Hooped

One of the very few pleasures of getting old is actually recalling stuff other people can only read about.

One of those remembered follies of my misspent youth was the hula hoop craze of 1958. For reasons too obscure to recount or even understand, the U.S. went nuts for hula hoops...for a very brief time. Then the contraptions vanished to wherever forgotten contraptions go.

What's My Line took advantage of the craze with its September 14, 1958 episode featuring Arthur "Spud" Melin, inventor of the hula hoop. Spud died in 2002 but the almighty hoop made him and his Wham-O partner Richard Knerr very rich, thank you. (Knerr would appear on WML the very next week after Spud.)

Sadly for the show's suspense factor, guest panelist John Payne guessed Spud's occupation almost immediately. Payne zeroed in on the "silly sports" area and quickly nailed the hula hoop. Not bad at all for a guest panelist. Sometimes they had real trouble getting the hang of the game.