SYSK's 12 Days of Christmas… Toys: Etch A Sketch!

Summary

Stuff You Should Know: SYSK's 12 Days of Christmas… Toys: Etch A Sketch!

Hosts: Josh Clark & Charles W. "Chuck" Bryant
Date: December 12, 2025
Podcast: Stuff You Should Know, iHeartPodcasts

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Episode Overview

In this installment of their holiday toy series, Josh and Chuck dive into the fascinating history, enduring popularity, and cultural legacy of the Etch A Sketch. The discussion ventures from its surprising French origins to its pivotal role in American toy history, the mechanics of its iconic design, quirky manufacturing tales, and its firm place in pop culture—even as technology outpaces most classic toys. With their trademark humor, tangents, and banter, the hosts blend nostalgia with deep-dive research into how a lo-fi, battery-free toy won (and kept!) a spot in millions of childhoods.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

A Trip Down Toy Memory Lane

[03:18–05:05]

• The hosts reminisce about past classic toys they've covered, ranging from Slinky and LEGO to Teddy Ruxpin and Monopoly, before turning their focus to Etch A Sketch as another “iconic toy.”
• Chuck quips about not finding a Frisbee episode, with Josh humorously recalling their "novelty flying disc" joke.

The Etch A Sketch’s French Roots

[05:10–07:16]

• Despite seeming quintessentially American, Etch A Sketch ("La Croix Magique" in France) was invented in France by André Cassagnes in the mid-1950s.
• Surprising to both hosts, who muse on its "TV-like" shape and consider it a piece of Americana.
• Chuck notes the device’s “lingering mystique” in an era of digital, connected toys:

  "It's amazing that today... this little lo-fi toy that doesn't even have batteries... is still super popular and still has a little bit of mystique." (Chuck, 06:27)

The Moment of Inspiration

[07:30–12:00]

• Cassagnes, working at the Lincrusta company (an old wall covering manufacturer), discovered the principle behind the Etch A Sketch by noticing disturbed metal powder on a decal while installing an electrical switch plate.
• Josh struggles to reconstruct the precise "magic" moment Cassagnes observed:

  "This man witnessed a feat of magic that still cannot be explained to this day. And that's where he got his idea for the Etch A Sketch." (Josh, 11:26)

The Path to Patent & Manufacture

[12:15–15:27]

• Lacking resources, Cassagnes partnered with Paul Chaze (who owned a plastic injection molding company).
• The patent for Etch A Sketch (1959) listed the name of Chaze's accountant, Arthur Granjean, who is sometimes mistakenly credited as the inventor.
• Josh clarifies the mix-up:

  "Since Granjean... paid for the application for the patent, as far as the government was concerned, he was the person who patented the Etch A Sketch..." (Josh, 13:55)

How Does Etch A Sketch Work?

[15:10–17:38]

• The magic is aluminum powder inside the frame, coating the screen. The knobs control a stylus via pulleys/gears, scraping away powder to reveal lines. Shaking redistributes the powder and "erases" the image.
• Chuck and Josh marvel at how the modern Etch A Sketch's mechanism is unchanged since Cassagnes’ vision.

Bringing Etch A Sketch to America

[18:03–26:31]

• Cassagnes first sought $100,000 for distribution rights at the Nuremberg Toy Fair (1959), but was rejected—including by Ohio Art, who later purchased the rights for $15,000–$25,000.
• Ohio Art was founded by a dentist-turned-entrepreneur and first made metal picture frames and toys.
• Significant engineering changes included replacing the joystick with familiar control knobs to evoke a TV set.
• The toy debuted as Etch A Sketch for the 1960 holiday season, selling approximately 600,000 units at $2.99 (about $25 today).

Early Marketing & Explosion in Popularity

[26:31–29:47]

• Etch A Sketch was one of the first toys to be advertised on television, drawing on the novelty of TV among kids to showcase the toy's magic.
• Chuck jokes about children's minds being blown:

  "Kids in 1960 were idiots, but they might as well have been dosed with LSD." (Chuck, 27:41)

• Ohio Art famously worked up until noon on Christmas Eve in 1960 to meet nationwide demand.

Lasting Impact & Cultural Moments

[30:15–33:55]

• Over 175 million Etch A Sketches have sold since 1960.
• Spikes in sales have coincided with cultural references, such as a Mitt Romney gaffe and Toy Story's Etch character (“fastest knobs in the West”).
• Several attempts at reinvention (Etch A Sketch Animator, Doodle Sketch, mobile apps, etc.) failed to eclipse the original.
• Chuck’s review of the official Etch A Sketch photo app:

  “For something that downloaded in 30 seconds and was free, I'm going to give it a half a thumb up.” (Chuck, 33:49)

Who Makes Etch A Sketch Now?

[33:55–36:10]

• Etch A Sketch manufacturing was outsourced to China in the 2000s; later, Ohio Art sold the rights to Spin Master, who continue to cash in with branded versions.
• Ohio Art returned to its roots in metal lithography.

The Art and Mastery of Etch A Sketch

[36:10–38:30]

• Although a challenging medium (the stylus is never “lifted”), master artists use retracing techniques and edge “frames” to plot complex images.
• Notable Etch A Sketch artists: George Vlosich III (portraits), Jane Labowitch (“Princess Etch A Sketch”), Ryan Burton (erotic Simpsons art).
• Permanent artworks are created by draining the powder and locking the knobs.

