Inventor creates self-waving American flag

WASHINGTON — There's probably no image that more typifies U.S. patriotism — now in peak season, with today being Flag Day — than the Stars and Stripes waving in the wind. Unfortunately, getting that magical effect takes work. You have to hoist the flag up a pole, handling it ever so gingerly, and then, you need a breeze.

Not anymore. Inventor Richard Levy of Bethesda, Md., has produced what he calls the world's first self-waving flag.

You know about Levy, even if you don't realize it. He has been behind about 200 toys for adults and kids, including the megahit Furby, which he co-created.

Levy's new invention, "The Wave Stars & Stripes," looks deceptively simple in the box. But press a button and — voilà! — the banner undulates gracefully, as if Mother Nature had descended on your desk and powered up a gust. In the background, take your pick of patriotic anthem: "The Star-Spangled Banner," "My Country, 'Tis of Thee" or "The Stars and Stripes Forever."

In Washington, D.C., it's the ultimate office toy, and it's showing up in some high-profile offices.

Levy has sent the flag to President Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, and Sens. Joseph Lieberman, D-Conn., and John McCain, R-Ariz., among others.

"Letters have started to come back," Levy said, including from Cheney, Lieberman and Rumsfeld. "What's not to like?"

Levy's outreach worked. The product has just hit stores but it already has fans. When a reporter tried to reach former Ambassador Richard Solomon, president of the U.S. Institute of Peace, his assistant initially referred the inquiry to the press office. But then she found out what the call was about.

"Oh, you're calling about our little wavy flag? Hang on," she said.

Moments later, Solomon was on the line, expressing his love for his self-waving flag.

"Visitors, whether American or foreign, walk in and we have a talk about world affairs, and as they're walking out I say, 'Oh, by the way, just press that button.' And they all break up," Solomon said.

"Some people might find flag-waving a little over the top, but most people respect the flag, and it's an unusual way, and a lighthearted way, to show it," he said.

The self-waving flag uses an ingenious system of rotating coils sewn into channels in the flag. It can be squeezed or crushed and will pop right back open and wave again. (To see the flag in action, go to www.thewaveflag.com.)

The flag was unveiled at the International Toy Fair in New York in February, and manufacturer SRM Entertainment sold it to Toys R Us, Kmart and the CVS pharmacy chain. It sells for $24.99, batteries included.

Although the toy is made in China, the flag is made by Valley Forge Flag in Pennsylvania. "We would never put a foreign-made flag on the thing, for goodness' sake," Levy said.

Levy is working on a version that displays NASCAR banners and one that uses college flags and fight songs.