Transcript
Podcast Announcer (0:00)
This is an iHeart podcast. Guaranteed Human.
Josh (0:08)
Hey, and welcome to the Short Stuff. I'm Josh and there's Chuck. And Jerry's here sitting in for Dave. This is Short Stuff, and we're talking about the Magic 8 ball. Probably know what that is.
Chuck (0:18)
We have one in our house. You know, it's kind of one of those toys that I think most Gen Xers and actually knowing how old it is, probably boomers bought for Gen Xers and now Gen Xers are buying for their Alphas and Zoomers. And I don't know where millennials, poor.
Josh (0:35)
Millennials, got left out, but this is the classic toy.
Chuck (0:40)
I assume most people have seen this, but in other countries you may not know what we're talking about, but it is essentially a looks like a billiards ball. It's about the size of a, maybe a grapefruit. And it's got a little flat side on, let's say the bottom. And in that side it's got a little clear window with some dark liquid. And floating in that liquid is a 20 sided die with a bunch of answers to yes or no questions. With the idea being that you ask it a question, you shake this thing up and then you see what the answer tells you. Very simple.
Josh (1:16)
That's it. And it is very simple. But it's like, I think that's the case with a lot of stuff that just becomes a part of pop culture.
Chuck (1:24)
Yeah, totally.
Josh (1:24)
There's not much to it, but just something about it comes together and makes everybody love it. And the Magic 8 Ball's no different. It's definitely one of the more successful toys to come out of the 20th century. And it dates back as far back as the forties, as a matter of fact, or actually the early fifties. But the story begins further back than that because there was a prototype that was created by a man named Albert Carter, and he was brothers in law with a guy named Abe Bookman. And both of them together helped found the company that would eventually go on to create Magic 8 balls. Basically based on Carter's idea that he got from his mom.
Chuck (2:02)
Yeah, it's a pretty cool story. So his mom was a self proclaimed clairvoyant and very popular at the time in Cincinnati during the age of spiritualism, and used a spiritual writing or psychic writing device to communicate with the beyond. So supposedly, and Carter was like, mom, you're the best. You're so cool. During World War II, he built a prototype of a toy, sort of in honor of what she was doing, that he called at first the Psychoser syco, s e r, which was essentially what's inside of the Magic 8 Ball. Now, it was a tube divided in half, and each side has that dark liquid, and each side had a die, and you would turn it one side up or the other side up to see what it said.