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On its unlikely origin:

  "Turns out, buddy, the Etch A Sketch is actually French in origin. Did you know that before this?" (Josh, 06:04)

• On the invention’s discovery:

  "He had disturbed the shape. So there was like the whole decal is coated in a metal dust. He marks on it with a pencil... gouges out lines on the backside of the decal... It was magic. Basically. This man witnessed a feat of magic..." (Josh, 11:00)

• On the patent confusion:

  "For decades, everybody thought Arthur Grandjean was the guy who invented the Etch A Sketch." (Josh, 14:43)

• About early TV advertising:

  "A TV commercial comes on for a toy... that rocket ship would animate and take off. These kids might as well have been dosed with LSD." (Chuck, 27:41)

• On anatomical toy limitations:

  "I'm not that good. I can make a line go up and a line go to the left or right. Yeah, I can't even make it go down." (Josh, 26:06)

• On enduring popularity:

  "Nothing has managed to improve on the original Etch A Sketch... kids were like, nah, I'd rather have the original." (Josh, 32:38)

• On Etch A Sketch mastery:

  "When you're making a good Etch A Sketch drawing, it is all one single line frequently doubled back over. ...Artists will create a line frame around the edges that they can travel back out to and move around the picture like that." (Josh, 37:02)

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Major Segments & Timestamps

• [02:17–03:18] Introduction to “Etch A Sketch” episode.
• [03:18–05:08] Toy nostalgia & lead-in to Etch A Sketch.
• [05:10–07:16] French origins and mystique.
• [07:30–12:00] The inventive spark in Vitry-sur-Seine.
• [12:15–15:27] Partnerships, patent confusion, and mechanism.
• [15:27–17:38] How Etch A Sketch works, nod to a classic "HowStuffWorks" article.
• [18:03–26:31] Ohio Art’s involvement, production tweaks, first sales.
• [26:31–29:47] The power of TV and explosive 1960s demand.
• [30:15–33:55] Massive sales, cultural spikes, and redesigns.
• [33:55–36:10] Ownership changes, manufacturing shifts.
• [36:10–38:30] Etch A Sketch as an art form, notable artists & making masterpieces permanent.
• [38:30–39:49] Humorous side tangent: never shake a baby.
• [39:49–end] Listener mail (topic: Jerry eating during podcast recordings; largely content-light).

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Language, Tone, and Humor

• The episode is marked by the hosts’ relaxed, playful banter and accessible “two friends chatting” tone.
• Humor is woven throughout, from gentle self-deprecation about their “French” to calling 1960s kids “idiots” (with obvious affection), and the running bit about podcast producer Jerry’s mysterious meals.
• As ever, insights are blended with personal anecdotes, curious facts, and the inviting warmth characteristic of Stuff You Should Know.

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In Summary

Whether reminiscing about personal Etch A Sketch failures or marveling at high art produced with it, Josh and Chuck deftly balance historical detail and cultural insight with signature wit. They make a compelling case that the enduring appeal of Etch A Sketch lies not just in nostalgia, but in a singular blend of design and play that no technological evolution has yet topped.

Transcript

[Josh Clark]

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[Josh Clark]

Hey everyone, it's time for our episode on Etch A Sketch. The little tablet that you could draw on using two dials for some reason. And then when you made a masterpiece, you'd shake it up and start over again. Or if you're a real jerk, you could shake up someone else's masterpiece when they weren't ready to shake it up yet. This is a good one. I guess all of our toy episodes were good ones, so it goes without saying, but it is a good one. Welcome to stuff you should know from howstuffworks.com. Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh Clark. There's Charles W. Chucky Bryant. And there's Jerry. The delicious dish Rolling. And this is Stuff youf Should Know. The vintage Nostalgia edition that went off to China and then got sold to a different company edition.

[Charles W. 'Chuck' Bryant]

So do you want to. I have a rough list of classic toys we've covered. You want to hear it?

[Josh Clark]

Oh, lay it on me, Charles.

[Charles W. 'Chuck' Bryant]

I'm sure I've missed something, but it did help me think of some more that we should do. Slinky.

[Josh Clark]

We did Slinky. Oh, yeah, we did Slinky. Okay.

[Charles W. 'Chuck' Bryant]

Yeah. Lego.

[Josh Clark]

Oh, yeah, of course.

[Charles W. 'Chuck' Bryant]

Barbie.

[Josh Clark]

Sure.

[Charles W. 'Chuck' Bryant]

Her boyfriend. G.I. joe.

[Josh Clark]

Yeah, that was a good one.

[Sponsor/Ad Voice]

Sorry, Ken.

[Josh Clark]

Wait a minute, wait a minute. I'm sorry. Did we just specifically do a GI Joe one or an action figures One?

[Charles W. 'Chuck' Bryant]

I think both. We definitely did action figures. Although maybe not.

[Josh Clark]

Okay, go ahead.

[Charles W. 'Chuck' Bryant]

I'll cross check that. Hot Wheels.

[Josh Clark]

So this is a made up list is what you're saying.

[Charles W. 'Chuck' Bryant]

Hot Wheels.

[Josh Clark]

Easy Bake Oven. Yeah, I'm glad you didn't call it Hot Wheels.

[Charles W. 'Chuck' Bryant]

Easy Bake Oven Play doh. Silly Putty. Do you count boomerangs?

[Josh Clark]

Sure.

[Charles W. 'Chuck' Bryant]

Do you count Monopoly?

[Josh Clark]

Yeah.

[Charles W. 'Chuck' Bryant]

Yo Yos.

[Josh Clark]

Of course.

[Charles W. 'Chuck' Bryant]

Hula Hoops.

[Josh Clark]

I knew Hula Hoops was after Yo Yos. I just knew it.

[Charles W. 'Chuck' Bryant]

Teddy Ruxpin. We covered him in our Christmas show this year.

[Josh Clark]

Oh, yeah, that's a deep cut right there and then.

[Charles W. 'Chuck' Bryant]

That's all I have, but I could have sworn we did it on Frisbees, but I cannot find it.

[Josh Clark]

Yeah, I feel like we did Frisbees too, because I think we talked about like Frolf or something at some point.

[Charles W. 'Chuck' Bryant]

Yeah, I don't know. Maybe it's out there and I just didn't. Or maybe it's under flying disc or something.

[Josh Clark]

Oh, that's possible because, yeah, we made that joke about calling it a novelty flying disc because Frisbee, like, used to sue everybody who called anything else a Frisbee.

