Tuesday, June 30, 2015

Did You Know Tuesday: Ziegfeld Girls and Pogo Sticks

Here's a fun retro trivia tidbit for you.  Remember pogo sticks?  They were a fun and popular toy in the 1950's - 1970's, and they are still around.

Here's a peek at a 1969 Sears catalog page featuring pogo sticks.


This toy was invented in 1919.  It was promoted by the Ziegfeld girls in their stage show in 1920.  They performed a theatrical wedding ceremony on pogo sticks.  I tried and tried to find pictures of this, but could not!  But it is amazing to picture.

The Ziegfeld girls were theatrical glamour girls. They starred in Ziegfeld Follies, directed by Florenz Ziegfeld, on Broadway.  These shows were a mix of variety show, musical review, and vaudeville. Here is a photo of some Ziegfeld girls from this vintage:


So there you have it ... a little bit of pogo stick history!

I had a pogo stick as a child.  It was fun, and I could keep going for a few minutes.  Did you enjoy pogo sticks?  Were you good at using them?  I'd love to hear from you in the comments!


7 comments:

Alex Bone said...

That is so neat to know! thank you for sharing!

Mary Huckaby said...

Oh yes, I had a pogo stick in 1958 and I felt like I was an expert! I would love to try one again, but now I'm afraid of broken bones. Ha!

Earl-Leigh Designs said...

I still have scars from my pogo stick. Ouch!

Jenny said...

I had a pogo stick as a child but never figured out how to actually use it.

the daily dayne said...

That is awesome!

Birdhouse Books said...

Thanks for the visits and comments. Mary - I hear you about pogo-ing now. I was wondering, when I wrote this, whether I still could pogo or not! :-)

Trish

Anne Nicks said...

I had a pogo stick - my brother and I used to have competitions to see who could stay on the longest. I won most of the time I even got to almost 5 minutes once! :)