The following sections of this BookRags Literature Study Guide is offprint from Gale's For Students Series: Presenting Analysis, Context, and Criticism on Commonly Studied Works: Introduction, Author Biography, Plot Summary, Characters, Themes, Style, Historical Context, Critical Overview, Criticism and Critical Essays, Media Adaptations, Topics for Further Study, Compare & Contrast, What Do I Read Next?, For Further Study, and Sources.
(c)1998-2002; (c)2002 by Gale. Gale is an imprint of The Gale Group, Inc., a division of Thomson Learning, Inc. Gale and Design and Thomson Learning are trademarks used herein under license.
The following sections, if they exist, are offprint from Beacham's Encyclopedia of Popular Fiction: "Social Concerns", "Thematic Overview", "Techniques", "Literary Precedents", "Key Questions", "Related Titles", "Adaptations", "Related Web Sites". (c)1994-2005, by Walton Beacham.
The following sections, if they exist, are offprint from Beacham's Guide to Literature for Young Adults: "About the Author", "Overview", "Setting", "Literary Qualities", "Social Sensitivity", "Topics for Discussion", "Ideas for Reports and Papers". (c)1994-2005, by Walton Beacham.
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Think of American fads of the 1950s and what comes to mind? Hula hoops! And oddly enough, the hoops came from Australia. In the 1950s, Australian gym classes used three-foot bamboo rings for calisthenics. In 1957, this form of exercise caught on outside school gymnasiums, becoming a popular form of Aussie entertainment. The owners of the American novelty company Wham-O, Richard P. Knerr and Arthur K ("Spud") Melin, heard about the craze and decided to investigate. Knerr and Melin introduced the hula hoop to neighborhood kids and cocktail party guests in America and discovered that they loved playing with the toy. Immediately, Wham-O began production of the American version of the Australian ring. Christened the "hula hoop" and made of vividly-colored polyethylene plastics, they cost fifty cents to make and sold for $1.98 a piece. By 1958, the hula hoop was the subject of an international hysteria. Japan's Prime Minister Kiahi received a hula hoop for his sixty-second birthday. Parisian novelists posed for photographs with them. A Belgian expedition bound for Antarctica brought along twenty of them. German world heavyweight champion Max Schmeling gyrated the hula hoop ringside. Although their popularity has waned in the decades following their initial craze, hula hoops are still in production and remain stocked in many toy stores around the world.