[Charles W. 'Chuck' Bryant]

Maybe I'll have to look, but there's probably more out there. But that's a solid, you know, 12 or 13.

[Josh Clark]

That's pretty good.

[Charles W. 'Chuck' Bryant]

Which leads us to Etch A Sketch.

[Josh Clark]

Yes. One of the hundred top hundred toys of the century. According to, I want to say, not the Toy hall of Fame. It's just in the Toy hall of.

[Charles W. 'Chuck' Bryant]

Fame, I think, according to some snot nosed kid who makes lists online.

[Josh Clark]

All right, this is the 100 best toys of the century. This is the hundred best guitar solos of the 70s.

[Charles W. 'Chuck' Bryant]

Oh, man, I'd love to do a show on that.

[Josh Clark]

That would be pretty cool. I can't remember who named that, who made that list, but it's a high honor. It's a high accolade, even if we can't remember who came up with it. Like the Etch A Sketch. It's a ubiquitous toy. Everybody knows what an Etch A Sketch is. Unless you go to France and then they'll say, oh, you mean La Croix Magique. And you, you might say, like, well, why would they have anything to say about the Etch A Sketch in France? Turns out, buddy, the Etch A Sketch is actually French in origin. Did you know that before this?

[Charles W. 'Chuck' Bryant]

I did not. I didn't either because it seems like super American. You know, it looks like a TV and just feels like pure Americana. So when I realized it had some French stank on it, my dreams were dashed.

[Josh Clark]

You're like, it smells like champagne and cheese, which is kind of pleasant.

[Charles W. 'Chuck' Bryant]

No, I didn't really care. I thought it was great. Sketch, erase and sketch again. The logline that will forever be tied to this really interesting little toy. And I can't remember who it is in this article, but they were interviewing different folks. I think it was someone from the company commented. And I totally agree that it's amazing that today in the digital world and Bluetooth and wi fi and video gaming as it is, that this little lo fi toy that doesn't even have batteries in it, much less hook up to the Internet, is still like super popular and still has a little bit of mystique. And I agree with them. And I think the reason why one of them is like, you look at it and you're still kind of like, how does this thing work?

[Josh Clark]

Right. Well, we're going to ruin that mystique for everybody because we're going to explain how it works actually in this episode.

[Charles W. 'Chuck' Bryant]

That's right.

[Josh Clark]

But hopefully it won't affect Etch A Sketch sales because we love Etch A Sketch, you know?

[Charles W. 'Chuck' Bryant]

All right, should we go to France?

[Josh Clark]

We will go to France sometime. It's apparently not clear whether it was 1955 or 1956, but in a little town called Vitry sur Sin, which means Vitry on the Seine river, there was a company called. What was the name of the company Chuck.

[Charles W. 'Chuck' Bryant]

Lincrusta company.

[Josh Clark]

Right.

[Charles W. 'Chuck' Bryant]

Terrible name.

[Josh Clark]

It is a terrible name. But the reason they call themselves that is because Lincrusta is a type of wall covering that was really popular in the 19th and early 20th centuries. You know, like, have you ever been into an old, creepy, abandoned house and, like, the walls are covered in what looks like dimpled tin with, like, some weird patterns to it or whatever?

[Charles W. 'Chuck' Bryant]

No, but keep going.

[Josh Clark]

Okay, so where. If you could rub your hand over it, it's very much. It's like heavily embossed.

[Charles W. 'Chuck' Bryant]

Okay.

[Josh Clark]

Sometimes it'. And it's. It just imagine that as, like, wainscoting in the house. That is Lincrusta. And so that is one of the two things that this company made in the 50s. Lincrusta wall coverings and artificial leather. That is really neither here nor there. But I could. I was with you. I was like, what kind of a name is that for a company? I looked it up and they just. It basically be like, if you and I called our podcast podcast, because that's what we did was make podcasts or called it Crust. Podcrust.

[Charles W. 'Chuck' Bryant]

Just the name Crust. Anyway, I think I know what you're talking about because I have. We have a pie safe that has that metal tin stuff, but it's. I've never seen it on a wall, but I bet it's about the same thing.

[Josh Clark]

Virtually the same thing.

[Charles W. 'Chuck' Bryant]

Yeah.

[Josh Clark]

Yep. Okay, so that's Link Krusta, and that's where this guy worked. His name was Andre Kasagnas.

[Charles W. 'Chuck' Bryant]

I bet.

[Josh Clark]

What are you going with?

[Charles W. 'Chuck' Bryant]

Well, if it's French, wouldn't it be cassant? Is that G pronounced?

[Josh Clark]

Yeah, I think you just nailed it, actually. Andre Casson.

[Charles W. 'Chuck' Bryant]

Well, that's what we're going to call him. And we have gone back in time. You didn't know. 55 or 56. I say we go to 54 just to play it safe, set up shop in France and maybe get some emails done.

[Josh Clark]

All right. For a couple years.

[Charles W. 'Chuck' Bryant]

Sure, why not? We could use a break. Because, you know, podcaster burnout's a real thing.

[Josh Clark]

It really is. As we've talked about, we're dropping like flies.

[Charles W. 'Chuck' Bryant]

All right, so he's working in this factory, it's north of Paris, and they are making these wall coverings like you're talking about. And he. This is a little confusing how this actually happens, if you ask me. Or at least the way the first article put it, it's confusing.

[Josh Clark]

Oh, you're leaving it to me. I noticed. By your. By your paws. After that.

[Charles W. 'Chuck' Bryant]

Well, I mean, no, I'll start it, but I just still don't quite get it. He marked up with pencil on a see through decal. So, like, he was putting on an electrical plate, like a light switch. And on that plate, like many things, has, like, a little see through plastic that you peel off. So he was riding on that. He peeled it off. But then that's where it loses me as to exactly what magic took place.

