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Speaker 1: The Stay in History Class is a production of I

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Speaker 1: Heart Radio. Hello and Welcome to this Day in History Class,

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Speaker 1: a show for those who can never know enough about history.

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Speaker 1: I'm Gay Bluesier and in this episode we're talking about

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Speaker 1: a key event in the life of American architect John

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Speaker 1: Lloyd Wright, a man who lived in the shadow of

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Speaker 1: his famous father but still managed to build a legacy

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Speaker 1: of his own using tiny wooden logs. The day was

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Speaker 1: August thirty one. John Lloyd Wright received the patent for

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Speaker 1: his cabin construction toy, otherwise known as Lincoln Logs. His

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Speaker 1: invention was a set of notched wooden building logs of

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Speaker 1: various sizes, which could be securely stacked and arranged to

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Speaker 1: form a miniature cabin or any number of other things.

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Speaker 1: Wright wanted kids to have fun building, but he also

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Speaker 1: saw the logs as more than mere diversion. In his patent,

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Speaker 1: he referred to them as quote education toys, calculated to

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Speaker 1: develop a child's constructive inclinations. Wright dubbed his invention Lincoln Logs,

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Speaker 1: but the origin of that name isn't as clear cut

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Speaker 1: as you might expect. The simplest explanation is that it's

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Speaker 1: a nod to Abraham Lincoln, who was famously born in

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Speaker 1: a one room log cabin in Kentucky and was later

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Speaker 1: rumored to be an expert at building cabins. The toys

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Speaker 1: original packaging certainly supports that theory. It features an illustration

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Speaker 1: of a log cabin alongside a portrait of Abraham Lincoln.

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Speaker 1: There are some other possibilities, though some have suggested the

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Speaker 1: name was a play on the term linking logs, a

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Speaker 1: fitting description of the toy. Some biographers have also asserted

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Speaker 1: the name was actually a tribute to John Lloyd Wright's father,

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Speaker 1: renowned architect Frank Lloyd Wright. The theory goes that Frank's

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Speaker 1: middle name was originally Lincoln, and he only changed it

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Speaker 1: to Lloyd after his parents got divorced. There's little evidence

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Speaker 1: to back up that story, though, so take that one

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Speaker 1: with a grain of salt. While Lincoln Logs were a

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Speaker 1: huge hit with the public, it's worth noting they weren't

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Speaker 1: the first construction toys on the market. Tinker toys and

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Speaker 1: erector sets had both debuted a few years earlier, and

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Speaker 1: other log based building toys had been available since at

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Speaker 1: least the eighteen sixties. Some historians think John Lloyd Wright

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Speaker 1: even played with one of those sets himself when he

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Speaker 1: was a child. Speaking of which, John Lloyd Wright was

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Speaker 1: born on December twelfth, eighteen nine two, in Oak Park, Illinois.

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Speaker 1: He was the second of six children born to Frank

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Speaker 1: and Catherine Wright. John and his siblings began their education

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Speaker 1: at home under the tutelage of their mother. His father

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Speaker 1: worked long days at an architectural firm in Chicago, but

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Speaker 1: he also put his skills to work at home by

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Speaker 1: designing a custom play room for his children. He even

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Speaker 1: stocked it with a selection of toys he had purposely chosen,

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Speaker 1: believing they'd be beneficial to his kid's development, and being

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Speaker 1: that he was an architect, you can be sure there

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Speaker 1: were plenty of different building blocks in the mix, and

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Speaker 1: probably a few logs as well. Although John was an

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Speaker 1: avid learner, college later proved to be an ill fit

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Speaker 1: for him. He dropped out after two years and began

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Speaker 1: traveling the West Coast with his older brother, doing odd

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Speaker 1: jobs to pay his way. In search of a new direction,

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Speaker 1: John took a job as a draftsman in San Diego,

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Speaker 1: drawing architectural details for Bungalow Designs. The experience confirmed his

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Speaker 1: interest in the field, so he followed in his father's

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Speaker 1: footsteps by joining an architectural firm in Los ange Gelius.

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Speaker 1: A few years later, he returned to Chicago and began

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Speaker 1: working side by side with his dad as an assistant.

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Speaker 1: Along the way, John read every design book his father suggested,

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Speaker 1: and even worked with a private tutor to learn engineering.

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Speaker 1: He also married his girlfriend from Los Angeles, Jeanette Winters,

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Speaker 1: and designed a home for them in Chicago, which they

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Speaker 1: called the Bird Center. Apparently they were both big fans

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Speaker 1: of birds and had quite a few wooden ones scattered

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Speaker 1: throughout the house. In nineteen sixteen, at the age of

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Speaker 1: twenty four, John Lloyd Wright took on one of the

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Speaker 1: most important assignments of his life. His father had been

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Speaker 1: commissioned to build a second Imperial hotel in Tokyo, and

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Speaker 1: John sailed with him to Japan to serve as his

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Speaker 1: chief assistant on the project. Over the next sixteen months,

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Speaker 1: the Rights worked on the design together with John creating

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Speaker 1: working drawings and a plaster model of the hotel. The

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Speaker 1: biggest challenge of the design was making sure the structure

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Speaker 1: could withstand the powerful earthquakes that periodically strike Japan. Frank

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Speaker 1: Lloyd Wright came up with a clever idea to make

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Speaker 1: the hotel as earthquake proof as possible. He decided the

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Speaker 1: base of the building should be a system of interlocking

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Speaker 1: wooden beams that allowed the hotel to sway from side

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Speaker 1: to side during a quake instead of just collapsing. The

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Speaker 1: system was eventually put to the test during the Great

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Speaker 1: Canto earthquake of ninety three, just a few months after

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Speaker 1: the Imperial Hotel open for business. Sure Enough, Wright's design

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Speaker 1: proved a smart one. While most of Tokyo was devastated

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Speaker 1: by the seven point nine magnitude earthquake, the Imperial Hotel

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Speaker 1: was one of the few buildings left standing, albeit somewhat damaged.

