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Speaker 1: This Day in History Class is a production of iHeartRadio.

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Speaker 1: Hello and welcome to This Day in History Class, a

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Speaker 1: show that proves there's more than one way to make history.

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Speaker 1: I'm Gay Bluesya, and today we're looking back at an

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Speaker 1: early TV milestone, the day when American children were first

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Speaker 1: sold on the idea of playing with a potato. The

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Speaker 1: day was April thirtieth, nineteen fifty two. The Mister potato

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Speaker 1: Head funny Face kit became the first toy to be

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Speaker 1: advertised on television. Designed by Brooklyn inventor George Lerner in

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Speaker 1: nineteen forty nine, the original Mister Potato Head wasn't the hollow,

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Speaker 1: plastic spud we're familiar with today. Instead, it was an

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Speaker 1: actual potato, or more specifically, it was a box of

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Speaker 1: plastic facial features and body parts which could be used

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Speaker 1: to decorate a potato. Another difference from the modern potato

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Speaker 1: Head is that the original's hands and feet weren't meant

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Speaker 1: to be attached directly to the potato. Instead, the kit

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Speaker 1: included a small plastic body onto which a potato could

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Speaker 1: be skewered to form the character's oversized head. More versatile

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Speaker 1: than the name suggested, the toy allowed kids to anthropomorphize

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Speaker 1: the fruit or vegetable of their choice. The sharpened points

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Speaker 1: on the backs of the accessories could be jabbed into

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Speaker 1: any piece of produce, a feature that was demonstrated on

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Speaker 1: the box art with an apple, an orange, a beet,

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Speaker 1: and a green pepper That said a potato was still

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Speaker 1: considered the ideal canvas, likely because it balanced well on

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Speaker 1: the base, spoiled less quickly, and didn't spray juice when pierced.

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Speaker 1: The toy felt tailor made for kids who liked to

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Speaker 1: play with their food, but Lerner still had a tough

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Speaker 1: time getting a toy company to back the idea. The

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Speaker 1: concern was that parents of the era had just lived

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Speaker 1: through World War II, and with the days of food

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Speaker 1: rationing still fresh in their minds, they might disapprove of

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Speaker 1: a toy that encouraged food waste. In the end, Lerner

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Speaker 1: did find a buyer willing to take a gamble on

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Speaker 1: his offbeat prototype. The Hasenfeld Brothers Toy Company of Rhode Island,

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Speaker 1: which later shortened its name to hasbro Lerners sold them

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Speaker 1: the rights to Mister Potato Head for seven thousand dollars

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Speaker 1: and of five percent royalty for every kit sold. The

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Speaker 1: launch date was scheduled for May one, nineteen fifty two.

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Speaker 1: In the original set, which included twenty eight pieces, was

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Speaker 1: priced at just ninety eight cents. Before the toy hit shelves, though,

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Speaker 1: there was still the question of how to market it,

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Speaker 1: and more importantly, to whom. The first American toy ads

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Speaker 1: had appeared in print in the eighteen hundreds, and their

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Speaker 1: target audience wasn't children but parents, mothers in particular. The

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Speaker 1: rationale was that they were the ones who controlled the

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Speaker 1: family's money and made the purchasing decisions, so it was

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Speaker 1: them who needed the most convincing. That approach to toy marketing,

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Speaker 1: known as the gatekeeper model, continued well into the twentieth century,

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Speaker 1: even after radio became the leading form of advertising. The

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Speaker 1: tradition finally began to wane after the Second World War,

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Speaker 1: when children suddenly found themselves flush with pocket money for

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Speaker 1: the first time in history, it seemed worthwhile to advertise

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Speaker 1: toys directly to kids. But it was the advent of

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Speaker 1: television that really kicked the practice into high gear. In

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Speaker 1: the early nineteen fifties, TV commercials were rapidly becoming the

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Speaker 1: medium of choice for advertisers, but even with easy access

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Speaker 1: to a national audience, toy companies were reluctant to jump

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Speaker 1: on board due to the added production costs. It just

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Speaker 1: didn't seem worth the money to create a sixty second

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Speaker 1: TV ad for something is self explanatory as a doll

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Speaker 1: or a bicycle. However, that line of thinking didn't apply

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Speaker 1: to an outlier like Mister potato Head. The concept required explanation,

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Speaker 1: so in this case, Hasbro decided a TV commercial was

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Speaker 1: worth the investment. The historic ad premiered on April thirtieth,

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Speaker 1: nineteen fifty two, one day before Mister potato Head's nationwide launch.

