It all started with a 19-year-old couple playing catch with a lid on the beaches of Los Angeles, and it ended up becoming a global phenomenon. It was 1939, and Walter Frederick Morrison had just married Lucille Eleanor Nay. They were the typical young American couple who laughed, played, and enjoyed inventing games like throwing and catching the mold of a pie. When a man offered them 25 cents to join in, they realized there was something more. That “something” translated to “money,” of course.
From flying saucers to frisbees
In fact, the couple started a business called “Flying Pie Pans” with the idea that if they bought them for five cents in the store and could resell them for five times more, they would make a profit. And things were going well for them until World War II broke out. Walter joined the war effort, ended up being a prisoner for 48 days, and upon returning home, he continued with the business. Well, sort of.
During the war, Walter had learned a thing or two about aerodynamics, enough to realize that pie pans weren’t the way to go. He created a prototype called the Whirlo-Way, later renamed the Flying Saucer. It was an absolute failure, but that didn’t deter him from the idea of a flying disc. He was a man with a fixed idea. In 1955, along with his partner, they manufactured the Pluto Platter, which they marketed with astronaut-themed attire, capitalizing on the space trend of the mid-1950s—rockets, spaceships, and astronauts were all the rage at the time.
But for some reason, during the summer, you don’t play with a Pluto Platter, you play with a Frisbee, right? Well, you can thank the students of Yale for that. In the absence of Frisbees, they were throwing – get this – Frisbie Pie Company pie tins (which, by the way, still exists to this day, barely standing since 1871). Twenty years after that young couple in love threw pie tins on a beach in Los Angeles, those same tins gave birth to the Frisbee. It became such a success that there were even songs, musicals, and professional leagues dedicated to it.
Ed Headrick was the person in charge of organizing everything related to the sport of Frisbee, which skyrocketed sales to this day. It was such a big deal that when Headrick passed away, he was cremated and turned into a few commemorative Frisbees that were given to family and close friends. The kind of Frisbee you hesitate to throw for your dog to catch during the summer, just in case.
In the end, Walter and Lu separated twice and got married twice more. They had two children and invented more things, although not with as much success. It just goes to show that the best inventions often arise from love, even if it’s a flying plastic disc!
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