I spotted this historic marker when we drove through Archbold, Ohio recently, and, you guessed it, I insisted we turn back and check it out!
I immediately recognized Ohio Art as the producer of the iconic Etch-A-Sketch drawing toy, but I didn't know about the company's connection to this northwestern Ohio town.
The Etch-A-Sketch, introduced in the United States in 1960, became wildly popular. It still remains an important part of Ohio Art's product line, but I found that the company began producing toys and other novelties a half century before any of us twirled those Etch-A-Sketch knobs to create pictures.
Henry Simon Winzeler was born near Archbold in 1876, becoming a dentist and opening a dental practice in Archbold by 1900.
It seems that Winzeler was more interested in art than dentistry, though.
He drew inspiration from an oval mirror he saw in a clothing store owned by his aunt and began manufacturing oval frames.
By 1908, Winzeler sold his dental practice to embark on his new career. He borrowed $300 and rented space in downtown Archbold to open his frame-making business with 15 employees. He also financed the frame business with money from his Hub Grocery store on the same block that he also opened in 1908 and continued to run through early 1909.
During Ohio Art's earliest years, Winzeler sent the frames to Toledo for metal stamping and painted the stamped frames at his Archbold plant.
Winzeler bought his own stamping plant and consolidated his production in 1910.
The company sold many of its frames with images like religious scenes, still life subjects, landscapes and cute cupids as production neared 20,000 units per day. Ohio Art sold its products through major store chains like Sears, Kresge's and Woolworth's and began to expand into making toys and other items.
Winzeler needed to expand his business a few years later and requested a loan from a local bank to do so. The bank wanted too much of the business in order to issue the loan, so Winzeler turned to private financing to expand and move the company to nearby Bryan, Ohio in 1912.
The company's product line through those early years in Bryan included the frames with painted scenes, as well as miniature metal windmills, a toy monkey that could climb a string, sand pails, toy cars, tea sets and drums.
Henry Winzeler retired from active day-to-day involvement with Ohio Art in 1927. He retained ownership of the company as his then-15-year-old son Howard began working his way up through the company ranks.
Henry Winzeler died in 1939, and Howard Winzeler moved into upper management at the company.
Flash forward to 1959 when a French electrician named Andre Cassagnes took a new toy he invented to the International Toy Fair in Nuremberg, Germany.
Howard Winzeler saw the toy at the show, but it didn't really interest him at the time. He changed his mind after seeing the mechanical drawing toy a second time and invited Cassagnes to meet with his toy company's engineers in Ohio to perfect the product and launch it in 1960.
The Etch-A-Sketch became an instant baby boom hit in Christmas of 1960, quickly becoming the top selling toy in the United States that season.
Ohio Art continues to produce other toys and items, but the Etch-A-Sketch remains the mainstay of their product line, selling over 100 million units in dozens of countries over the years. Some even credit the toy with pulling the company through some bad economic times when its appearance in two of the popular Toy Story movies during the 1990s boosted sales.
The Winzeler family sold its controlling interest in the company by the 1970s and Cassagnes died earlier this year at the age of 86.
Ohio Art, which remains one of the oldest toy companies in the United States, maintains offices in Bryan, although it moved production of the Etch-A-Sketch from Ohio to China at the beginning of this century.
Who knew?
© Dominique King 2013 All rights reserved
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