David K. Israel
Who Were Fisher and Price?
by David K. Israel - January 23, 2012 - 10:36 AM

Last week’s post on the Fisher-Price Little People garage got us wondering: Who the heck were these guys, Fisher and Price?

So we dug around and discovered that the original founders of the toy company back in 1930 consisted of, yes, businessmen Herman Fisher and Irving Price, but also a children’s book author and illustrator named Margaret Evans Price (yes, married to Irving, so there were actually two Prices), and a toy store owner named Helen Schelle. While the businessmen were instrumental in launching the company, it was actually the two women who collaborated on most of the company’s early, successful products, like Dr. Doodle, the duck push-pull toy pictured above that was based on a character from her children’s books. Also, a lot of the early success of the company can be attributed to the fact that Helen Schelle had a lot of great connections in the incipient toy industry.

FP Queen Buzzy Bee, 1959

Still, the company is named after Herman Fisher and Irving Price, so let’s find out a little more about them.

Herman Fisher

Fisher hailed from Pennsylvania and went to Penn State. In fact, if you’ve ever spent any time on the Penn State campus, you may have seen The Fisher Plaza, which was named after him after he donated a nice chunk of change. Before founding Fisher-Price, he worked as Vice President and General Manager of All Fair, Inc., a toy and game manufacturer. When Fisher and a group of investors (including Price) unsuccessfully tried to buy All Fair Inc., they decided to start their own company instead. Here’s something else interesting about Fisher: he’s credited with coining the term “preschool toys” in 1934.

FP Humpty Dumpty, 1957

Irving Price

The most interesting thing I could dig up about Irving Price is that his middle name was Lanouette. Seriously, had he not married into the wealthy Evans family of New York, we may have never heard of the man. His wife Margaret was not only rich and a sort-of well-known children’s author, but her cousin Charles Evans Hughes was the 11th Chief Justice of the US Supreme Court. A couple other facts about Irving: He had a fairly long career as an executive with Woolworth before retiring young and getting himself elected Mayor of East Aurora, New York! But it was really his cash that helped start Fisher-Price, and for that, the world will be forever grateful.

FP Sports Car, 1959

FP Perky Pot, 1958

FP Play Family Farm, 1968

FP Play Family Sesame Street, 1975

FP Little People McDonald’s Restaurant, 1990

Have a favorite Fisher-Price toy? Let us know in the comments below!

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Comments (42)

  1. That Fisher-Price Farm set was my favorite toy growing up. I was born in ’87, and I can’t believe it was nearly 20 years older then me!

    posted by Anna Izenman on 1-23-2012 at 10:55 am

  2. I’m 44 and to this day, if I hear the tune played by the teaching clock, I get taken back to the floor on mom kitchen in my childhood, endlessly winding and rewinding the clock to hear the music.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IMJhbbIx1n0

    tim

    posted by cowracer on 1-23-2012 at 11:04 am

  3. Even though I was born in 1980, I know I played with that family farm…
    And the only FP toy that I remember–is the FP telephone. I probably had a lot more…

    posted by Misofine on 1-23-2012 at 11:05 am

  4. I’m suddenly feeling nostalgic. Despite not being born until the early 80s, I had both the FP Play Family Farm and the FP Play Family Sesame Street. Both of those toys got a lot of mileage between my sister and I.

    My favorite (and probably my parents’ least favorite) part was that the barn doors on the farm made a mooing noise whenever you opened them!

    posted by Susanna on 1-23-2012 at 11:06 am

  5. WOW…I actually came down to the comments section to say how amazed I was that I had the family farm set…and obviously I’m not alone! I definitely remember the barn, the silo, and that pig and sheep.

    I also remember having some kind of “main street” set and a zoo. What memories, haha.

    posted by Neil on 1-23-2012 at 11:15 am

  6. I was also born in 1987, and I, too, played with the farm set growing up. That product really had staying power, huh?

    posted by Nichole on 1-23-2012 at 11:19 am

  7. Born in ’66, when the little people still lacked arms. Every time I see that barn I hear the door mooing. I found a Queen Bee pull along in pristine condition in a thrift store last year for something like 2 bucks. We could sell it for somewhere near $40, but who could part with that?

    posted by Ronda Lamm on 1-23-2012 at 11:21 am

  8. I know we had the barn, and I think I vaguely remember running across the silo at some point, but the rest of the pieces were lost to the four winds. I’m wondering now if it hadn’t been passed down from cousins?

