, toy collectors and appraisers, popular culture enthusiasts, and anyone with an interest in toys—past and present.
The British Toy Business
Author: Kenneth D. Brown
Publisher: A&C Black
Published: 1996-01-01
Total Pages: 318
ISBN-13: 9781852851361
DOWNLOAD EBOOKAt its height British toymaking was a significant industry, with famous names such as Britains and Meccano known throughout the world. While in essence a specialised form of small-scale engineering, its products and market have always been unique, reflecting the current priorities of both parents and children. Yet, while individual toys and marques have been catalogued extensively, no previous history of toymaking as a whole exists. The British Toy Business provides a fascinating example of the development of a specific industry. Many early early toys were home-made. From the eighteenth century, with its growing recognition of children as something other than small adults, date the beginnings of specialised toys, usually produced by small workshops and sold by street-sellers. The nineteenth century, with its industrial growth and middle-class prosperity, saw an expansion of toymaking. The 1960s and 1970s were the most successful years of British toymaking, with companies like Lesney making record profits. Yet British toy makers failed to solve a number of fundamental problems. Following an unexpected sudden downturn in sales at a time of high interest rates, the major names in British toy making, Lesney, Airfix, Mettoy and Dunbee Combex Marx, all collapsed between 1979 and 1985, leaving the business to be dominated largely by importers.
Toy Story
Author: Tom Kemper
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Published: 2019-07-25
Total Pages: 130
ISBN-13: 1839020954
DOWNLOAD EBOOKThe first computer-generated animated feature film, Toy Story (1995) sustains a dynamic vitality that proved instantly appealing to audiences of all ages. Like the great Pop Artists, Pixar Studios affirmed the energy of modern commercial popular culture and, in doing so, created a distinctive alternative to the usual Disney formula. Tom Kemper traces the film's genesis, production history and reception to demonstrate how its postmodern mishmash of pop culture icons and references represented a fascinating departure from Disney's fine arts style and fairytale naturalism. By foregrounding the way in which Toy Story flipped the conventional relationship between films and their ancillary merchandising by taking consumer products as its very subject, Kemper provides an illuminating, revisionist exploration of this groundbreaking classic.
Growing Up in a Land Called Honalee
Author: Joel P. Rhodes
Publisher: University of Missouri Press
Published: 2017-06-01
Total Pages: 353
ISBN-13: 0826273858
DOWNLOAD EBOOKThis study examines how the multiple social, cultural, and political changes between John Kennedy’s inauguration in 1961 and the end of American involvement in Vietnam in 1973 manifested themselves in the lives of preadolescent American children. Because the preadolescent years are, according to the child development researchers, the most formative, Joel P. Rhodes focuses on the cohort born between 1956 and 1970 who have never been quantitatively defined as a generation, but whose preadolescent world was nonetheless quite distinct from that of the “baby boomers.” Rhodes examines how this group understood the historical forces of the 1960s as children, and how they made meaning of these forces based on their developmental age. He is concerned not only with the immediate imprint of the 1960s on their young lives, but with how their perspective on the era influenced them as adults.
