Arthur Melin's company made Hula-Hoop, Frisbee

COSTA MESA, Calif. — Arthur "Spud" Melin, co-founder of the toy company that introduced the world to the Frisbee, Hula-Hoop and other faddish gems of American pop culture, has died. He was 77 and had Alzheimer's disease.

Mr. Melin, who started toy giant Wham-O in 1948 with his boyhood friend Richard Knerr, died Friday.

"No sensation has ever swept the country like the Hula-Hoop," author Richard Johnson wrote in his book "American Fads."

"(It) remains the standard against which all national crazes are measured."

Mr. Melin and Knerr started with slingshots and named their mail-order firm for the sound a slingshot's projectile made upon hitting a target. They branched into other sporting goods, including crossbows and daggers. They added toys in 1955, when building inspector Fred Morrison sold them a plastic flying disc he had developed after watching students toss pie tins. Wham-O began selling the disc they called the Pluto Platter two years later before modifying it and renaming it the Frisbee.

"We didn't want it used as a toy, we wanted it to be a sport," Mr. Melin said in a 1998 interview.

In 1958, as Frisbee sales took off, an Australian toy manufacturer visited Wham-O's factory in San Gabriel, Calif. He gave an impromptu lesson in how to use a rattan hoop from Australia. Wham-O began selling the Hula-Hoop a short time later and eventually sold 25 million.

Mr. Melin retired in 1982. Mattel bought the company in 1994. Investors bought Wham-O in 1997 and relaunched many of its best-known toys.

Mr. Melin is survived by his wife, five daughters, a brother and 11 grandchildren.