WOOLY WILLY: Wooly Willy and its roots in Smethport are heralded
in a Made in America piece featured recently in American Profile
magazine, a newspaper magazine similar to Parade and USA
Weekend.
“Every small town has its characters but one magnetic
personality in Smethport, Pa., is famous nationwide for evoking
smiles for more than half a century,” the article says.
We thank Gus Gocella who receives that magazine as part of his
newspaper in Tennessee and sent it along.
“Wooly Willy is a shifty character full of disguises and funny
faces. Sometimes he’s bald, sometimes bushy-haired. He might wear a
mohawk with a mustache, a flattop with muttonchops, or a ponytail
and an eye patch,” the story says.
“The Wooly Willy character has entertained millions of children
since 1955 when Jim Herzog conceived the idea for the toy while
grinding magnets at his family’s toy-making business, Smethport
Specialty Co.”
Jim was quoted in the story: “The ends of the magnet had to be
run across a grinding wheel to make them level and it created a lot
of dust. I came in and ground the magnets one day and all of a
sudden it came to me. I put a pile of dust on a piece of cardboard
and used magnets to play around with it.”
Herzog envisioned a simple toy that could be made by encasing
magnetic powder in a clear plastic package atop a cardboard
picture. Kids could use a magnetic wand to pick up the powder and
draw details on the picture.
The first Wooly Willies, drawn by artist Leonard Mackowski, were
printed one at a time on yellow cardboard with an 1883 printing
press. While smoothing out technical problems, a more formidable
one remained: Getting the creation to children.
Jim and his brother, Don, were repeatedly turned down in their
attempts to get Wooly into stores until a reluctant buyer for
G.C. Murphy Co. ordered six dozen and tested them in his store in
Indianapolis. Two days later, he ordered a thousand more.
In the 1950s and ’60s, Smethport Specialty Co. worked three
shifts to fill orders for the toy, built a modern factory in 1965
and expanded it three times.
To date, more than 75 million Wooly Willies have been sold.