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Speaker 1: It was during the initial planning of the hotel that

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Speaker 1: John Lloyd Wright first hit upon the idea of Lincoln logs.

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Speaker 1: He was impressed with the structural stability his father was

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Speaker 1: able to achieve with something as simple as interlocking logs,

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Speaker 1: so he began to think of ways to translate that

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Speaker 1: design to a smaller scale. Meanwhile, the rights working relationship

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Speaker 1: became rather strained. This eventually led Frank to kick his

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Speaker 1: son off the project, at which point John returned to

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Speaker 1: the US and began experimenting with making wooden toys. At first,

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Speaker 1: he called his operation the Red Square Toy Company, named

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Speaker 1: after a symbol his father often used in his architectural designs. However,

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Speaker 1: once he was issued the patent for Lincoln Logs in

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Speaker 1: n he changed the company name to J. L. Right Manufacturing.

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Speaker 1: The first set released by the company included instructions on

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Speaker 1: how to build both Abraham Lincoln's boyhood cabin as well

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Speaker 1: as Uncle Tom's cabin from the book of the same name.

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Speaker 1: Lincoln Logs were an instant success for a number of reasons. First,

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Speaker 1: the simplicity of the toys rock accord with the American public,

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Speaker 1: as it was released during a time of increased urbanization,

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Speaker 1: when more and more people were abandoning rural homesteads in

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Speaker 1: favor of modern city living. In that way, Lincoln Logs

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Speaker 1: were a throwback to a simpler, and some would say,

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Speaker 1: more wholesome way of life. There was also a renewed

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Speaker 1: sense of American patriotism following the end of World War One,

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Speaker 1: so a product that evoked Abraham Lincoln was an easy sell.

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Speaker 1: John Lloyd Wright was well aware of his good timing.

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Speaker 1: The first slogan he used to market and sell the

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Speaker 1: building kits was interesting playthings typifying the spirit of America. Lastly,

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Speaker 1: Lincoln Logs were one of the first toys to be

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Speaker 1: marketed to both boys and girls alike, effectively doubling the

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Speaker 1: toys market. John Lloyd Wright tried to keep the momentum

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Speaker 1: going by releasing a new kind of construction set in

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Speaker 1: the nineteen thirties. That product, on his Right Blocks, consisted

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Speaker 1: of interlocking wooden shapes that allowed kids to build more

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Speaker 1: intricate designs and structures than they could with Lincoln Logs.

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Speaker 1: Despite this advantage, Right Blocks never caught on with kids

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Speaker 1: and were quietly discontinued a few years later. However, Lincoln

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Speaker 1: Logs continued to sell well, especially at Chicago's Marshall Field

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Speaker 1: Department stores. John supplemented his company's offerings with other wooden toys,

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Speaker 1: including carved animals, chess pieces, and jigsaw puzzles, many of

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Speaker 1: which featured his favorite birds. In nineteen forty three, John

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Speaker 1: decided playtime was over and decided to get out of

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Speaker 1: the toy business. He sold the patent for Lincoln Logs

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Speaker 1: to Play School for the bargain basement price of just

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Speaker 1: eight hundred dollars. After that, he went back to practicing

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Speaker 1: architecture full time and later moved to Delmar, California with

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Speaker 1: his family. He died there on December twentieth, nineteen seventy two,

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Speaker 1: at the age of eighty. As for Lincoln Logs, they

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Speaker 1: remained a fixture of the playroom for decades to come,

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Speaker 1: and are still being manufactured and played with today. There

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Speaker 1: are a few differences with the product though. While the

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Speaker 1: original logs were carved from redwood, they later switched to

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Speaker 1: stained pine. There was even a brief period in the

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Speaker 1: nineteen seventies when the logs were made from plastic, but

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Speaker 1: the less said about that, the better. The product has

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Speaker 1: also changed hands a few times over the years, but

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Speaker 1: as of two hasbro owns the rights to the toy,

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Speaker 1: which it licenses to a company called Basic Fun Inc.

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Speaker 1: In addition to the traditional full size sets of Lincoln Logs,

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Speaker 1: there's now a miniature World's Smallest version, so you can

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Speaker 1: build a teeny tiny log cabin in the palm of

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Speaker 1: your hand. To date, more than a hundred million sets

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Speaker 1: of Lincoln Logs have been sold worldwide. That's a sure

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Speaker 1: sign of the toys enduring popularity, but it's not the

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Speaker 1: only one. In nineteen ninety nine, John Lloyd Wright and

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Speaker 1: his invention of Lincoln logs were enshrined in the National

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Speaker 1: Toy Hall of Fame, taking their rightful place alongside other

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Speaker 1: playtime classics such as the Teddy Bear, the Baby Doll,

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Speaker 1: and the Hula Hoop Oh. If only his father could

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Speaker 1: see him Ned, I'm Gay Blusier and hopefully you now

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Speaker 1: know a little more about history today than you did yesterday.

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Speaker 1: You can learn even more about history by following us

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Speaker 1: on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram at t d i h

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Speaker 1: C Show, and if you have any comments or suggestions,

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Speaker 1: you can always send them my way at this Day

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Speaker 1: at I heart media dot com. Thanks to Chandler May's

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Speaker 1: for producing the show, and thank you for listening. I'll

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Speaker 1: see you back here again tomorrow for another day in

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Speaker 1: History Class