A group of friends joined forces to create a toy company and ended up entertaining generations of children and families.
Origins
Founded June 1930 in East Aurora, New York by Herman Fisher, Irving Price, Margaret Evans Price, and Helen Schelle.
The friends wanted to create a toy company focused on producing toys to “appeal to the imagination, that do something new and surprising and funny.”
Early Days
Fisher-Price manufactured its early toys using steel and pine.
Members of the founding team took 16 toys – referred to as the “16 Hopefuls” – to the 1931 American International Toy Fair in New York City to promote the company.
Dr. Doodle was the first Fisher-Price toy sold.
Company Interrupted
In 1943 Fisher-Price suspended toy manufacturing to support the war efforts by making aircraft and ship parts.
After the war, the company incorporated plastics into its toys and the Buzzy Bee toy was the first Fisher-Price toy to contain plastic.
Changing Hands
The Quaker Oats Company purchased Fisher-Price in 1969.
In 1991, Fisher-Price parted from Quaker and became a publicly listed company.
Fisher-Price was purchased by Mattel in 1993, where it remains today.
Greatest Hits
The company produced some of the most recognizable objects of play, including The Corn Popper, Xylophone, Little People, Rock-a-Stack, Chatter Telephone, Play Family Castle, Music Box Record Player, Puffalumps, Bubble Mower, Rescue Heroes, Jumperoo, Wheelies, and many others.
Legacy
Herman Fisher was posthumously inducted to the Toy Industry Hall of Fame in 1985.
Little People were inducted into the National Toy Hall of Fame at The Strong in 2016.
