Joan Anderson, the woman who presented the Hula-Hop in the United States and gave her name, died on July 14 at the age of 101. His daughter, Loreryn Willis, confirmed his death to NBC News and said his mother died in a retirement house in Carlsbad, California.
The story of Joan Anderson was known thanks to a documentary dating from 2018, presented in the preview of the Tribeca Film Festival, called “Hula Girl”.
According to the biography present on the documentary website, Joan Anderson was born on December 28, 1923 in Sydney, Australia. She met her husband, the American pilot Wayne Anderson, in Bondi Beach in 1946. They married four months later, they moved to the United States and finally settled in Hollywood.
“They never recognized who had given them the hula-hoop”
In 1950, he visited his family in Australia and realized that the hoops had great success in the country. She decides that one of them delivers to the United States.
According to the documentary, Joan and Wayne played for months before showing it to their friends. During a dinner, someone pointed out that he remembered the Hula, the traditional dance of Polynesia. It is thanks to this comment that Joan will find the name of the famous ring (“Aro” which means “hoop” in English).
Later, the couple presents the principle to the Wham-O co-founder, a Californian toy company, but does not sign any contract. In the documentary, the “Hula girl” acknowledges that she and her husband were very naive. WHAM-O will win millions thanks to this toy. Anderson filed a trial and concluded an agreement in 1961 for less than $ 6,000 after law fees.
“They never recognized who gave them the hula-hoop,” Anderson said in the movie. “I think that’s what bothered me most,” he adds. Despite the result of the case, Mrs. Anderson and her husband used the regulations to launch a manufacturing company.
Source: BFM TV