[Josh Clark]

So, okay, remember, this is Link Krusta, and they make metal wall coverings, which means there's metal dust in the air, metal shavings everywhere.

[Charles W. 'Chuck' Bryant]

Yeah. And he's just breathing that stuff in.

[Josh Clark]

Right. All of them are. What's crazy is the guy made it to that ripe old age of 86 after breathing that for years. But. So there's. There's metal dust everywhere, including on this electrical switch plate that he's installing and I guess the decal against the plate. And I think what happened was when he marked on the decal and pulled the decal off, he'd seen that he had disturbed the metal shavings that were stuck to the underside of the decal. Oh, do you see what I mean? So, like, he. He had disturbed the shape. So. So there was like the whole decal is coated in a metal dust. He marks on it with a pencil. And the impression that he makes, like, gouges out lines on the backside of the decal. I know, it's really tough. It was magic. Basically. This man witnessed a feat of magic that still cannot be explained to this day. And that's where he got his idea for the Etch A Sketch.

[Charles W. 'Chuck' Bryant]

Amazing. So a big, big moment. He has that literal light bulb that goes off of his. Or not literal, of course, light bulb above his head. Although you never know. There may have been a light bulb in that factory right above his head.

[Josh Clark]

Why not?

[Charles W. 'Chuck' Bryant]

And he said, all right, this can be something. He, however, did not have a lot of money to sink into this weird idea. And so he had to partner with somebody with money, a man named Paul Chaze. C H A Z E. Or maybe Shaws, if he's French.

[Josh Clark]

Oh, that's good.

[Charles W. 'Chuck' Bryant]

And this guy had some dough because he owned a plastic injection molding company.

[Josh Clark]

This is like, early on.

[Charles W. 'Chuck' Bryant]

I wonder if we could count that as a toy. The little plastic machines that spit out little plastic guitars in Chicago and at zoos.

[Josh Clark]

Oh, yes, Moldorama. That would definitely count. Yeah, that goes on the list. Yeah.

[Charles W. 'Chuck' Bryant]

So he didn't. It wasn't Moldorrama, but it was plastic Injection molding that this guy made his money from. And this is where things get a little confusing historically, because the man who. His accountant, his name was Arthur Grand Jin.

[Josh Clark]

You are nailing the French today. Try to run French people. You can't. Chuck is pronouncing your words just beautifully.

[Charles W. 'Chuck' Bryant]

So his accountant is actually given credit a lot of times because he filed the patent under his name, which I'm curious about how that works legally.

[Josh Clark]

He. So he was. Do you remember the first time we did south by Southwest, and on the sign, it had, like, somebody. I can't remember whose name it was, but whoever had, like, filed the application to get us into south by Southwest, it said that, like, that's who was performing in the room that day.

[Charles W. 'Chuck' Bryant]

I don't remember that at all.

[Josh Clark]

I think this is basically the same thing where as, like, the US Government bureaucracy, the patented trademark office basically said whoever's name is on there, that is, who is the patent holder. And since Granjean, who was the accountant of Shays, who was the partner of Cassandra, since he was the one who actually filled out the application and paid for the application for the patent, as far as the government was concerned, he was the person who patented the Etch A Sketch in the United States, even though Grandjean made no claim on it whatsoever, immediately transferred the title over to Shays. For decades, everybody thought Arthur Grandjean was the guy who invented the Etch A Sketch.

[Charles W. 'Chuck' Bryant]

Interesting. All right, so that was July 23, 1959, was when this patent was granted. And I guess we should just look at the little guy itself. The little TV looking. That iconic red frame with the two dials, which it didn't have initially. We'll get to that. But the underside of this screen here has what's known in the patent as a pole virulent material such as aluminum powder.

[Josh Clark]

Is that French as well?

[Charles W. 'Chuck' Bryant]

I don't know. And then to keep that from clumping up, there are little tiny plastic beads. And then the two knobs control, again from the patent, a movable tracing stylus. Although initially it was a joystick. Isn't that right?

[Josh Clark]

Yeah, yeah. Basically like an Atari. But it served the same purpose, and it was held together the same way through an intricate system of pulleys and gears that moved the stylus either upward or downward. And then if you combine the upward and downward together, you could make diagonals and circles and stuff like that. But it's really tough to describe what's going on in an Etch A Sketch. But there's a How Stuff works article from Years back called Inside an Etch A Sketch, where the people at House of Works, like, took one apart and photographed it and explained it step by step. And it really becomes much simpler and ruins any bit of magic there is to it when you see Inside an Etch A Sketch. But it's still kind of wondrous, you know, like, the engineer in you is like, wow, that's pretty cool.

[Charles W. 'Chuck' Bryant]

Yeah, it's sort of like. I mean, it's not a negative image, I don't think, but what's going on when you're moving those knobs? There's a stylus that's actually removing, like, the screen is coated with this powder. So it's actually removing powder, not adding something to the screen.

[Josh Clark]

Yes, exactly.

[Charles W. 'Chuck' Bryant]

And of course, if you want to get that away and start a new picture, you just shake that thing up and that recoats the screen once again with that powder.

[Josh Clark]

Yeah. So, like, you know how your TV screen always has tons of dust on it no matter how often you dust it?

[Charles W. 'Chuck' Bryant]

Sure.

[Josh Clark]

So that's because, like, that dust is attracted electrostatically through an electrical charge to the glass. That's. They. They take advantage of that same thing with the underside of the Etch A Sketch. And that aluminum dust, which sticks to everything, like, it wants to stick to the glass because I think it's missing some electrons or something. And then when you move the stylus through it, you're removing that. That dust. Like you said, it's not a negative. It's the removal of dust. And that's an Etch A Sketch, like, at its. At its core. And what's interesting, Chuck, is, like, that is how an Etch A Sketch today works. That's how an Etch A sketch worked in 1962. Like, the two meaning, like, also. But that dude, Andre Cassandra said, this is how this is going to work. And it's basically the same thing.

