Chapter 33:  A SMILE AND A SPARKLING WIT ENSURE A LONG LIFE….

It was a great honor and pleasure to have known the astonishing, toy and game inventor legend, Reuben Klamer. He came to our offices for a visit long ago. He loved some of the products we invented, and aside from all the great products he created, Reuben was just so much fun to be with.

We took him and his team to the also legendary Margie's Candies for some grilled cheese sandwiches, hot fudge sundaes, and chocolate milkshakes. That is my idea of a great meal. It turns out that Reuben, with his youthful spirit, impish smile, and a sense of humor as fresh as tomorrow, is crazy about chocolate milkshakes and hot fudge sundaes, too. You gotta’ love a man like that. 

Our friendship goes back a long time, and we have long been great admirers of each other's work. Reuben created the Milton Bradley classic The Game of Life, which in 2010 celebrated its 50th anniversary. He has also licensed over 200 other products throughout a career that spans many decades. 

(Reuben with Hasbro's George Burtch)

Reuben was in Chicago receiving a Llifetime Achievement Award at the Toy and Game Innovation Excellence Awards - richly deserved and well earned - and autographing games at the Chicago Toy and Game Fair the next day. He also autographed a couple of versions of his Game of Life for us, and I autographed and gave him one of our TMX Elmos. I should blush at the superlatives he used in the notes he penned on the game boxes.  

(Reuben autographing Games of Life at the Chicago Toy & Game Fair - long line of people waiting to meet him!)

Rueben has a sparkling wit and beautific warmth that emanates from him like a toy industry Saint. Turns out he is writing a book about his life.

During dinner, Reuben told us the story of how the Hula Hoop came to be. A friend sent him an Australian Aboriginal stick and reed hoop. He thought this could be translated into a new plastic, long-chain polyethylene, a material that Reuben had introduced to the toy industry and made him famous, opening many doors in his early years.

Prior to Reuben, plastic toys had been made of styrene, a hard and brittle plastic prone to cracking and breaking into sharp shards. Polyethylene was soft and unbreakable. He introduced a toy industry breakthrough when he was inspired by an ad for a soap bottle that could be dropped and would bounce without breaking.

It turns out that a few other people who saw Reuben's stick and reed hoop knew about his new plastic, as well. As I heard him tell it, these other individuals used his plastic and popularized this hoop concept as the “Hula Hoop”.  And the rest is history. It began in Reuben's shop, however, with an aboriginal hoop sent by a friend, and ended up being made of the plastic he “discovered” for the toy industry. The original Australian hoop still hangs in his office.

When I asked him further about one of the stories he told us that evening, he responded, "Buy the book!" When I asked him, will he finish the book? He said, "No idea! I don’t give a s***!”, chuckling like Santa’s head-elf, and with a perfect elfish twinkle in his eye. No wonder I love that man. 

His first toy was licensed. Moon Rocks, now known as Magic Rocks. In addition to the Game of Life, which he created over 50 years ago, he also invented hundreds of other well-known and unknown products, among them the Fisher Price 1-2-3 Roller Skates, on which millions of kids first learned to skate.

Reuben was bright-eyed, with an angelic demeanor, warm, kind, extraordinarily funny and clever, sharp as a tack, and actually closer to 86 in age at this writing. He is still inventing and licensing toys and games in heaven. He even has a business partner he works with who is in his 90s.  

RIP, dear Reuben. We all love you. 

Bruce

“People You Should Know” is a new book to be published shortly about some extraordinary people I have known. 

As I spent 38 years as a toy inventor and licensor I met some incredible people in the toy industry, inventors, agents, and owners of toy companies.  I wanted to share my experience with you.  Hope you enjoy.

Bruce Lund

Lundleather.com

Lund and Company Invention, L.L.C.