The man who invented the Frisbee, one of the world's most popular toys, has died at his home in Utah aged 90.

Walter Frederick Morrison conceived and developed his aerodynamic plastic disc in the 1950s, and hundreds of millions have been sold worldwide since.

Frisbee historian Phil Kennedy said Mr Morrison and his future wife, Lu, got the idea from playing with a metal cake pan on the beach in California.

He originally called his toy the Pluto Platter and sold it at local fairs.

The platter's novel aerodynamic shape allowed it to hover briefly or travel surprisingly long distances, kept aloft by its rotation.

In 1957 Mr Morrison sold the rights to the California firm Wham-O, which discovered that youngsters were calling the toy a "Frisbie" after the name of a well-known pie. The company changed the spelling to avoid trademark infringement and the Frisbee was born.

On the official Frisbee website, Wham-O paid tribute to Mr Morrison, who was known as Fred.

"As Frisbee discs keep flying though the air, bringing smiles to faces, Fred's spirit lives on. Smooth flights, Fred," it read.

Mr Morrison's son, Walt, told the Associated Press that his father had suffered from cancer, and that "old age had caught up" with him.

"He was a nice guy. He helped a lot of people. He was an entrepreneur. He was always looking for something to do," he added.

Lawyer Kay McIff, who represented Mr Morrison in a royalties case, said: "That simple little toy has permeated every continent in every country. As many homes have Frisbees as any other device ever invented.

"How would you get through your youth without learning to throw a Frisbee?"

Mr Morrison, who died at his home in Monroe, on Tuesday, is survived by three children.

Walt Morrison said the family planned to hold a memorial service on Saturday at the Cowboy Corral in Elsinore, Utah.

Wow, end of an era.

As a kid in the 1960's, Wham-O was the purveyor of ALL the cool toys.  I had the:


Frisbee
Air Blaster
Super Ball


The Wham-O Air Blaster was this awesome black plastic thingie that looked like a gun.  You'd pull back a lever and it would shoot out a very narrow blast of air.  You could puff up somebody's (i.e., "Mom") hair from like 10 feet away.  8)

Then there was the Super Ball, which bounced to then-unthinkable heights.  They used to say that if you took a knife and cut a Super Ball apart, it would explode.  :o

RIP Walter Morrisson... Your Frisbee invention entertained millions of children, parents, and dogs!!!!  :)

http://everseradio.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/05/whamo-air-blaster.jpg

The students of Yale claim to have invented the frisbee  :-\\

Some people used Frisbees as their trademark ...

http://manlymenmen.files.wordpress.com/2009/05/genius4.jpg

The students of Yale claim to have invented the frisbee  :-\\


They didn't invent the Frisbee, just the military-petroleum complex.

Interesting, the Frisbee guy died the same week as the "Deadliest Catch" guy died!

I had all three of those toys.  The Frisbee was definitely the best.  The air gun didn't go over real big in a hippie peacenik household, and the Superball?  The little f**kers always got lost.  I mean, mom would find them behind the couch and give them back to you, but you'd just lose 'em all over again!  The Frisbee was also cool 'cos the teenagers at the park would play it, and they were really good at it, even though from the Led Zep on the transistor and that familiar smell, you knew they'd been toking a few!

The way my sister talks about my niece's toys, they all sound like parts for rocket ships.  It's all electronic gadgets.  What did I have?  I had a Slinky and a Silly Putty.  Yeah, highlights of my childhood, a metal spring and an amorphous wad of plastic goo to play with.  But that's the way it was and we liked it.  We liked it fine!  Couldn't get enough!
http://www.inthe00s.com/smile/11/cwm10.gif