MEETING THE REAL INVENTOR OF THE HULA HOOP®

My adventures in business have connected me with some interesting people. One of which is the actual guy who first molded pipe into a circle for fun; Bill Hess Jr. I understand that Wham-O owns the rights to the Hula Hoop. I mean no disrespect in this story. I met Bill in California. He and his sister came to my Hoop Dance workshops. He also gave me something that noone has ever seen besides close family. His dad’s business dairies. Here is a brief history. Bill Hess Sr. owned Anesite Corporation in Chicago. He manufactured plastic pipe and fittings right after WWII. The family moved to Santa Barbara CA in 1956. That same year, George Jennings, owner of Molded Products LTD in Queensland, came for a visit. He was interested in making pipe in Australia for irrigation and plumbing. The idea of molding the pipe into a hoop and spinning it around the waist was actually the idea of a then 6 year old, Bill Jr. He started to play with the hoops that his dad made for him. They were different in size and weight so they were easy to use for different games. They made up tricks and games with the hoops.  Bill Hess was not just an entrepreneur, business owner and inventor. He saw the power of the hoop. After watching the Taos Native American Hoop Dancers using hoops as ceremonial dance, he knew that the simple circle was not just a toy. He felt that people could use the hoops to heal and express themselves through the hoop’s motion. He took some samples to a friend in the toy store business who was supposedly a marketing wiz. After 6 weeks of study, the guy said that no one would want to every buy these hoops.  Soon after this, Bill’s friend George Jennings started producing hoops in Australia. They proved to be popular in many PE classes.

The owners of Wham-O took notice of this new toy while on a trip down under. They named this toy the hula-hoop® and in 1958, over 6 million hoops were sold in the first few months. They hired Bill to manufacture most of these hoops. He devoted his pipe plant in Milpas, CA to production as well as 1/3 of his plant in Illinois. The hula-hoop fad was gone almost as quickly as is evolved. It was said that it would never to return.

Bill Jr. shared with me how his dad believed the hoop would come full circle. Used only as a recreational sport back in the late ‘50s, Bill knew that it was therapeutic in dance, healing and story telling. The hoop’s resurgence grew in 1998, first in the jam band festival scene and then through performance art. There are many who now perform with hoops and teach fitness classes with them. There are few connect with the hoop as a sacred tool for transformation. Similar to the hypnotic effects that Native American Hoop Dancers experienced, I host Hoop Dance workshops focused on trance dance and moving meditation. For more information on the hoops sacred space go to Metaphysical Studies Page.