Many recognize that iconic bright yellow tub with the colorful cap. Everyone, from the young toddler to the Baby Boomer, remembers playing with Play-Doh. However, it's a rather recent creation. It makes you wonder: why did somebody make colorful mush to give to children to play with? 

Well, that’s because it wasn’t meant to be colorful mush.

In the 1920s, before the creation of gas and electricity to heat homes, coal was used as fuel. However, because of the earthy nature of coal, it caused soot build-up on walls. Due to the popularity of wallpaper at the time, you couldn’t just use soap and water to clean it off. So, people often had to use specialized products to clean the soot off walls. Then entered the cleaning product company, Kutol Products. 

Cleo McVicker, an employee for Kutol Products, made a contract with Kroger (yes, the grocery store) in 1933 to make wallpaper cleaner in order to save the company from bankruptcy. With just some water, salt, and flour, his brother, Noah, created Play-Doh (although, it didn’t go by that name just yet). The product quickly became a very popular wallpaper cleaner, so much so that it saved Kutol Products from bankruptcy and cemented the company as a household name.

That was until the use of coal went out of style in the early 1950s. 

With no more soot on walls, people didn’t need wallpaper cleaner anymore; Kutol’s star product was now defunct. To stave off bankruptcy again, the company needed a miracle. McVicker’s son, Joseph McVicker, needed to keep his father’s legacy afloat and was frantically looking for their saving grace. His sister-in-law had the solution. 

In 1955, his sister-in-law, Kay Zufall, was a school teacher who recently read an article about wallpaper cleaner being used as modeling clay for children. Curious, she tried the Kutol wallpaper cleaner with her own students. She was amazed by the creations that they made. She then called Joseph down to her classroom to see.

He, too, was impressed and saw the opportunity to rebrand the wallpaper cleaner as a children’s toy. However, rebranding included making a new name. He would end up taking his sister’s suggestion: “Play-Doh.” In the next year, Joseph and Noah McVicker created Rainbow Crafts Company Inc. as a subsidiary of Kutol Products to make and sell Play-Doh. The first place to sell it was the Woodward & Lothrop Department Store in Washington, DC. It was originally marketed for schools and students to use for modeling projects like Zufall intended. Play-Doh was well-received and managed to save Kutol Products from bankruptcy again. However, the McVickers wanted to expand Kutol’s horizons– much as their father had expanded them with his wallpaper cleaner. 

So, the McVickers met with Bob Keeshan, who played Captain Kangaroo on a popular children’s show with the same name. They made a deal that Keeshan would feature Play-Doh on his show once a week. With Captain Kangaroo’s ability to reach an audience the McVickers couldn’t possibly have before, Play-Doh grew to superstardom. By 1960, Rainbow Crafts Company Inc. was struggling to keep up with the demand for the hot new toy on the market. 

In 1965, the McVickers sold Rainbow Crafts Company Inc. off to General Mills to merge with Kenner to produce the toy. In 1987, the Tonka Corporation bought Kenner and Rainbow Crafts Company Inc. Play-Doh entered the hands of its current producer, Hasbro, in 1991. 

It’s odd to think that kids these days are playing with what their great-grandparents might recognize as wallpaper cleaner, but it's difficult to deny that the McVickers have created a timeless masterpiece. 

Information received from “The History of Play-Doh: Good, Clean Fun!” from Museumofplay.org, “The Accidental Invention of Play-Doh” from Smithsonian Magazine, and “Play-Doh” from Ohiohistorycentral.org.