Joan Anderson, an almost unknown Australian woman who made the Hula Hoop famous all over the world, died at 101 years old.
Anderson had moved to the United States in 1946 and noticed what would become a fashion during a visit to the family in Australia years later: groups of people have fun by rotating wood circles around life.
Anderson, intrigued, returned to the United States, where his mother sent her one of the bamboo rings. A friend observed that the rotation movement of the sides of those who wore it remembered that of the Hawaiian dance of the Hula Hoop, giving the toy the name with VCUI would have been known in the world.
In the 2018 documentary “Hula Girl”, Anderson recalled how she and her husband met a manager of the American giant of the Wham-o toys, who agreed to share profits if the Hula Hoop had been sold. Wham-o patented the Hula Hoop in 1963, which became a memorable fashion, selling millions of pieces and becoming one of the best known products of the company. But the role of Anderson in the introduction of the Hula Hoop was not recognized and she and her husband in the end intended a cause against the company obtaining economic compensation but no recognition, reports the BBC
