Kutol Products, founded in 1912, made a soft putty product for cleaning sooty wallpaper. But as homes switched from coal to oil, gas, or electricity as heat sources, wallpaper no longer collected soot.
That could have been the end of the business, but schoolteacher Kay Zufall had a new idea. She’d used it as a toy with her students, who loved molding the squishy substance like clay. She told her brother-in-law, Joseph McVicker, who’d been hired to work at Kutol by his uncle.
In 1956, McVicker spun off a new company, Rainbow Craft Inc., to market the cleaner-turned-plaything as Play-Doh, first selling directly to schools, then stores. Today, the brand is owned by Hasbro.
Fun fact: Play-Doh sales took off in 1957 after children’s TV host Captain Kangaroo agreed to mention it on his show for 2% of sales.
