Alfred
Carlton Gilbert was an extraordinary man. He set a world record for
chin-ups, won an Olympic gold medal in the pole vault, earned a medical
degree, and invented the Erector Set. The toy company he built around it
was so respected that Gilbert was elected the first president of the
Toy Manufacturers of America trade group. And that's when he ran into
his biggest challenge.
It was 1918, the U.S. was
embroiled in World War I, and the Council had made an open issue about
their deliberation over whether to halt all production of toys
indefinitely, turning factories into ammunition centers and even
discouraging giving or receiving gifts that holiday season. Instead of
toys, they argued, citizens should be spending money on war bonds.
Playthings had become inconsequential.
Frantic toymakers
persuaded Gilbert, founder of the A.C. Gilbert Company and creator of
the popular Erector construction sets, to speak on their behalf. Toys in
hand, he faced his own personal firing squad of military generals,
policy advisors, and the Secretary of War.
Gilbert
managed to convince the committee not to cancel toys for Christmas,
which worked out well as the war ended that November.
Read what he said to convince them at mental_floss.
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