Really, April is National Toy Invention Month. Please spread the word.

Now, Marvin Glass was almost comical in his eccentricities. He once got a good deal on a used Rolls Royce limousine, owned only recently by a Chicago mobster who was gunned down by his criminal brethren, and enjoyed being chauferred about town in it until it occurred to him that those who offed the former owner might recognize the car and think that perhaps their intended victim had survived. From that time on, Marvin always lay down in the back seat to avoid being seen, and not too long after sold the car. 

Never one to be less than flamboyant, he once flew his partners down to Jamaica for an 'idea' session. On arrival he found he had forgotten his swim trunks, and had the presence of mind to call back to the office to have one of his people go to his Evanston house, fetch the trunks, and fly them down to Jamaica for him. Air travel was cheap in those days. 

If you have stories to share about Marvin himself or the colorful history of his studio, please share. It is a part of our collective toy industry history. 

In somewhat the same vein, a Milton Bradley Games associate told me he was once up in Canada, playing golf with one of the (fabulously wealthy and inebriated) inventors of Trivial Pursuit, an avid golfer who had bought his own golf course. On one hole this inventor hit a tree, fell to cursing and club throwing, and then somehow managed to hit that same tree again on his next swing. Then he got out his cell phone and started yelling. When they finally moved along to the next hole, the sounds of a chainsaw were heard as that tree was ‘made redundant,’ as they say in the UK. Ah, the things one can do with money. 

 

 

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