EDDY'S STORY
Eddy Goldfarb was born in 1921 in Chicago, Illinois- the son of Jewish immigrants from Poland and Romania. His birth name was Adolph and he was one of 3 children-Bernard was five years older and Bunny (Bernice) was two years younger.
Even as a young child, Adolph was interested in how things work. He recalls that when he was around five years old, his father Louis brought home a radio and when it didn’t play, he gave it to Adolph to take apart to see how it worked. He remembers that it was one of the best toys he ever had.
Louis worked as a tailor in a garment factory and sold goods on a pushcart on Maxwell Street to make extra money. Louis died in 1933 at the young age of 44 and Adolph’s life changed dramatically. He was 12 years old, and along with his brother and mother Rose, they worked to support the family.
He worked delivering newspapers and groceries. But one of his best jobs was working as a soda jerk for Schuster’s Drug Store. And it was there that his friends stopped calling him Adolph (in reaction to Adolf Hitler’s rise to power) and started calling him Eddy. And he became known as Eddy from that point forward.
Eddy excelled in math and science in high school, and was interested in studying physics, but he knew college would have to wait until he could afford the tuition.
A big turning point in Eddy’s life was World War II. When Pearl Harbor was bombed, Eddy enlisted in the Navy and enrolled in a special program to learn about radar. The Navy sent him to the University of Houston where he studied electrical engineering and then to a secret lab at Treasure Island in San Francisco Bay to specialize in radar.
As a radar technician, Eddy volunteered for submarine duty and was assigned to the Batfish submarine. It was still under construction and he was on the first crew to take it out to sea. He was allowed to bring only one sea bag aboard, and he filled it with clothing, books and a spool of magnetic wire which he used to build tiny motors. While at sea, Eddy invented a specialized radar antenna. He also had a sketchbook filled with drawings of his inventions. and he decided that if he wanted to be an independent inventor, he needed to specialize in one industry, and he chose toys.
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After the war, Eddy returned to Chicago where he met Anita, who he proposed to the day after he met her at a dance, and they were married nine months later.
Anita believed in Eddy and supported him for two years while he pursued his dream to become an independent inventor. His first item he sold was the wild idea of the Yakity Yak teeth, a simple gag item, which became a cultural icon. He hooked up with promoter Marvin Glass and they brought the Yakity Yak teeth to novelty king Irving Fishlove. And Eddy kept inventing, working day and night, coming up with new ideas, and making the models himself.
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In 1949, Eddy had 3 toys at the Toy Show in New York, the toy industry’s annual showcase – Yakity Yak Teeth (Fishlove) Busy Biddy Chicken (Topic Toys) and Merry Go Sip (Topic Toys). All three toys were really big hits and Eddy’s career was launched.
Eddy always wanted to live in California and in 1952, Eddy, Anita and their 2 year old daughter Lyn moved to Los Angeles. Marvin was angry at him for moving and refused to send Eddy any of the royalties owed to him. While California represented a new start, Eddy and Anita had a tough time financially. They moved into a modest home in the San Fernando Valley and Eddy set up a model shop in their one car garage.
Times were so difficult that when their daughter Fran was born in 1953, Eddy didn’t have enough money to pay the hospital bill. He tells the story of how he went to the home of Lew Glaser of Revell Toys that night with a new toy idea and walked out with a check.
By the time, their son Martin was born in 1957, Eddy’s business had grown. He soon outgrew his shop in the garage, and at the height of his success, Eddy owned 3 buildings and employed 39 people – model makers, industrial designers, engineers, sculptors and support staff.
Eddy designed a wide range of toys, games, novelties and hobby kits for boys and girls of all ages. He invented more than 800 toys and holds close to 300 patents. Some of his most successful toys were: Yakity Yak Teeth, Battling Tops, Vac U Form, Arcade Basketball, Kerplunk, Hydro Strike, Giant Bubble Gun, Baby Beans, Stompers and Shark Attack. He sold toys to most of the toy companies in the U.S. and then branched out to Europe and Asia.
He had a particularly close working relationship with two of his designers, his associate Del Everitt on Stompers and Rene Soriano on Kerplunk. In 1998, Eddy formed a new partnership with his son Martin (the inventor of Shark Attack). And to this day, Eddy & Martin Goldfarb and Associates are continuing to invent toys and games.
In 2003, Eddy was inducted in the Toy Industry Hall of Fame, and in 2010, received the TAGIE (Toy and Game Innovation) Lifetime Achievement Award from the Chicago Toy and Game Group. He was the first American to receive the I.D.I.O.T. (International Designer and Inventor of Toys) at the London Toy Fair.
In addition to Eddy’s career inventing toys, he worked with Hank Saperstein to design and manufacture toy premiums for Kelloggs Cereal, and they worked with Elvis Presley to create an Elvis plastic figurine (which was never released). As part of their collaboration, Anita answered Elvis’s fan mail. Eddy also designed spy devices and gadgets for the 1960s TV show Girl From Uncle. In 1985, Eddy was one of first inventors to venture into video games (EPIX Barbie and Hot Wheels) but chose not to continue, focusing instead on his passion-designing toys.
Eddy celebrating his 100th Birthday