male announcer: This program is made possible in part by the Lemelson Foundation, supporting invention, innovation, and climate action.

♪♪♪♪♪ ♪♪♪♪♪ Eddy Goldfarb: This is the Bubble Gun in action.

Eddy: I always knew I was gonna be an independent inventor.

And I chose toys.

Eddy: I got the idea for the chattering teeth.

I saw a magazine ad for a tooth garage.

This was the container to hold your false teeth on the table alongside your bed.

I went to my dentist and I asked him for a pair of old teeth that he has around, and he gave them to me.

At that time, that was right after a war, and we had plastics that we could cast.

I made a mold that I cast in, and then I'd refined them, then I carved them.

Eddy: It was a big hit right from the start.

And this is what it does.

Eddy: Well, I work in plastic mostly, not metal.

I always check that these two are back in their sockets.

When I came back from the navy and can finally afford some tools, that's when I started.

And little by little, I was able to buy the machines.

I love buying machines.

♪♪♪♪♪ ♪♪♪♪♪ Eddy: I was born in Chicago, 1921, and I grew up like everyone else grew up.

Year after year.

My father died when I was 12 years old.

He was 44 years old.

He was in the County Hospital in Chicago.

If you didn't have money, that's where you went.

Our lives changed entirely.

I was always doing things.

I had no tools.

I had nothing.

Eddy: It was a big thing for me, when I was a kid my mother sent shirts out to the laundry and when they came back, they had a cardboard piece in there and I was able to cut things out and put things together and, you know, like that.

I did make some toys.

When I was a kid, I made this little diver in a Coca Cola bottle that went up and down on my kitchen stove with glass tubing.

I was interested in physics.

I wanted to be a physics major, but I knew I would have a hard time going to college.

That was in 1939, '40, and my mother said, "How are you gonna go to school?"

I said, "Well, I'll go to the class until they ask me for the small tuition," you know, and that's what I did.

They asked me for it and I had to leave the class.

Eddy: A big turning point in my life was the war.

I wanted to do my part.

I was young, we all were.

And I was also very thankful that my mother and father both were able to come to this country.

And I wanted to pay back.

I wanted to do my part.

I was really interested in radar.

I applied to the Navy.

They sent me to the University of Houston to take Electronics Engineering, and then from there we were sent to Treasure Island in San Francisco, and on top of the mountain there was a special lab, and that's where we learned about radar.

It was all very exciting for me.

Myself and two others were the highest all through school because it was all technical.

It was all math and science, and I could choose anywhere I wanted to go in the Navy.

But we decided that we wanted to see action, do our part, and we volunteered for submarine duty, the three of us.

We were each assigned a different submarine, and two of us made it and the third one didn't make it.

His submarine went down.

Eddy: I did these drawings while I was on the submarine.

Even looking through these ideas, I guess I realized I was going from one industry to another, and if I wanted to make it, I better pick an industry and specialize in it.

I designed my first three toys on the Batfish.

I draw up the actual models I'm gonna be making.

This is a view looking down on the scorekeeper for this particular game that I'm working on now.

And the object is to get six marbles before anyone else; you're then the winner.

♪♪♪♪♪ Eddy: I use the computer a tremendous amount to do marketing research to see if something like my idea is already on.

I do patent searching.

When I'm a little discouraged or something, I look up my name and see if that I'm still there, so that makes me feel good.

Eddy: It was after the war and of course I was back in Chicago.

Hank and I decided to go to a dance.

Three women passed me, and I really liked the one in the middle.

And I liked her back.

I got up and I chased after her and asked her to dance.

That was Anita, of course, and she said okay, and we danced that dance and every dance for the rest of the evening.

I came over the next day, on Sunday, and I asked her to marry me.

She kind of looked at me.

She didn't say no.

She didn't say yes.

We were married nine months later.

We were married for almost 65 years.

Eddy: The day before we were married, I quit the job that I had.

Anita and I agreed that she would support us for at least two years, and all that time I was inventing the best that I could.

I met this guy, Marvin Glass.

He was a terrific promoter, and I decided to show him some of my items.

And one of the items that I'd made already was talking teeth, and he loved it.

We knew of a company that made novelties, Fishlove & Company, and he bought the teeth, but he bought them outright.

Instead of paying a royalty, he gave us $2,500.

That was a lot of money in those days.

We split the money, not evenly.

Marvin was also a very shrewd guy, but I got $900 bucks.

And I was able to buy an overcoat, because winter was starting in Chicago.

Our first toy show was 1949.

Topic Toys showed my items.

There was the chicken that laid the eggs, and the Merry-Go-Sip, a drinking glass that when the child drank the milk, the merry-go-round would spin.

They were all very, very successful.

In fact, the newspapers picked up both of my items and so we had a wonderful toy show.

I knew I wanted to go to California, and besides, I want to be on my own.

That was very important.