[Charles W. 'Chuck' Bryant]

That's pretty awesome. Let's take a break.

[Josh Clark]

Yes.

[Charles W. 'Chuck' Bryant]

We're going to come back and talk about coming stateside right after this.

[Josh Clark]

All right, so, Chuck, so how did we agree on his last name? I think I butchering it still. And I even took years of French in high school.

[Charles W. 'Chuck' Bryant]

I think you said casserole.

[Josh Clark]

All right. Andre Casserole. That seems wrong.

[Charles W. 'Chuck' Bryant]

Yeah. I'm still going to go with Casson.

[Josh Clark]

Okay. There you go. Andre Cassin. He knew he was onto something. Like, this guy was an electrician. He was like, this is a great idea. This is a prototype I made. This is worth something. So he and Cruise, I guess, funded A trip to the Nuremberg toy fair in 1959. And it was there that Casson was walking around saying, check this thing out. It is yours for a mere hundred thousand dollars. Which at the time was a lot of money. I think it was $870,000 today. And that's what this guy wanted for the right to produce this. And every toy maker at the place said no, including a little toy maker called Ohio Art. Everybody turned it down. And Cassan went home from the toy fair empty handed. But he didn't give up. He still persisted. But that was a big strikeout for him right out of the gate.

[Charles W. 'Chuck' Bryant]

Yeah. So Ohio Art eventually settles on a number of 25 grand for the rights to make this thing in the United States. It is still called La Crande Magique in France because they had a different licensing deal over there from the get go. And Ohio Art Company is pretty interesting. It started. Did you see that thing? Yeah, I did, yeah. They started out in 1908, founded by a man named. A dentist named Dr. Henry S. Winsolor in Archibald, Ohio. He gets out of dentistry because he's like, hey, man, toys is the future. Toys is the future.

[Josh Clark]

There's no future in teeth. In a decade, no one in America is going to have teeth. It's just a losing trade. To be in is dentistry.

[Charles W. 'Chuck' Bryant]

Yeah. So he saw the way forward. He rented a music hall, hired 15 women, and they were making metal picture frames at first to great, great success.

[Josh Clark]

Yeah. So they use something called metal lithography, which is a type of printing. And I think the metal refers to like the medium that you're using to print with. Like, you carve a picture out of metal and you put ink on it and then you print on whatever you want. But they were printing onto metal. Like they had like these picture frames and pictures that were like a hu. Seller of a cupid. It was a pair of like oval plates, basically, but they were metal printed. Printed pictures on them of like a cupid hanging out and then the same cupid sleeping. And it's just kind of like whatever. Like these days it seems kind of. It's got a tinge of old timey creepiness. But in the first half of the 20th century, there were 50 million sets of those things sold in the United States, which is an astounding amount. That's basically every house in America had a pair of this and that really kind of made Ohio Art like a very viable business. But they eventually got into things like sand pails and little trucks and that kind of thing. Anything that was printed with metal before the time that plastic toys came along, they were into. So it wasn't a huge leap into the Etch A Sketch, but the Etch A Sketch was definitely different than anything that they'd ever kind of messed around with before.

[Charles W. 'Chuck' Bryant]

Did you know I've done metal lithography?

[Josh Clark]

No.

[Charles W. 'Chuck' Bryant]

Yeah, it was one of our. In industrial arts. It was, you know, at least at my school, each quarter you did a different medium or whatever. And lithography was something. We did one quarter.

[Josh Clark]

Do you remember what you printed?

[Charles W. 'Chuck' Bryant]

I'm trying to remember what I printed. It's funny, I can remember that because we also. One quarter was screen printing. And I remember the T shirts. I did Monkeys T shirts like the.

[Josh Clark]

See no Evil, Hear no Evil Monkeys?

[Charles W. 'Chuck' Bryant]

No, the band the Monkeys. They're. They're. Their logo with the guitar spelled out as Monkeys.

[Josh Clark]

Like, wow. Did you draw it yourself?

[Charles W. 'Chuck' Bryant]

No, no, no, of course not. But we did metal sheet lithography. I don't remember all of the process, but what I do remember was it essentially was like burning, chemically burning images onto metal plates. And then that metal plate was used to print.

[Josh Clark]

Okay, so the metal. And metal lithography does. It talks about the metal press that you're using to print with.

[Charles W. 'Chuck' Bryant]

Like, at the end of. There may be different processes, but in my class, we would do this thing and apply this, like, image with, like, this gel onto a metal sheet and use this combination of chemicals that would burn that into, like, make it part of the metal. And then all of a sudden, you would have a metal sheet with a thing on it, like a negative image. And then you would use that in the printing process to print a positive image.

[Josh Clark]

Right. And you could use that to print onto anything, including other metal. Right.

[Charles W. 'Chuck' Bryant]

Well, hey, man, that's where my knowledge. And again, this was ninth grade me. So I've forgotten a lot of things over that time period.

[Josh Clark]

Right.

[Charles W. 'Chuck' Bryant]

And I'm sure I just butchered that. But that's my one little dance with metal lithography.

[Josh Clark]

Well, I'll tell you who would be able to tell us exactly how you could. How metal lithography works. It's anybody who works at Ohio Art because not only was that their bread and butter before the etches sketch, it still is today, actually. So Ohio Art, like, I guess gets in touch with Andre Casson, and either he got in touch with them again or they got in touch with him.

[Charles W. 'Chuck' Bryant]

I think.

[Josh Clark]

I think it was the latter of the two and said, hey, we heard you're selling this for 100 grand. It's way too rich for our blood. How about either 15,000 or 25,000, depending on who you ask in the future? And Kassan is like, what are you talking about? They're like, just take the money. And so they either got it for 15,000 or 25,000, which is still substantial. I mean, it was like, around 100k or 200k, something like that, depending on which one it was. And Kassan was quite a happy man. There was a story where the guy who was running the show at Ohio Art and his wife went over to meet Andre Casson and just kind of have like, an initial meeting and, like, shake his hand and all that and buy the license from him. And Cassan was like, welcome. And had, like, this huge spread of baguettes and champagne and everything at his house, which is pretty cute because he was just, like, this humble guy who came up with a really great idea for a toy and was finally, like, selling it for a wad of cash.

