Pogo Stick
As legend has it, an American traveler named George Hansburg was making
his way through Burma when he made the acquaintance of a poor farmer.
The farmer’s daughter was named Pogo, and Pogo—devout little girl that
she was—wanted to go to temple every day to pray, but couldn’t because
she had no shoes to wear for the long walk through the mud and rocks.
So the poor farmer built a jumping stick for her, and Pogo’s daily
temple bounce-trips through the mud and over the rocks ensued. When the
impressed traveler returned home, he made a jumping stick of his own,
attaching a spring to the wooden stick contraption that the farmer had
introduced him to.
Sure it’s far-fetched, but it’s nice, isn’t it? Wherever the idea
for the jumping stick really came from, Hansburg patented his “Pogo
Stick” in 1919. The Gimble Brothers Department Store in the U.S.
imported a boatload of them, but unfortunately, the sticks rotted on
the wet ship ride over. The folks at Gimble asked Hansburg to produce
something more resilient, and Hansburg eventually did just that—from
his own factory called SBI Enterprises. And those sticks, called
“Master Pogos,” were the bouncing wonders that we know and love today.
The Pogos were incredibly popular in the 1920’s—because if you had
two left feet and couldn’t jitterbug, at least you could jump. Hansburg
taught the Ziegfeld Follies how to bounce, and from there on out,
showmanship and the Pogo just sort of went hand in hand. The New York
Hippodrome chorus girls performed entire shows on them, marriage vows
were exchanged on them, jumping contests were held, and world records
for most consecutive jumps were set, and then re-set again.
In the early 1970’s, Hansburg sold his company to a local
Ellenville, New York businessman named Irwin Arginisky. Though sales
have never been as brisk as they were in those roaring 20’s, Pogos
never stopped being made, and today, like a lot of old-school toys,
they’re enjoying a bit of a renaissance. Though there’s the brightly
colored “Go-Go Pogo” from competing toy company Pierce, sticks with
plastic super-hero torsos for handlebars (Wonder Woman,
for example), and gimmicky accessories like ‘bounce-ometers’ and
plastic ornaments, the classic no-logo models from SBI are the sticks
that bounce best with consumers over the long haul.
Whatever model you choose, a bouncer perfects balance and burns
calories, though he’s probably unaware of both phenomena. Today, Pogos
are exported all over the world, and in Burma, maybe that little farm
girl Pogo (if she indeed was real) watches her kids and grandkids jump
around on the new metal gizmos and tells them about how easy they’ve
got it—compared to the old splintery days.
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