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Speaker 1: Its content was pretty much what you'd expect, young kids

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Speaker 1: excitedly playing with the toy while a narrator explains how

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Speaker 1: it works and where to buy it. Unfortunately, mister Potatohead's

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Speaker 1: debut commercial has not been preserved online, but to give

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Speaker 1: you an idea of what it was like, here's an

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Speaker 1: ad from a year or so later after the release

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Speaker 1: of Missus potato Head.

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Speaker 2: What new Bro potato Head with their own cars and trailers.

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Speaker 2: That's what's new. See Mister potato Head as a car

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Speaker 2: and boat trailer, and there's a car and shopping trailer

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Speaker 2: for his wife, Missus potato Head. It's such fun to

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Speaker 2: do and so easy. Like this, take any fruit or vegetable.

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Speaker 2: Just sticking eyes and ears and then the mouth. You

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Speaker 2: can make the funniest looking people in the whole world.

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Speaker 2: Potato Head. People look different every time you make them,

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Speaker 2: Mister and potato.

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Speaker 1: Head, as you might expect. Being the first toy advertised

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Speaker 1: on television turned out to be good for sales. Hasbro

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Speaker 1: sold more than a million mister potato Heads by the

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Speaker 1: end of the first year, and the introduction of the

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Speaker 1: character's wife in nineteen fifty three pushed sales even higher.

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Speaker 1: Despite how revolutionary the marketing campaign was. Though the idea

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Speaker 1: of toy commercials aimed at children didn't catch on right away,

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Speaker 1: has Ro's bold move did prompt a few other toy

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Speaker 1: companies to start producing their own, but the practice didn't

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Speaker 1: become the norm until nineteen fifty five, when The Mickey

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Speaker 1: Mouse Club hit the airwaves with a built in audience

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Speaker 1: of young fans to sell to. From then on, kids

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Speaker 1: have taken a more active role in deciding how to

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Speaker 1: populate their playrooms. Some make purchases themselves with their saved

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Speaker 1: up allowance and others employ their so called pester power

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Speaker 1: to convince grown ups to buy on their behalf. Of course,

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Speaker 1: whether companies should be advertising to kids in the first

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Speaker 1: place is a whole other discussion. As for the spud

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Speaker 1: that started at all, his early success was threatened in

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Speaker 1: the nineteen sixties when new government regulations prohibited the sale

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Speaker 1: of toys with sharp pieces. In response, Hasbro designed a

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Speaker 1: new plastic potato to act as both the body and

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Speaker 1: the head. It featured pre made holes for the facial

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Speaker 1: pieces to plug into, and all of the components were

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Speaker 1: made two times larger so they would no longer pose

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Speaker 1: a choking hazard. These changes ultimately worked out for everyone,

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Speaker 1: as the new and improved potato head was deemed safe

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Speaker 1: enough for preschool children, thus broadening the toys market. It

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Speaker 1: also meant that parents no longer had to worry about

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Speaker 1: forgotten fruits and vegetables left or rod under the sofa,

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Speaker 1: or at least not as much. I'm gabelues yay, and

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Speaker 1: hopefully you now know a little more about history today

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Speaker 1: than you did yesterday. If you'd like to keep up

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Speaker 1: with the show, you can follow us on Twitter, Facebook,

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Speaker 1: and Instagram at TDI HC Show and If you have

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Speaker 1: any comments or suggestions, feel free to send them my

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Speaker 1: way by writing to This Day at iHeartMedia dot com.

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Speaker 1: Thanks to Kasby Bias for producing the show, and thanks

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Speaker 1: to you for listening. I'll see you back here again

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Speaker 1: tomorrow for another Day in History classm