[Charles W. 'Chuck' Bryant]

Interesting. A little on the nose.

[Josh Clark]

What, the baguettes in champagne?

[Charles W. 'Chuck' Bryant]

Yeah. But, you know, what are you gonna.

[Josh Clark]

Do when in France?

[Sponsor/Ad Voice]

Right?

[Charles W. 'Chuck' Bryant]

So he is. Once he's on board with Ohio Art, he gets together with their chief engineer, Jerry Berger, and says. And Berger's like, listen here, Frenchie, you need to drop the joystick. It's all knobs these days. And he said, what is a knob? And he was like, well, let me show you. And he. He introduced the idea of the same system like you were talking about, but knobs instead of a joystick to move that little line horizontal or vertical. Or as you pointed out, if you're really talented and you can master both at once, you can actually do rooted. Well, if you're really good, you can do very nice curved lines. But I'm.

[Josh Clark]

Yeah. Beyond rudimentary. No, neither am I. I can make a line go up and a line go to the left or right. Yeah, I can't even make it go down.

[Charles W. 'Chuck' Bryant]

We'll get to the art of it maybe at the end, but. Cause there are some serious artists out there doing some cool stuff. But at any rate, Etch A Sketch, it was rebranded as Etch A Sketch in the United States, Ohio Arts, producing them for the 1960 holiday season. And they sold about 600,000 of these that year, which is a. That's a lot.

[Josh Clark]

Yeah, and they sold it for a lot of money, too. They went for sale at $2.99 a piece, which is 2564 in today's money. But, I mean, if you go buy an Etch A Sketch today, it's between 10 and 15 bucks. So that was a lot of money, especially to sell 600,000 of these things. Especially if you were selling, like, creepy, you know, metal wastebaskets with an unsettling clown painted on it or printed on it. Like, right before this. This is a huge. It was a good move by the people at Ohio Art to buy the license to this thing, in other words. And they say, Chuck, that it coincided really perfectly with television. So much so that they believe, like, that is one of the reasons why Jerry Berger was like, you need knobs. This thing needs to look like a TV set. Because that's what's all the rage with the kids right now.

[Charles W. 'Chuck' Bryant]

Yeah. And he. It was one of the first toys to actually do a TV commercial. And so if it's 1960 and you're a child watching, first of all, your mind is blown because you're watching a television to begin with.

[Josh Clark]

It's just like, I can't believe this. I can't believe what's going on right now.

[Charles W. 'Chuck' Bryant]

Then a TV commercial comes on for a toy, and this toy has animation in it to where, like, they would Etch a Sketch a little rocket ship, and then that rocket ship would animate and take off. And this was like, these kids might have. I mean, keep in mind, kids in 1960 were idiots, but they might as well have been dosed with lsd.

[Josh Clark]

You know, they just kept fainting over and over again throughout the commercial because they could not believe what they were seeing.

[Charles W. 'Chuck' Bryant]

Mind's blowing.

[Josh Clark]

And it's just. It's just an Etch A Sketch, you know?

[Charles W. 'Chuck' Bryant]

Yeah, but it's genius. I love is.

[Josh Clark]

But it really. I think the point was, though, that, like, taking advantage of the novelty of TV and also now having a way, like, if you. We just tried to explain an Etch A Sketch over a podcast prior to tv, if that just sketches come out during, like, the Little Orphan Radio era, they would have had to have done the same thing. It wouldn't have landed quite as well. The fact that a kid could see this happening on their TV screen was pretty awesome. And then also to say. And then you just shake it. Turn it upside down and shake it and coat the glass screen again, and your drawing is gone forever. Like, to be able to see that TV made the Etch A Sketch what it was like for sure. It definitely ushered it into a position where it could become, like, a cultural icon of nostalgia.

[Charles W. 'Chuck' Bryant]

Yeah. I mean, you know, they perfected it. By the time they started rolling off in 1960. Prior to that, like any product like this, there was a lot of R and D. One of the people who worked there talked about the mountain of red frames behind the factory while they were trying to get it right. And it was such a huge smash hit out of the gate that as legend has it, they were manufacturing up until noon on Christmas Eve just to get them to the west coast in time for Christmas morning.

[Josh Clark]

Yeah, that's pretty cool. I mean, they really wanted those kids to have those Etch A sketches. They really wanted that money.

[Charles W. 'Chuck' Bryant]

Should we take another break?

[Josh Clark]

Yeah.

[Charles W. 'Chuck' Bryant]

All right, we'll talk about some ways Etch A sketches ebbed and flowed in popularity and pop culture over the years. Ready for this.

[Josh Clark]

Chuck? I don't know if we said it or not, but from what I've seen, more than 175 million Etch A sketches have been sold since 1960.

[Charles W. 'Chuck' Bryant]

And we should point out we're not just, like, ticking off a list of pop culture references. Like, every time this happened, Etch A Sketch sales would go up.

[Josh Clark]

Yeah. Like the Mitt Romney one increased sales, like, 30%. I guess everybody was like, oh, etches sketch. I forgot about that. I think I'll go buy one right now.

[Charles W. 'Chuck' Bryant]

Well, they actually branded after that Republican and Democrat Etches sketches, though, didn't they?

[Josh Clark]

Yeah. So you could buy a red one or a blue one, but both of them came with a sticker, which I'm assuming that they printed on their metal lithography presses of a donkey and an elephant, like playing tug of war on the front of the White House lawn.

[Charles W. 'Chuck' Bryant]

Yeah, that's just crazy.

[Josh Clark]

It is, but it's also. That's smart, you know, that's how you make the money.

