Playmakers: The Jewish Entrepreneurs Who Created the Toy Industry in America

What do Superman, the teddy bear, and chattering wind-up teeth have in common? All were invented by first- and second-generation Jewish immigrants, writes sociologist Kimmel (Guyland), great-grandnephew of the founder of the Ideal Toy Corporation, in this eye-opening history. Modern American childhood was created by those who never experienced a carefree childhood themselves, Kimmel notes; Jews arriving from Eastern Europe to late-19th-century New York City encountered crushing poverty that meant children grew up “largely on the street.” Toymaking, meanwhile, was “small, relatively genteel, and almost entirely Protestant,” with toys made mostly in Europe, until WWI embargoes helped the American toy industry boom. Plus, as the U.S. moved away from stern Puritanical ideals about “idle hands” and toward a sense of childhood as a separate stage of development filled with play, Yiddish notions of children as blessings fit nicely into the new progressive mold. Among the creators profiled are the Hassenfield brothers, rag sellers who eventually founded Hasbro; children’s book authors like Maurice Sendak; and Jewish woodcarvers who fashioned elaborate carousels. The book pops with gleeful toy history (like Ideal Toy Company’s “Baby Jesus doll,” which the pope inexplicably endorsed but no one bought), though Kimmel sometimes overreaches (it seems unlikely that Spider-Man is even “indirectly inspired” by a spider that saved King David). It’s an entertaining exploration of the sweeping influence of immigrant artists on American life. (Feb.)