In the mid 1950s, Australian-born Joan Anderson brought back an innocuous bamboo hoop from her home country to the United States. She would dub it the hula hoop, and present it to a major toy manufacturer. What followed was the hula hoop craze. Unfortunately, she did not see a single penny from the wildly popular toy. This is the story of Joan Anderson and the Hula Hoop.

Sources

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m6J32JLRNOk

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c70x4w4z138o

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Joan Anderson - The Hula Hoop Queen