A soap company called Kutol Products saved itself from bankruptcy in the 1950s by reformulating its wallpaper cleaning putty into Play-Doh, which immediately became a bestselling children's toy.
The Strong National Museum of PlayA young girl playing with Play-Doh, circa 1957.
Many products on the market today are used entirely differently from how they were originally intended. For example, Coca-Cola was originally a medicinal product. And while Viagra started out as a medication for hypertension, its use changed once doctors noticed one specific side effect.
One such pivot led to the creation of one of the most popular toys in history: Play-Doh. This is the story of how a product that began as wallpaper cleaning putty has sold more than three billion cans and entertained children for generations.
The Little-Known Origins Of Play-Doh
The story of Play-Doh is truly extraordinary — as evidenced by the fact that a recent TikTok video simply recounting its history has received over 5.3 million views.
In 1933, soap maker Cleo McVicker received a contract from Kroger to make wallpaper cleaner. While this may seem like a niche interest now, at the time, it was a necessity. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, about 75 percent of American households used coal or wood to heat their homes in the 1930s. These fuel sources tended to produce black soot that couldn’t be easily removed from wallpaper, so there was market demand for a non-destructive cleaner.
Unsure of where to begin, Cleo consulted his brother, Noah. Together, they developed a simple cleaning putty made primarily of water, salt, and flour.
Detroit Evening Times/Library of CongressAn advertisement for Kutol’s wallpaper cleaning putty featured in a May 1943 issue of the Detroit Evening Times.
The product was an immediate success. Customers could simply roll or dab the putty onto their wallpaper and remove the soot with ease. It was so effective, in fact, that it became the primary ware of the McVickers’ company, Kutol Products.
However, after two decades of success, things began to change. Wallpaper was slowly falling out of fashion, and American families were turning to gas, oil, and electric heating. By the early 1950s, the product that had made Kutol famous now hung like a weight around its neck.
Around this time, Kay Zufall — the sister-in-law of Noah McVicker’s nephew Joe — was working as a schoolteacher. While searching for activities to do with her students, she came across a newspaper article saying that wallpaper cleaner could be used as a makeshift modeling clay. Curious, she brought cans of the Kutol compound to class.
The students immediately loved it. In contrast to typical clay, the wallpaper compound could easily be molded by small, weak hands. It also did not leave as much of a mess.
Zufall immediately related this information to Joe, who visited the classroom to see the children playing with the product. Soon, he was convinced that the future of Kutol would be found not in the home, but in the classroom. He returned to work, reformulating and repackaging the compound into what would become known as Play-Doh.
How Play-Doh Became One Of The Most Popular Toys In History
In the beginning, Play-Doh was a simple white modeling compound that was only sold to schools. However, as children showed greater interest in it, Kutol developed multiple colors and started marketing the product to department stores. Eventually, it was advertised during a popular children’s show of the era, Captain Kangaroo. This caused sales to skyrocket, so much so that the Rainbow Crafts Company — the Kutol subsidiary that produced Play-Doh — struggled to keep up with the demand.
Cincinnati Toy Museum/FacebookThe original Play-Doh Fun Factory was introduced in 1960.
Further capitalizing on the development, the Rainbow Crafts Company created toy sets that utilized Play-Doh, such as the Play-Doh Fun Factory. By 1964, just a decade after the future of Kutol Products seemed uncertain, the company was selling more than one million cans of Play-Doh each year.
In the decades since, more than three billion cans of Play-Doh have been sold, making it one of the most popular children’s toys of all time.
@on.our.earth Products That Became Successful Because Customers Used Them Completely Wrong 😳 #fyp #history #incredible #interesting
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After learning about the history of Plah-Doh, explore some of the most popular Christmas toys from the past century. Then, discover how NASA engineer Lonnie Johnson developed the Super Soaker.