We had a station wagon, and we drove to California, to Los Angeles.

Lynn was 2 years old.

Fran, our middle daughter, and our son Martin were born there.

When we left for California, I had a lot of royalties coming to me, but Marvin was very upset that I left, and he wouldn't send me any royalties.

So we had very, very little money.

We were living in this tiny little house and I was working in this tiny one-car garage.

Anita became pregnant.

Finally, she went to the hospital.

I didn't have money to pay whatever I had to pay to take her out, so that night before Anita was supposed to come home with our new baby, I went to Revell with a new item, and they bought it that night at his house.

To this day I don't know if he really wanted the item or he knew I needed the money.

♪ Do you see what I see standing in a row?

♪ ♪ Kellogg's bright new faces ♪ ♪ on the "All Star Breakfast Show."

♪♪♪ Eddy: At that time I was also making premiums, little toys that you found in the cereal boxes.

Eddy: This is the Jack Webb whistle.

Wow, this is the water gun.

It's really tiny, as you see.

It's made of three plastic parts with a flexible bulb inside to hold the water.

I decided that we could sell it to 'em for two cents, and believe it or not, we made one cent on it.

They loved the idea and they put an order in for about thirty million of 'em.

Okay, I'm gonna demonstrate the water gun.

Here's the trigger.

male: All right, partner, freeze!

Eddy: I made the gun in a hat, a cowboy hat, and he took the hat off as if you were saying hello, and you pressed a button on the side of it and a Derringer popped out and fired.

Boy: Roy Rogers!

Roy Rogers: Hey, that's a pretty tricky hat, isn't it?

Partners, how would you like to surprise your pals like that?

Well, you can with my new Roy Rogers quick shooter hat.

♪♪♪♪♪ Eddy: I wish I could tell you more about the creative process, but it is so much that I do for so long, I don't even think of it, you know.

I see something, an idea pops in my head.

When I see a need for something, that's easy.

Then you try and make something that'll fill that need.

And when it comes to toys and games, anything can give me an idea.

♪♪♪♪♪ ♪♪♪♪♪ Eddy: I was really excited about this new toy that I invented.

It was a toy version of a very expensive industrial machine, a vacuum former.

Here's the pattern we're gonna use, the bolt.

Okay, I think it's ready.

I call up Elliott Handler of Mattel.

He and Ruth, his wife, ran Mattel.

I made an appointment to see him, demonstrated it.

The heater that I had was a light bulb.

I think it was a hundred watt lightbulb.

And the heat went right down to his desk and scorched and burnt it, and I was really embarrassed.

Then he said, "Don't worry, don't worry, it's fine, it's fine."

He ran and got Bruce and they loved the item and they bought it right on the spot.

male announcer: Make jeeps and tanks, it's up to you.

Another kit from metals too.

That's what a Vac-U-Form can do.

Get Vac-U-Form, make anything with plastic.

Eddy: I did my own model work at the beginning.

And I was a good half-a--modelmaker.

But then I was able to hire a full-time guy, mostly model makers at the beginning, and then industrial designers, engineers, sculptors.

It ended up with 39 people, and that was the highest that it got.

When I first get an idea of something, I think I'm very lucky I'm able to visualize it and even visualize how to make it.

And even today when I make a new item, I visualize how I'm gonna build it step by step.

male announcer: What would you call a game where you have to pull out a stick but not let any marbles fall?

The more they fall-- Girl: Kerplunk!

Eddy: The first of many games that we made.

Most of my games were mechanical and had some kind gimmick.

And there it is.

♪ Goes kerplunk ♪ Eddy: And the winner is: me.

♪ Yo, what those marbles done?

♪♪♪ children: Kerplunk!

Eddy: The toy industry is a noble industry.

Say you sold a million games for that year, that meant a million families were playing that game with their kids.

That was good for the family.

Our toys are educational.

You learn from games.

You learn from toys.

Just like you learn from books.

A lot of the items were successful, they made money.

They helped pay expenses.

But then there was always this real big item that made a lot of money, and I was fortunate enough to have a number of those.

My biggest, biggest, biggest item were the Stomper Cars.

male announcer: Stomper Fun by Fours with raw power to tackle just about anything you throw their way.

Eddy: These are the little 4-wheel drive vehicles that were copied from the real off-road 4-wheel drive trucks.

male announcer: Amazing detail in every model.

male: Yeah.

Power.

Eddy: The unique features of the Stomper car was its size, and it's very, very powerful.

It could climb up steep mountains.

It was a wonderful collector's item that they're still collecting to this day.

I only patent an item if I've placed it.

So every patent that I had was of an item that was on the market.

♪♪♪♪♪ ♪♪♪♪♪ Eddy: I was one of the first ones into video games.

We did some of the very first hand-held games.

We had a Barbie video game.

One was on Hot Wheels.

And I knew they were gonna be big, but I didn't wanna stay in it.