[Charles W. 'Chuck' Bryant]

And then, of course, in the movie Toy Story from Pixar, one of the characters name was Etch and had the fastest knobs in the West. And that was always a very fun character, I think, to see him drawing things out really fast to communicate.

[Josh Clark]

Yeah. And, you know, you said something earlier. You were talking about how, like, despite the fact that it doesn't even have batteries, it's had the staying power for, you know, 50 something years, almost 60 years. It's been around. And it's a really simple thing that. That the design hasn't changed. And I think even more of a testimony to, you know, the. The. The staying power of the Etch A Sketch is the fact that they have tried stuff with batteries and like, like things that connect to your computer over the years, and nothing has managed to improve on the original Etch A Sketch, like there was. Do you remember the Etch A Sketch animator?

[Charles W. 'Chuck' Bryant]

No.

[Josh Clark]

So I couldn't quite place it either. But I went and watched an old ad. It was big in the 80s and it was basically like an Etch A Sketch, but there was nothing mechanical about it. It was digital. You're creating like a bitmap digital picture. And then you'd press like, I guess Play or something like that, and it would just kind of run it like a flip book over and over again. So your Etch A Sketch drawing, like, came to life. But kids were like, nah, I'd rather have the original Etch A Sketch. Because the Etch A Sketch animator went away and the Etch A Sketch is still available today.

[Charles W. 'Chuck' Bryant]

Yeah. I mean, there have been other variations. They had the Doodle Sketch, the Plug and Play, which. This sounds like a bad idea. Plug and Play allows you to draw on the TV screen. That's just asking for trouble. As a parent.

[Josh Clark]

Sure.

[Charles W. 'Chuck' Bryant]

And then the mobile app, which I've been playing with today.

[Josh Clark]

Oh, how's it going?

[Charles W. 'Chuck' Bryant]

Well, I mean, what do you think of this picture?

[Josh Clark]

Oh, that's not bad. It looks kind of Etch A Sketchy, you know?

[Charles W. 'Chuck' Bryant]

Yeah. So what you can do is it's kind of fun. You can upload or take a photo on your smartphone, plug it into the app, and then it will instantly etchify it. And what I've learned is that it's the more basic, like a picture of your face works much better than something with a lot of stuff in the background. But it's fun, right?

[Josh Clark]

Yeah.

[Charles W. 'Chuck' Bryant]

You know, I like it.

[Josh Clark]

I was reading reviews of the app. I didn't try it myself like you, but it did say like, if it's a basic picture, it'll look way more Etch A Sketchy.

[Charles W. 'Chuck' Bryant]

Yeah. So my official review is, eh, not bad.

[Josh Clark]

So three stars out of six.

[Charles W. 'Chuck' Bryant]

Sure. I mean, for something that downloaded in 30 seconds and was free, I'm going to give it a half a thumb up.

[Josh Clark]

There you go. So one of the things that has kind of kept Etch A Sketch alive for the younger kids. I read this article about Etch A Sketch and it was right before they sold. So a lot of people don't know Ohio Art doesn't make Etch A Sketch anymore. They sold it to a brand called Spin Master.

[Charles W. 'Chuck' Bryant]

I didn't see that.

[Josh Clark]

Yeah, it's not Ohio Art. Ohio Art said we're going back to metal lithography. And that's what they did. So they sold Etch A Sketch off to Spin Master. Spin Master was like, that's fine with us, baby. Thanks for all these licenses. I mean, an Etch A Sketch, a frozen branded Etch A Sketch is. It might as well just be like a printing press for money, right?

[Charles W. 'Chuck' Bryant]

Yeah.

[Josh Clark]

So it was probably a pretty good buy for Spin Master in Ohio. Art was like this thing. It was great. It was a good run while it lasted, but they also had to oversee it through some really dark times because, well, for one thing, like Etch A Sketch, is it landing with the millennials? I get the impression, like it used to with the baby boomers. That was one thing. And Ohio Art also almost went bankrupt because of it back in, like 2001. They managed to get some more money back into the business and stay afloat. But part of that also was they had to send the manufacturing of the Etch A Sketch off to China, which they were really unhappy about because they lost, like, jobs in tiny little Bryant, Ohio. But eventually, like 15 years later, they said, you know what? We're getting out of the Etch A Sketch business and sold it off to Spin Master, which is a weird name. But the. But the. One of the things, it's a little weird. Ohio Arts a little weird too. You don't associate Ohio with art, you know.

[Charles W. 'Chuck' Bryant]

Oh, oh, you just don't.

[Josh Clark]

I'll say it again.

[Charles W. 'Chuck' Bryant]

Tell that to Chrissy Hind, the Black Keys.

[Josh Clark]

No, Chrissy Hine gets what I'm saying for sure. So the thing, one of the things, though, that is keeping Etch A Sketch relevant, the reason why, like, if you walk up to like a 17 year old and say, what do you think about Etch A Sketch? They say, oh, yeah, I've heard of that. Because every once in a while you'll see on the Internet a photo or two of somebody who is really, really good at Etch A Sketch. And it just kind of makes the rounds on social media.

[Charles W. 'Chuck' Bryant]

Yeah. I mean, everything from like the Mona Lisa to just like portraits of people to landscapes. What's really fun is you can go on YouTube and look at time lapse renderings, Etch A Sketch renderings, which when you're seeing it done super fast like that, you kind of think, like, I feel like I could do that, but you really have to be a master with those knobs. Like, what I found is the thing you really need to master to do everything that you want to do is being able to retrace. Well, because as everyone knows, it's not like a pencil. You can't pick it up off the Paper and start somewhere else. You have to. If you want to go somewhere else, you have to retrace as closely to that original line as you can all the way back to that point that you want to be at, or else it's just going to look like something that I did, which looks like something a toddler did.

