--- title: Frisbee History: How Fred Morrison Invented the Popular Toy description: Jan. 23, 1957: The Wham-O toy company releases the Frisbee canonical: https://time.com/3667058/frisbee-history/ author: Jennifer Latson article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-01-23T17:00:25.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-05-11T05:06:13.742Z article:section: History og:title: Frisbee History: How Fred Morrison Invented the Popular Toy og:description: Jan. 23, 1957: The Wham-O toy company releases the Frisbee og:url: https://time.com/3667058/frisbee-history/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb6bc8bd51cece052/698779d806f2c1dec833361a/frisbee.jpeg?branch=production&width=2400&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Frisbee Trend og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Frisbee History: How Fred Morrison Invented the Popular Toy twitter:description: Jan. 23, 1957: The Wham-O toy company releases the Frisbee twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb6bc8bd51cece052/698779d806f2c1dec833361a/frisbee.jpeg?branch=production&width=2400&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # How Frisbees Got Off the Ground by [Jennifer Latson](https://time.com/author/jennifer-latson/) ## Jennifer Latson Jan 23, 2015 5:00 PM UTC  Frisbees were a trend in 1966 in England Frisbees were a trend in 1966 in EnglandGamma-Keystone / Getty Images by [Jennifer Latson](https://time.com/author/jennifer-latson/) ## Jennifer Latson Jan 23, 2015 5:00 PM UTC Fred Morrison never liked the name “Frisbee,” but he stopped complaining after sales began to soar. The flying disc was Morrison’s invention, first sold by the Wham-O toy company on this day, Jan. 23, in 1957 — as the “Pluto Platter.” Wham-O changed the name the following year as a misspelled homage to the popular New England pastime of tossing around pie tins from Connecticut’s Frisbie Pie Company. Fifty years later, [Morrison recalled his initial displeasure](http://www.latimes.com/local/obituaries/la-me-fred-morrison13-2010feb13-story.html), telling the _Press-Enterprise_ of Riverside, California, “I thought the name was a horror. Terrible.” “Frisbee” was only the latest in a series of brandings for the idea, although it happened to be the one that became a household name. When Morrison first fell for flying discs, it was 1937 and he was 17, tossing the lid of a popcorn container to the girl he would later marry. The future Mrs. Morrison — Lucile Nay, better known as Lu — shared his love of lid-throwing. Soon they upgraded to cake pans, which flew better, [as he explained to the _Virginian-Pilot_ newspaper in 2007](http://hamptonroads.com/node/272111). The idea of improving on the cake pan — and perhaps turning a profit — was born the next year, when a stranger saw Fred and Lu tossing one back and forth at the beach and offered them a quarter for it. “That got the wheels turning,” Morrison told the _Pilot,_ “because you could buy a cake pan for five cents, and if people on the beach were willing to pay a quarter for it, well — there was a business.” The business got off the ground with what Morrison called the “Flyin’ Cake Pan.” He retooled the disc’s design and renamed it several times, producing models called the “Whirlo-Way” and the “Flyin’ Saucer” before landing on the “Pluto Platter.” Although he didn’t quit his day job — first as a carpenter, then a building inspector in L.A. — Morrison was an inventor above all, as [his 2010 New York _Times_ obituary made clear](http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/13/us/13morrison.html?%5Fr=0). He sold two other creations to Wham-O: the Crazy Eight Bowling Ball and the Popsicle Machine (a mold for freezing juice), although neither quite reached Frisbee-level success. He was a natural salesman as well, and would hawk the Pluto Platter at fairgrounds, demonstrating the disc’s unwavering flight. The people couldn’t resist. As TIME recounted in a 1972 story about “froupies” — Frisbee groupies — the reason behind their popularity may be a deep one: --- > “” --- And the name didn’t hurt. Although he initially hated calling his toy a Frisbee, Morrison reversed his stance after royalties from its sales made him a millionaire, [according to the _Los Angeles Times_.](http://www.latimes.com/local/obituaries/la-me-fred-morrison13-2010feb13-story.html) “I wouldn’t change the name of it for the world,” he said then. **_Read about the time the Navy tried to use Frisbees as military tools—and failed—here in the TIME Vault:_** [The Frisbee Fiasco](http://time.com/vault/issue/1972-11-06/page/97/) ### See Photos of an Early Version of Frisbee on a College Green in 1950  Kenyon College students playing with a Frisbee-like flying disc in Ohio, 1950. Eliot Elisofon—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  A student reaches for a catch, 1950. Eliot Elisofon—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  A student leaps to catch a flying disc, 1950. Eliot Elisofon—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Kenyon College, Ohio, 1950. Eliot Elisofon—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Kenyon College, Ohio, 1950. Eliot Elisofon—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  A student focuses on the catch, 1950. Eliot Elisofon—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Kenyon College, Ohio, 1950. Eliot Elisofon—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Kenyon College, Ohio, 1950. Eliot Elisofon—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Kenyon College, Ohio, 1950. Eliot Elisofon—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Students compete to grab the pie tin, 1950. Eliot Elisofon—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3667058/frisbee-history/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3667058/frisbee-history/"},"headline":"How Frisbees Got Off the Ground","datePublished":"2015-01-23T17:00:25.000Z","dateModified":"2026-05-11T05:06:13.742Z","description":"Jan. 23, 1957: The Wham-O toy company releases the Frisbee","url":"https://time.com/3667058/frisbee-history/","keywords":["Pop Culture","Sports topic","Toys","trends"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb6bc8bd51cece052/698779d806f2c1dec833361a/frisbee.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Jennifer Latson","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/jennifer-latson/"}],"articleSection":"History","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb6bc8bd51cece052/698779d806f2c1dec833361a/frisbee.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Frisbee Trend","caption":"1966, ENGLAND, FRISBEE TREND","creditText":"Gamma-Keystone / Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/history/","name":"History"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/pop-culture/","name":"Pop Culture"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3667058/frisbee-history/","name":"How Frisbees Got Off the Ground"}}]}] ```