    I distinctly remember that Bee and possibly a slightly different version of that duck which probably belonged to my mom’s little sister, as she would have been in her teens when it came out?

    posted by Brainlock on 1-23-2012 at 11:25 am

  9. Snoopy Sniffer. I remember it was all wooden with the picture of the dog pasted on it, with the exception of the axles and the thing that made noise when you pulled it. Was pleased to see Target selling an upgraded version in its retro toys section.

    posted by Tom on 1-23-2012 at 11:32 am

  10. I was born in ’77. My favorite was the Sesame Street Clubhouse (different than the SS set pictured above). It had a slide, and a tire swing, and a conveyor belt thing, and a trap door. It was awesome! I hope my mom still has it stashed away somewhere.

    Sesame Street Clubhouse

    posted by Brooke on 1-23-2012 at 11:33 am

  11. My Mom was an awesome garage sale shopper and we had so many Little People sets! I loooooved all of them! I do remember if the plastic broke on anything though how sharp it was……. Oh the things my own baby will never experience!

    posted by Michelle on 1-23-2012 at 11:44 am

  12. We had the FB garage and A-frame house. I know I still have the house and some of the little people upstairs in a closet somewhere. Good times!

    posted by Bookworm on 1-23-2012 at 11:49 am

  13. Those were great toys, I had them too!

    posted by chris on 1-23-2012 at 11:59 am

  14. Thanks to Goodwill, my 3 year old plays with all the FP classics. ;)

    posted by @lix on 1-23-2012 at 12:21 pm

  15. Oh my god I forgot all about the barn until I saw this article, and I forgot all about the mooing barn doors until I read all the comments! The 1960s version of the family farm looks almost exactly the same in the photo above as I remember when I played with it as a kid in the late 80s. ♥

    posted by Christine on 1-23-2012 at 12:22 pm

  16. My grandma had the barn and the merry-go-round. Of all the things I could inherit from her, I chose the merry-go-round because the song it plays brings me back to a happier, carefree day.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3N5OPNNwrx8

    posted by Russ on 1-23-2012 at 12:29 pm

  17. Born in ’68. Still have my merry go round and Ferris wheel in great condition. 3 year old NOT getting those. ;)

    posted by @lix on 1-23-2012 at 12:37 pm

  18. I loved the FP farm! I realize now that I must have got it when it first came out, probably a 1st birthday present. I actually still have the 3-Bears (Momma, Papa and baby) from another set that have served as a reminder of childhood.

    posted by Lisa on 1-23-2012 at 12:50 pm

  19. I just liked how the door of the barn made the cow moo when you opened it.

    posted by Wayne Stevens on 1-23-2012 at 1:04 pm

  20. Never had the farm. :(

    But I did have the school bus (my son got the newer version when he was 2…think the original was better!).

    Love little people!

    posted by beth on 1-23-2012 at 1:15 pm

  21. Why has no one mentioned the absolutely awesome Fisher Price CASTLE????I am one of seven kids and my very wise mother pruchased, one at a time, all of the playsets but the CASTLE was the best! A dragon! A hidden passage! THE DUNGEON! of course, the farm family would visit the castle from time to time,as would those boring blue airline people from the airport and that mean little boy with a frown and freckles…

    posted by Jenny Williams on 1-23-2012 at 1:24 pm

  22. After reading this article, I had to go and check out ebay for all the old sets. I have realized my parents bought up nearly every Little People set (we had the Tudor house, car and camper, farm, school, airplane, parking garage, school bus, circus train) and several of the other popular toys of theirs from the 70s. As my mom said, at that time, there weren’t aisles and aisles of toys to choose from. As a child of the 80s, I loved these!

    posted by Sara P on 1-23-2012 at 2:11 pm

  23. As a mom who appreciates quality, I’ve saved all of the FP toys for my kids kids.

    posted by tommieg on 1-23-2012 at 2:28 pm

  24. I had the Fisher Price Castle. It had a secret compartment behind the staircase, a working drawbridge, a dungeon that you could throw people in and a dragon who lived in a cave under the castle. It was my favorite toy and is usually the favorite of any child that visits my mother’s home.

    posted by Paulette on 1-23-2012 at 3:25 pm

  25. My mom kept the family farm and the castle that my siter and I played with in the late 70′s / early 80′s. 30 years later, my kids are playing with those toys. It’s really cool!

    posted by Renee on 1-23-2012 at 4:48 pm

  26. Charles Evans Hughes was born in my hometown.

    posted by gus on 1-23-2012 at 6:14 pm

  27. Yeah Jenny…the Castle was the best. I guess I was lucky to be in a big family. Along with LEGO’s, Fisher Price Little People were the top play items in my family. We had the Castle, Sesame Street, Parking Garage, Children’s Hospital, Jumbo Jet, and Barn. Yep, a whole town! Somehow I was still jealous of my friend who had the House and the School.

