BOOK REVIEW
BY JAMES P. PROUT
Playmakers: The Jewish Entrepreneurs Who Created the Toy Industry in America By Michael Kimmel W. W. Norton & Company, 2026 418 pages, with notes and index $ 32.99
Toy Story 5 opened this summer, and many adults were as excited as their kids to feel the nostalgic joy of watching their beloved childhood toys come to life on screen. And just a few years ago, Barbie was the highest grossing film of the year, pulling in roughly $ 1.4 billion in ticket sales.
Why does this happen? How can adults who have trouble locating their car keys remember in detail when and how they got their first Slinky, GI Joe, Etch-a-Sketch, Easy Bake Oven, Betsy Wetsy, Erector Set or Lionel Trains? Who built the American toy industry? And how did they create such vivid connections between kids and toys that time seemingly cannot dull?
Professor Michael Kimmel, a well-published sociologist, lays out some answers to these questions in Playmakers: The Jewish Entrepreneurs Who Created the Toy Industry in America. It is a 20th century story on two levels. First, it’ s an encyclopedia of the conception and development of many of our best-loved toys, such as
Barbie( page 316), Silly Putty( page 187), GI Joe( page 334), Hot Wheels( page 278) and many others. Comic books, board games and children’ s books get their due, as well. Second, it is an exploration of the first- and second-generation Jewish immigrants whose experiences and ambitions are reflected in the toys they designed, manufactured and sold to consumers of every ethnicity and social status.
Kimmel starts the story in 1902 with the“ Teddy Bear.” Inspired by an apocryphal newspaper story of Teddy Roosevelt sparing the life of a hunted bear cub, Brooklyn candy store owners Rose and Morris Michtom, immigrants from Czarist Russia, took some old cloth and buttons and fashioned soft, cuddly stuffed bears. They named them after the President and put them in the window of their shop. This created a phenomenon— a must-have item for parents and children. Seeing the opportunity to expand on their idea, the couple started the Ideal Novelty and Toy Company.
Of course, there were toys before the Teddy Bear. But the concept of childhood was changing, and combined with more sophisticated mass communication and rising consumerism, the toy market took on new vibrancy. Kimmel argues that the“ outsider looking in” identity( social, religious, ethnic) of Jewish immigrants was a key driver to this group playing an outsized role in the toy industry’ s growth.
WWI interrupted the leading market position enjoyed by German toy manufacturers, and by the 1920s, US toymakers began to find their groove. Dolls were the first focus of the industry, and increasingly there were tie-ins with comic strip characters, radio personalities and movie stars. Pre-dating Barbie by decades, the Shirley Temple doll was a blockbuster, even amidst the economic challenges of the Great Depression. America in the 1930s certainly needed diversion, and the dramatic, illustrated stories of comic book heroes captured kids’ attention and spending. And again, behind Superman and Popeye and Captain America were graphic artists and storytellers whose origins were in the Jewish immigrant experience. These same artists energetically drafted their imaginary heroes into battle, fighting the dark threat of the Nazis.
Where Playmakers really gets fun is in the post-war baby boom. Plenty of money, lots of kids, television, suburbs. A toymaker’ s dream. Companies like Kenner, Coleco, Mattel, Remco, Kohner and CraftMaster turned out steady streams of creative and interactive products that kids wanted and parents were willing to buy. Periodically there were backlashes( some with antisemitic tropes) against toymakers and artists who were“ corrupting” the youth of America. Like rock-n-roll, however, the morality police couldn’ t get between a girl and her Barbie, or a boy and his GI Joe( Alert: Watch for gender bias).
As the industry grew, major toymakers relied on internal departments to develop new offerings, though their choices were seemingly based more on instinct and playfulness than on detailed market research and focus groups. Their efforts were augmented by“ toymakers for hire,” which were outside developers whose work included the Yakity-Yak chattering teeth novelty toy and Mr. Potato Head. There were some misses, of course; even the imprimatur of Pope Pius XII couldn’ t save the 1958 introduction of the Baby Jesus doll. It was a flop.
There are some topics and toys that are largely ignored by Kimmel, who clearly doesn’ t fully appreciate the life-changing impact of Lincoln Logs and Matchbox cars on kids in the 1960s. And sometimes he stretches“ the Jewish immigrant as outsider” theme, as other ethnic groups also created toys. But the overall impact of this group on the American toy industry is undeniable and deep, so his focus is understandable.
Playmakers is a labor of love for Professor Kimmel. He is related to the Michtom family and takes pride in what they created and how they contributed to the American experience. His book is a brisk, fun read. Any author whose concluding chapter weaves together Benjamin Franklin, Henry Clay, Bugsy Siegel, Thorstein Veblen, W. E. B. DuBois and Sesame Street deserves a read.
James P. Prout is a lawyer with more than 30 years of capital market experience. He now is a consultant to some of the world’ s biggest public companies. He can be reached at jpprout @ gmail. com.
56 FINANCIAL HISTORY | Spring / Summer 2026 | www. MoAF. org