[Deathwatch] Fred Morrison, Frisbee inventor, 90

[Notification of departing celebrities]

/Many thanks to a long-time reader for this one!/

Fred Morrison put his World War II experience as a fighter pilot to 
peaceful use by inventing what became known as the Frisbee.

Mr. Morrison, who died Tuesday at age 90, called his earliest flying 
disks "Whirlo-Way" and "Pluto Platter," to capitalize on the flying 
saucer craze of the 1950s.


But it wasn't until he licensed the invention to the Wham-O 
Manufacturing Co. in 1957 that sales took off. Wham-O rechristened the 
disks Frisbees and removed the flying-saucer-like portholes. Sales 
eventually reached the hundreds of millions, making it one of the most 
popular toys of the 20th century.

In the 1960s, the Frisbee became identified with the counter-culture and 
with movie stars like Richard Burton and Julie Andrews, who affirmed 
they were fans. The disks even inspired new sports, including Frisbee 
Golf and Ultimate.

"It is impossible to fathom the impact Fred Morrison has had on the 
world through the invention of such a simple object know as the 
Frisbee," said Kevin Givens, executive director of the World Flying Disc 
Federation.

Raised in Utah and California, Mr. Morrison began his fascination with 
flying disks as a teen, throwing popcorn lids and then cake pans on the 
Santa Monica beach. In a memoir, Mr. Morrison wrote that a stranger once 
offered to buy one of his pans for a quarter.

"At the time cake pans cost about a nickel," Mr. Morrison wrote. "A 
business was born!" Mr. Morrison's toy business was interrupted by World 
War II, during which he piloted bombers and fighters. He was shot down 
while flying a P-51 Mustang over Italy in 1945 and held as a POW. After 
the war, he used the knowledge he had gained in the Army Air Corps to 
design a more aerodynamic flying cake pan.

But the disks proved tough to sell, as no one knew how to throw them. 
The title of Mr. Morrison's memoir, "Flat Flip Flies Straight!" comes 
from the instructions that were embossed on the bottom of each Pluto 
Platter.

Mr. Morrison put on demonstrations at county fairs and department 
stores. Onlookers sometimes thought the disk's unusual flight pattern 
was caused by unseen wires.

Frustrated at the toy's unpopularity, Mr. Morrison patented the design, 
then licensed it to Wham-O, whose biggest hit to date had been a 
slingshot. The company renamed it Frisbee after an East Coast pie 
company whose tins had been popular toys among students.

Mr. Morrison created a few more toys, including a water-filled bowling 
set, and worked on a battery-powered tomahawk. He raised quarter-horses 
on his ranch in Utah, and operated a small airport. "I never liked the 
name Frisbee," Mr. Morrison told Tim Walsh, author of the WHAM-O Super 
Book. "I thought it was stupid."

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