    posted by dagnabbit on 1-23-2012 at 7:27 pm

  28. @Brooke I had the Sesame Street Clubhouse too! Loved it! We also had the LIttle People yellow house and the school house.
    http://www.etsy.com/listing/78066895/vintage-1969-fisher-price-little-people
    http://www.etsy.com/listing/89684121/fisher-price-little-people-school-house
    I wanted the castle and remember playing with it at a friends house. We of course had a bunch of the Little People accessories but by the time I got the play with them they were pretty beat up. I’m the 5th out of 6 kids. I later learned that one of my older sisters used to take the Little People with her when we could go camping and play with them in the dirt. Figures why all the stickers and stuff were worn off. But I still LOVED to play with them!

    posted by Sarah on 1-23-2012 at 9:06 pm

  29. My dad was born in 1967, so I played with the old farm at my grandparents’ house. They also had a town set that folded out into a street. It had furniture for the restaurant and the family apartment, a mail truck that could carry plastic letters for each of the businesses, a movie theater, and a fire station with a siren that you could crank. There was also a traffic light that you could switch, and a police station with a jail.

    I was born in 1991, and had my own (newer) farm, McDonald’s, an airport, train and amusement park. My little people were all named after people I knew that they looked like in real life.

    posted by Case on 1-23-2012 at 9:39 pm

  30. The school bus with the little people.

    posted by DaveP on 1-24-2012 at 12:37 am

  31. The picture of like 5 sets in the below link pretty much sums it up for our family. We also had the camper and ferris wheel too. I was born in ’78, but lucky to have 6 siblings that were a bit older than me. So I got to play with all the classics. Little People were the best. I wish I still had them for my daughter to grow up with.

    http://www.museumofplay.org/blog/play-stuff/2010/04/id-like-to-thank-all-the-little-people/

    posted by JW on 1-24-2012 at 9:35 am

  32. I was born in ’93, but my cousins and I all played with the farm set! I loved that toy when I was really little, and by the time I had “Grown Up” (ie, too ‘cool’ for it) I used the barn silo as a pitcher when playing house… I wonder where that thing has gotten off to…..

    posted by Josie on 1-24-2012 at 1:28 pm

  33. Born in ’60. We had the Queen Buzzy Bee, but I never really liked her. And I never realized, until looking at this photo, that she was a bee. To me, she was just another toy. I remember her “feelers” were on springs, so you could sproing, sproing them around. That was the best part. I thought her crown was pretty cool, too.

    posted by Rachel on 1-24-2012 at 3:29 pm

  34. born in ’69… LOVED the farm house and the mooing door!

    posted by Jay on 1-24-2012 at 6:35 pm

  35. Totally forgot about the camper JW, yeah we had that too. Remember it had a toilet they could sit on? Ah, memories.

    posted by dagnabbit on 1-24-2012 at 7:51 pm

  36. What a wonderful legacy to leave. Much better having one’s name on a line of toys than on a bridge or a building.

    posted by David @ Bar Whiz on 1-24-2012 at 9:17 pm

  37. i had the fp family farm playset! when you opened and closed the barn door it made a “moo” sound. that fascinated me to no end. we also had many of the little finger people, and a bus they could ride in.

    posted by chris on 1-24-2012 at 9:28 pm

  38. i’ve begun slowly ebaying for all the old fp little people sets. Also got my daughter the re-released teaching clock. the tune makes me smile each time i hear it! (also the mooooo from her ebayed farm set!)

    posted by Jen on 1-25-2012 at 10:19 am

  39. Man, looking at those pictures, now I can see which parts of them my older brothers must have destroyed. My Sesame Street consisted of a streetlight and some furniture–I never knew there were entire houses!

    posted by the captain on 1-25-2012 at 11:44 am

  40. I bought the farm in a vintage shop a few years back. It still moos when you open the door, although the cow sounds very tired! I use the farm as a nativity scene during Christmas.

    posted by Dani on 1-25-2012 at 6:25 pm

  41. Born in 1979,and we had a virtual city of Little People playhouses: the farm, Sesame Street, the Tudor house, the school, the airport and planes…yes, my mother often scooped them up up second-hand at garage sales, and they were good as new.

    But my FAVOURITE was the A-Frame house. I thought it was the most amazing thing ever. My obsession with A-frame houses and prowfronts stems from this little Fisher-Price toy. :)

    posted by ChristieLea on 1-29-2012 at 7:20 pm

  42. How could you forget the popcorn popper?! Of course the barn is how our son got his first set of stitches…

    posted by Mary T on 2-1-2012 at 11:35 pm

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