Donald Franklin Duncan was an American merchant. He became a successful salesman, introduced Good Humor ice cream to the world together with the idea of franchises by allowing ice cream makers to buy a license to manufacture Good Humor ice cream products. He owned the trademark on the word yo-yo from 1930 to 1965.
Background
Donald Franklin Duncan was born on June 6, 1891, in Rome, Ohio, the first of two sons born to James Duncan and Ann Virginia McCaffry. The family lived just south of Rome, in Huntington, West Virginia. Donald left school after the eighth grade, probably to support the family after the death of his father.
Education
Donald left school after the eighth grade, probably to support the family after the death of his father.
Career
Duncan first distinguished himself in the business world in 1919 with the Brach Candy Company. As sales manager, he sold miniature cedar chests of the sweets as sentimental keepsakes, a notion he successfully promoted nationwide. Duncan teamed up with Donald O. Scott, an engineer who had invented the four-wheel hydraulic brake.
Duncan bought the patent from Scott but could not sell the idea to the automakers, so he sold the patent and moved on. The invention would become an automobile industry standard around 1925. Duncan next went to work as a consultant for a fledgling ice cream company that was manufacturing a product called "ice cream on a stick. " He developed a whole new marketing plan for the company, which included sending vendors out on bicycles. He also gave the company its new name, Good Humor. He introduced the idea of franchises by allowing ice cream makers to buy a license to manufacture Good Humor ice cream products.
In 1927 or 1928, while in San Francisco, a man brought him a fixed-string yo-yo. "It looked like nothing, " he recalled. But Duncan was enticed by the slip-string yo-yo that was devised and manufactured by Pedro Flores. The slip-string allowed the yo-yo to continue spinning until given a return tug. After briefly manufacturing Flores's yo-yos in Chicago, Duncan bought the company in 1929, rounded the toy's edges for comfort, and developed a better slip-string.
The improved model became the first Duncan yo-yo, trademarked the O-Boy Top. Duncan masterminded the transformation of the public's disposition toward the yo-yo, from tepid interest to red-hot craze. He convinced newspapermagnate William Randolph Hearst of a plan to boost circulation while promoting Duncan's new "whirling tops. "
Duncan proposed holding contests in various cities. Contestants would be judged on how well they performed yo-yo tricks like "walking the dog" or "looping the loop. " To receive a prize, winners had to sign up three newspaper subscribers. Duncan received free publicity, and the contests brought in fifty thousand new subscribers in Chicago alone. Duncan had similar success in towns all over America. Photographers provided by Hearst captured celebrities like movie star Douglas Fairbanks, baseball player Hack Wilson, boxer Jack Dempsey, and entertainer Jack Benny with yo-yos. Bing Crosby even recorded some yo-yo songs for Duncan.
In 1935, with money from his yo-yo fortune, Duncan purchased the rights to the parking meter. He quickly convinced city governments of the value of the parking meter as a revenue raiser. Duncan sold his parking meter concern in 1959. During his time as chief executive officer, the Duncan Parking Meter Corporation manufactured 80 percent of the meters in use worldwide.
Meanwhile, the yo-yo surged and sputtered as World War II came and went. Duncan retired from the yo-yo business in 1957, selling the firm to family members, who later sold it to another company. Under Duncan the firm sold twenty to thirty million yo-yos per year, grossing as much as $7 million annually.
Duncan married Janet Ives on March 1, 1923, in Detroit, Michigan. They had two children. They separated in 1946 and were divorced in 1948. He remarried shortly thereafter.