[Josh Clark]

Yeah. And I mean, like, that's a really good point. When you're making a good Etch A Sketch drawing, it is all one single line frequently doubled back over. And Etch A Sketch artist will use, like, that frame. They'll create a line frame around the edges that they can travel back out to and move around the picture like that.

[Charles W. 'Chuck' Bryant]

Pretty brilliant.

[Josh Clark]

Yeah. There's a guy named George Vlasich III who's known for some pretty amazing portraits of Muhammad Ali, Barack Obama, Lebron James. There's an artist named Jane Labowitch or Labovich, maybe she calls herself Princess Etch A Sketch. She's done some amazing, like, architectural detail with it. And then there's a guy named Ryan Burton who does erotic Simpsons art. There you go with the Etch A Sketch. And all three of them are, like, really good at the Etch A Sketch drawings.

[Charles W. 'Chuck' Bryant]

Yeah. The fanfic of Etch A Sketch artist. Interesting.

[Josh Clark]

And then apparently, if you. When you're very satisfied with your Etch A Sketch and you don't want anything to happen to it, you drill a hole in the back and get the aluminum powder out, and then you lock the knobs to keep them from being turned. Then you have a n Etch A Sketch masterpiece that you can hang in a museum.

[Charles W. 'Chuck' Bryant]

Oh, so that makes it permanent.

[Josh Clark]

Yeah.

[Charles W. 'Chuck' Bryant]

So when the little. So when a kid comes in the museum and rips it off the wall and shakes it, nothing happens?

[Josh Clark]

No, no. And I think by law, you're allowed to pick up that kid and shake it.

[Charles W. 'Chuck' Bryant]

Yes, I think so. As long as it's not a baby. Don't shake it, right?

[Josh Clark]

No. Never shake a baby. Come on.

[Charles W. 'Chuck' Bryant]

Yeah.

[Josh Clark]

I would never advocate shaking a baby, everybody. I just want to go on record.

[Charles W. 'Chuck' Bryant]

As saying that there was, you know, the comedian Nate Bargazzi.

[Josh Clark]

No.

[Charles W. 'Chuck' Bryant]

He has a. He's great. He's got a very funny bit about shaking babies.

[Josh Clark]

Oh, yeah.

[Charles W. 'Chuck' Bryant]

Believe it or not, it takes a.

[Josh Clark]

Lot to turn that into something funny.

[Charles W. 'Chuck' Bryant]

Yeah. He did it, man.

[Josh Clark]

Good for him. Nate Bergazzi. Huh?

[Charles W. 'Chuck' Bryant]

Nate Bergazzi, dude, you would love him. He's great.

[Josh Clark]

So Nate Bergazzi just became a cultural icon because we did not see him coming up in this episode.

[Charles W. 'Chuck' Bryant]

That's Right.

[Josh Clark]

Well, if you want to know more about Nate Bergazzi, you should go check him out on the Internet, like I'm going to. And since I said Nate Bergazzi, time for listener mail man.

[Charles W. 'Chuck' Bryant]

I hope someone tells Nate we're plugging him.

[Josh Clark]

Plugging away.

[Charles W. 'Chuck' Bryant]

Plugging Nate. All right, here, I'm gonna mention. This is about Jerry and her eating. And this is from Kim Cooper.

[Josh Clark]

Did you see this, Jerry?

[Charles W. 'Chuck' Bryant]

She says no. Hey, guys, I noticed that you often mention what Jerry is eating a lot during the podcast.

[Josh Clark]

A lot.

[Charles W. 'Chuck' Bryant]

I don't know how close to you, she. How close she is to your microphone. Well, I'll go ahead and say that from your side over there. She's about five feet.

[Josh Clark]

All I have to do is lean in my seat a little bit, and I can touch Jerry's miso soup.

[Charles W. 'Chuck' Bryant]

That's right. You could dip your thumb in her soup.

[Josh Clark]

And sometimes I threaten to.

[Charles W. 'Chuck' Bryant]

I don't know how close she is to your microphones, but I never hear her eating, which is good for your fans with misophonia. But I'm curious why she chooses this time to eat. Do you guys spend all day podcasting and that's the only time she can fit it in? No.

[Josh Clark]

No.

[Charles W. 'Chuck' Bryant]

Silly question that popped into my head listening to this week. This week after Josh said, and there's Jerry eating God knows what. Anyway, guys, she's got me interested in trying miso. Tell her she's doing a great job because I don't know, because I know she doesn't get too many shout outs. And Josh and Chuck, you guys are pretty great too. That is from Kim Cooper.

[Josh Clark]

Thanks, Kim. That's funny. She went all the way around to just basically say. I guess what I'm trying to say is I've always wanted to try miso.

[Charles W. 'Chuck' Bryant]

Yeah, pretty much.

[Josh Clark]

Well, go try some miso, Kim. I mean, you can buy it at, like, any grocery store. Just go get a tub of it, get a big old spoon, try your first spoonful, and go from there. Do you ever eat just miso paste?

[Charles W. 'Chuck' Bryant]

No.

[Josh Clark]

It's good. If you're craving something salty and savory and umami, let's just say it's good, but you can't. You can't eat very much of it. I'm just teasing, Kim. Like, a spoonful is a lot of miso paste.

[Charles W. 'Chuck' Bryant]

Okay. What do you just add that to? Is it an ingredient?

[Josh Clark]

Yeah, for, like, soups, miso soup, stuff like that. Yeah. But you can just eat the paste.

[Sponsor/Ad Voice]

Okay.

[Josh Clark]

And live to tell about it. I'M proof. Well, if you want to get in touch with us to talk about Jerry, we're always fine with that. You can go to Stuff youf Should Know, find out all of our social links, and you can always send us an email. Attention everybody. We have a new email address.

[Charles W. 'Chuck' Bryant]

Wowee.

[Josh Clark]

Wow, wow. It is stuff [e-mail] how about that? For more on this and thousands of other topics, visit howstuffworks.com. This is an iHeart podcast. Guaranteed Human.