Continual Innovation

Let’s pause for a moment to celebrate three unique innovators who died this year: Curtis Allina, Art Clokey, and Walter Morrison.  

What–you haven’t heard of them? I bet you know their creations well: Pez, Gumby, and Frisbee.

I dare you not to grin when saying those three words! Pez, Gumby, and Frisbee collectively represent enjoyable, silliness, play, and numerous a lot more happy emotions we want in our lives these days.

When each of these gentlemen’s obituaries appeared within a month of each other, it made me pause. What lessons did their innovations teach? As I strive to be much more creative and innovative, what inspiration can I take from their journeys? After exploring their lives and legacies further, here are the top 3 issues I discovered:

1. Fantastic Innovation Can Occur Even if Life’s Challenging

You’d believe that if you had been a master of something as creative, as inventive, as Enjoyable as any of these three playthings, that you possibly lived a charmed life. But that was far from the truth:

• Clokey was sent to live in a children’s house when his mom’s new husband rejected him after his natural father died in a automobile accident.

• Allina’s family perished in concentration camps in the 40s, leaving him as the sole survivor.

• Morrison, a WWII pilot, was shot down and spent 48 days as a prisoner of war in Stalag 13.

Those setbacks didn’t get in their way–in truth, they might have led to even greater creativity and innovation. For example, Morrison’s aeronautic skills helped him refine his original flying disc. The abandoned Clokey was eventually adopted by a well-known composer who introduced him to an artistic life that certainly led him to pick up a handful of clay.

2. Accept Whatever Comes.

Gumby’s 1956 debut on “The Howdy Doody Show” led the stop-motion character to his own short-lived series and ongoing syndication. But his popularity faded in the 70′s, and creator Clokey struggled financially, according to published accounts.

Then a young comedian named Eddie Murphy played a foul-talking Gumby on Saturday Night Live in the 80′s. Several expected Clokey–the man who created TV’s religious-toned “Davey and Goliath” and who once planned to become an Episcopal priest–to be shocked and ashamed at how his creation was mangled.

But according to interviews, he loved it, although he was happy it was on late at night when kids were sleeping (keep in mind, this was the pre-TiVo era.) By accepting a person else’s interpretation and going with the affectionate outpouring, the edgy performance rejuvenated Gumby, and put the green guy in the hands of a whole new generation.

3. You Don’t Have to Produce to be Creative

Pez was originally a Viennese mint, marketed to adults as an alternative to smoking. In truth, the stemmed dispenser was developed to look like a cigarette lighter. When the thought emerged to repackage the candy for youngsters, business exec Allina had to persuade the conservative, European home office that the change would make sense.

Pez historian (now there’s a job!) David Welch told The New York Times that no 1 actually knows precisely whose thought it was to put heads on Pez dispensers. Nevertheless, Welch shared, “The thought came from the United States. And for the notion to have come out of the United States and made it to Austria where it could be approved, Allina was the only guy who could have made that take place.”

So whether Allina really envisioned a Santa head on a stack of peppermints, we’ll by no means know. But he was the one to enable the creative move, to in fact make it take place, and in the end, is credited with making the now multi-million dollar business come to life. Not a poor legacy.  

Speaking of legacy, it is worth noting one other thing these three men had in prevalent. They all lived long lives: Pez’s Allina passed away at 87. Gumby animator Clokey died at 88 and Morrison, Frisbee’s father, died at 90. They left behind not only their respective innovations, but also buckets of inspiration for the creative spirit in all of us.

Where do you discover your innovation inspiration–at work, outdoors, or at residence in your garage? From music, TV, or a stroll via the mall? Who inspires you most–folks you know well, or people you’ve only known from afar?