Conneaut Man Will Have Children Hooping It Up Four at a Time
By Maxine Morgan
For the Cleveland Plain Dealer
Company tester Billy Hunter tries four at a time.
Photo by Neil Clark of Conneaut
Mrs. Dorothy Osborne cuts plastic tubes for hoops.
Matched sets are for waist, neck, and wrists.
Conneaut, Ohio. September 27. Late 1950s
Singe-hoop graduates will soon be offered a post graduate course in the popular hoop whirling craze= matched sets of four hoops. These are for waist, neck, and each wrist.
The first shipment of 1,800 sets left the Conneaut Rubber & Plastic Company this week. They are going to the Suburban Toy Manufacturing Company of Pittsburgh and markets in South America and Canada, as well as throughout the United States.
Billy Hunter, 10, son of the plant general manager Robert Hunter, has been acting as test pilot for the four-hoop development. When a ten-year-old mastered the art, they were pronounced ready to be offered to a hoop-hungry public. In addition to the regular large hoop, three others in graduate sizes are set in motion.
Robert Hunter says Conneaut Rubber and Plastic Company is now running 24 hours a day, seven days a week with 50 men and woman helping to make hoops.
Robert Hunter says he had the idea for hoops several years ago, but lacked time for follow through with it. He called his invention “Hoop-la.”
Conneaut Rubber Official Name “Mr. Community”
Cleveland Plain Dealer, July 27, 1961
By Maxine Morgan
Conneaut, Ohio.
Robert C. Hunter, President of the Conneaut Rubber & Plastic Company, was named “Mr. Community” last night at the annual Industrial Day sponsored by the Conneaut-Lakeville Chamber of Commerce. Hunter was presented a plaque before some 250 leaders of industry from Detroit, Pittsburgh, Buffalo, and the northeastern Ohio area. The outing was at the Conneaut Country Club.
The presentation was made by the Reverend Robert B. Marr, pastor of the United Congregational Christian Church, who was honored last year.
Capturing Conneaut History with the Conneaut Area Historical Society 