Toying With Creativity

I watched a documentary the other night called Eddy's World. It's about Eddy Goldfarb, who invented some of the most popular toys of the Baby Boomer era and, as of this writing, is still ticking away.

Eddy designed toys from a very young age, served as a radar expert on a sub during WWII and raised three children with his wife, Anita (they were together till the end of her life). At the time the video was made in 2020, he was still tinkering around with toys. 

Eddy's 100 years old.

Probably the most famous among Eddy's 800+ creations is the Yakity-Yak wind-up chattering teeth. The invention earned Eddy $700 – the novelty company that manufactured this classic made a fortune. 

Eddy's wife agreed to support the family for two years while Eddy invented. The early years were a struggle. The Goldfarbs moved from Chicago to California in 1952, where Eddy set up shop in the garage and continued to crank out ideas. Slowly, the business started to grow, and at the height of his career, Eddy was operating out of three buildings and employing 39 industrial designers, model makers, engineers, sculptors and administrative staff.  

Along with the wind-up chompers, popular toys and games Eddy invented include:

• Vac-U-Form: Turn a sheet of plastic into stuff (watch out for burns)
• KerPlunk: Pull a stick without dropping any marbles.
• Snakes Alive: "Featuring the Mystery Basket and the popping snake"
• Baby Beans: A beloved toy of my sister-in-law, Mary
• Bubble Gun: For those who enjoy blowing bubbles but don't want to waste their breath
• Busy Biddy Chicken: Press her head down, and she lays plastic eggs.
• Battling Tops: "It's in the wrist action."
• Quiz Wiz: Electronic game with 1,001 questions

Also, Eddy invented several early iterations of video games. 

His curiosity, eagerness to embrace new technology and determination to continue inventing are inspirational, indeed. 

In other words, Eddy has totally carpe'd the hell out of the diem. 

Ya, I want to be like Eddy.

One more fun fact...the documentary about Eddy was directed by his daughter, Lyn Goldfarb, who's an executive producer, director, producer, and writer with 2 Emmys and an Academy Award nomination under her belt. I recognized her name from some of the work she's done for PBS.