It wasn't me.

♪♪♪♪♪ ♪ Look sharp, ba-da-da.

♪♪♪ Eddy: The teeth turned out to be big.

It was the item that most people remembered.

It's got all kinds of publicity.

Johnny Carson: The chattering teeth.

Figures, figures.

NBC probably took out the chatter.

Mrs.

Potato Head: And some extra teeth.

Be careful, they chatter.

Mr.

Potato Head: Whoa!

[screaming] Eddy: Eddy Goldfarb has put close to 800 items on the market in a variety of toy categories, and has received almost 300 patents.

Eddy: Thank you so much, thank you.

♪♪♪♪♪ Eddy: I started writing 100-word stories about eight or nine years ago.

I'm working on my second 100.

[muffled speech] male: I look at this story in a larger way.

As I understand it, you're 93 years old, is that right?

Eddy: No.

male: 94?

Eddy: No.

male: 90-what?

Don't tell me you're in your 80s.

Eddy: I'm 97. male: No, get out of here.

90--you're 97?

Eddy: I'm gonna be 98 in a month and a half.

people at table: Oh, wow!

Woo-hoo!

Happy birthday.

Mazel tov.

Eddy: Rising sun.

Every day when I wake up, I thank him, her, or it for this wonderful new day.

Before going to sleep the night before, I usually go over the events of the day and review the problems encountered in my work.

During the night, everything becomes much clearer, and even some of yesterday's problems are solved.

I sometimes think that I get a little help from family and friends that are no longer with us.

Rain or snow, cloudy or sunny, it's a new wonderful opportunity that we are given.

It's gonna be a big day.

female: Yeah.

female: I like that.

♪♪♪♪♪ Eddy: Anita and I have been collecting these for many, many years.

I'm interested because they're solar-powered.

And they're beautiful.

I love solar-powered.

Eddy: Anita was ill for a long time, for years, really.

She had Parkinson's, but it wasn't that noticeable.

When Anita got sicker and sicker, I was able to take care of her.

After Anita died, I somehow knew that I had to keep moving.

To really exercise, I started walking one to two miles every morning.

It really helped me, and I start working on ideas again.

Eddy: I do it in 10 minute spurts.

Eddy: I was interested in the 3-D printer to help me make models, prototypes.

We're making lithophanes out of translucent plastic.

A lithophane, of course, is somewhat of a three-dimensional picture of a two-dimensional photo.

A lithophane needs a light behind it.

Could be any source of light.

Right now I'm making lithophanes of family and friends.

For some reason, the lithophane has a little magic to it.

♪♪♪♪♪ [muffled speech] female: Everybody okay?

female: You never ask if they're okay anyplace.

Otherwise they'll tell you, you know?

male: You really don't wanna hear it.

Eddy: There's a whole different way of living here.

This is, this is like a bunch of old people thinking they're in a live-in high school, and it really helps your attitude rather than living alone and growing old and even growing lonely, you know.

You have so many friends here, and even as they die off, others fill in, so you keep going.

Eddy: So many people here came with their spouses and lost them here.

And they manage to get together with someone here.

We've had this relationship for about six years now.

Greta was very independent, and we each need our own space.

So it's a very nice relationship at this age.

Eddy: I was always optimistic.

I always believed things are gonna turn out okay.

I annoy people with my optimism, you know.

People who, "Why don't you face reality" and stuff.

I think I'm right.

I think being optimistic helps me a lot.

Eddy: I get ideas for stories all the time.

A lot of 'em are personal stories.

A lot of 'em are fiction.

A lot of 'em are good and a lot of 'em are bad.

This is a good one: "My significant other is a neat freak."

This is Greta.

"Being neat is a wonderful trait.

I certainly admire her for that, especially since I'm the exact opposite.

A most successful and extremely happy relationship can still be had if both parties listen and respect each other's mishegoss, asterisk.

For an extreme example, before my sweetie leaves home, the entire house must be clean and everything in its place.

The reason is so simple.

What if she doesn't come back?

What would people think of her.

My reasoning is the opposite.

You leave the piles of stuff so you must come back before anyone has a chance to view your mess."

And then I had an asterisk: Mishegoss means craziness.

♪♪♪♪♪ Eddy: I think that when you do creative work, you stimulate your brain, and that helps keep your body healthy.

Eddy: Siri, what's the weather outside.

Siri: Okay, here's the weather for today.

Eddy: 62 degrees, partly cloudy, zero chance of rain.

♪♪♪♪♪ [whistling] ♪♪♪♪♪ ♪♪♪♪♪ [whistling] [whistling] ♪♪♪♪♪ ♪♪♪♪♪ ♪♪♪♪♪ ♪♪♪♪♪ ♪♪♪♪♪ male announcer: This program is made possible in part by the Lemelson Foundation, supporting invention, innovation, and climate action.