Donald F Duncan

In 1929, struggling businessman Donald F. Duncan paid an uninvited visit to the San Simeon mansion of newspaper magnate William Randolph Hearst. Duncan had just started his own company that made yo-yos, a little-known spinning top on a string, and he needed a way to promote business. He talked his way past a butler and into a room with Hearst. Hearst snapped at his visitor to quickly state his business. Duncan detailed a scheme that would sell newspapers and yo-yos.

In 1929, struggling businessman Donald F. Duncan paid an uninvited visit to the San Simeon mansion of newspaper magnate William Randolph Hearst. Duncan had just started his own company that made yo-yos, a little-known spinning top on a string, and he needed a way to promote business. He talked his way past a butler and into a room with Hearst. Hearst snapped at his visitor to quickly state his business. Duncan detailed a scheme that would sell newspapers and yo-yos.

Bernard (Bernie) Akers, 80, one of the nation's original yo-yo enthusiasts. Akers' uncle, Donald F. Duncan, popularized the toy in America during the Great Depression and set up an exhibition schedule with dozens of men traveling from town to town, telling stories and selling yo-yos. Akers became the best known of these men and used to give a history of the yo-yo, telling how ancient vases discovered in Greece show wooden knobs suspended on strings.

Why did Tom Kuhn build a 256-pound yo-yo? What makes Michael Caffrey think kids will prefer yo-yos to Nintendo? And what in God's name is Pastor Dennis McBride doing with a yo-yo during Sunday service? Making it "sleep," of course. (Now that should keep parishioners awake.

It's had its ups and downs over the past 50 years and Irvin Kipper has experienced them all. Still, the veteran Los Angeles toy shop owner doubted he would ever see the yo-yo rise again--not with things like Nintendo video games, Teletubbies and Beanie Babies fighting for children's attention and merchants' shelf space. But there 8-year-old Alex Sarkissian was, peeling open his Velcro wallet and carefully counting out $16.