01x01 - Perilous Play

[bunniefuu]

[pensive music]

- Did you know there
was once a time

when kids played
with a science kit

that was actually radioactive?

- You could create
your own atomic cloud.

It was awesome, and also
ridiculously dangerous.

- Do you remember playgrounds
before safety standards?

- If your childhood starts

from a place of t*rture
devices for fun,

you can handle almost
anything life throws you.

- Or when the hottest new
toy came with a blow torch?

- They're creating 1,200
degree molten glass.

- So they decided, hey,
let's just give 'em to kids.

See what they do with it.

- But what an idea,
what an idea.

- These are the
things we used to do

for fun, for money, or
maybe out of boredom,

that we'll never see again.

Were they dangerous? Certainly.

Deadly? Occasionally.

But boy, wasn't it exciting?

[dramatic music]

Remember back in the 1980s
when kids roamed free?

There were fewer
rules, fewer worries,

and a whole lot more adventure.

And for a kid who
craved freedom,

there was probably no
place less supervised

than a park in
Vernon, New Jersey.

[dramatic music]

- In the '70s and '80s,
water parks are a new concept

and Gene Mulvihill comes up
with an idea for Action Park.

He's gonna be in
the center of it all

and he markets it as the park

for the ultimate thrill seeker.

- [Announcer] It's
got cliff diving,

air slides, rapids, waterfalls!

- Gene Mulvihill kind of
had this grandiose vision

of he was going to be
the next Walt Disney,

but Action Park
was probably one of

the most ill-advised parks

in the history of
amusement parks on Earth.

[woman screaming]

- Every one of my
friends that went

came back with a
cast and stitches.

- We would pull up to it,

talking about which
dangerous ride

that we were gonna go on
to prove how tough we were,

and our parents were like,

"Here's money, get in there!

We'll be at the bar."

- At the time in New Jersey,

there's an advisory board
for amusement park rides,

but not a regulatory agency.

So Mulvihill doesn't
need any permit

when he goes about
building this thing.

- [Henry] With nothing
holding him back,

Mulvihill dreams up
one of the park's

most unforgettable rides.

It's the nation's first
looping water slide,

the Cannonball Loop.

- So the Cannonball is a 60
foot enclosed water slide

that has a 360 degree loop

that spits you
out at the bottom.

- It defied every
engineering principle,

every mechanism for
safety or risk.

- When I look at this, I'm like,

this clearly was
designed by someone

who has no engineering
experience.

And guess what? It was!

- Gene Mulvihill designed
the Cannonball Loop

on the back of a napkin.

He's not an architect,
he's not a designer,

he's not an engineer.

He has no business
building this thing.

- The Cannonball Loop
was so dangerous looking

and so ill-conceived,

that him and his workers

didn't want to try
it out and test it.

- So Gene gets his son
to test this water slide.

His son doesn't even have
enough faith in Gene,

he decides, "Hey, I'm
gonna go down it, Dad,

but I'm gonna go down it
in full blown hockey gear."

[gear straps creak]

Now this is a slide designed

for people in
bathing suits, okay?

Not hockey gear.

- Gene Mulvihill using his
son to test out this ride

just says so much
about attitudes

around parenting from that era.

- [Henry] Then Mulvihill
starts paying park employees,

mostly high school
students, to go down.

- Mulvihill offers
them a hundred dollars

to be the guinea
pigs, essentially.

And so one by one,

they go down the water slide

and there's a problem.

- When they enter the loop,

the riders have to
have enough speed

to make it all the
way around the loop.

If you didn't make it, you'd
fall backed down the tube

and now, you're really stuck.

You can't go back up
the 60 foot incline

and you can't go up the loop.

What do you do?

- The only way to
get out, eventually,

is they'd lower
ropes down the tube

where the kids
can latch onto it,

and then they pull them
all the way back out.

- They finally decide

that there's enough
people getting stuck

that they have to
create this hatch

to get people out.

- This was a ride that
had its own escape hatch.

That's how bad it was.

- [Henry] But
amazingly, getting stuck

is not the worst
possible outcome.

- People would come
out and be like,

"Why am I bleeding from here,
why am I bleeding from here?"

It's a water ride, how
are people getting cut?

They'd open a hatch
and they'd see

that people were losing
their teeth on the ride.

The teeth would get
embedded into the ride

like shards of glass

and then we would just go on it

and sh**t around and get
cut up by people's teeth.

People's teeth!

- [Henry] The Cannonball
Loop causes so much carnage

that responsible adults
are forced to intervene.

- So many people
had been injured

that the advisory board said,

"Hey, we gotta put
the brakes on this."

- [Henry] The ride is
only open for a month,

but the park itself hangs
on for another 11 years.

- A lot of these things
that we talk about

sounds kind of dangerous
and perhaps too risky

for children to
be engaging with,

but as someone that, like,
lived through that era,

there was a sense of pride

in acknowledging and
surviving the danger.

That was Action Park,

and I couldn't wait
to go back next year!

- One ride Action
Park didn't have

is the most popular
ride in America today,

a roller coaster.

And if you think modern coasters

are bigger and badder than ever,

you'd be wrong.

- Coney Island in the 1880s

is where the entire
world comes to play

and be mystified and astounded,

and the marquee
attraction of the day

was the Switchback Railway,

and it was raking in
the modern equivalent

of $22,000 a day.

- The Switchback topped
out at six miles per hour.

This is really slow compared
to a modern roller coaster.

But think that back then,

not only were roller
coasters the new thing,

but very few people were
driving around in cars

so it was actually
pretty exciting.

- The people who own the
amusement piers begin to think,

well, how can they up the ante?

How can they make it go faster?

How can they
increase the thrill?

- [Henry] What they come up with

is the first American
coaster to go upside down.

It's called the
Flip Flap Railway.

And at the time,
it was the fastest

freestanding rollercoaster
in the world,

because it has to be.

- The key to making this
rollercoaster work is speed,

so that once you start
going around the loop,

you don't stall at
the top and fall down.

- Because there's nothing

but your own body weight and
G-force holding you down.

You have no seat belt,
you have no harness,

you have nothing but
yourself, God, and the wind.

- The Flip Flap Railway a circle

that's about 25 feet in diameter

and in order to
generate enough speed,

there's an almost
pure vertical drop

where the cars reach


[passengers screaming]

- To put it in perspective,

the first auto race
in the US is held

the same year the
Flip Flap opens,

and the cars in that race
average seven miles per hour.

Seven.

- So the Flip Flap
is extremely fast,

and even in today's standards,


rollercoaster is getting it.

- [Henry] The speed
is ahead of its time,

but as far as safety measures,

they're making that
up as they go along.

- In the late 1800s, there
was no real regulation.

I mean, amusement
parks were new,

and so this was
all experimental.

- Modern roller coasters

are made with this
teardrop shape,

that way you pull less
G-forces at the bottom

than you otherwise would
in a circular design.

- Just for perspective,

a space launch
generates three Gs.

[rocket engines roar]

Six Gs is the maximum

a human being without
protective equipment

can really stand.

- So the riders
of the Flip Flap,

they will pull 12 Gs.

This is not safe.

- So what 12 Gs means is,

you'll feel a pressure 12
times your own body weight

pressing down on you.

So that means a 50
pound child would feel


weight pressing down on them.

- The scariest rollercoaster

that any of us
have been on today

tops out at about five Gs.

These people were putting
these poor suckers

on a wooden trolley cart that
whipped around like that.

Astronauts couldn't
put up with it,

do you understand
what I'm saying?

Like, astronauts
training to go to space

don't deal with that many Gs.

- By today's standards,

we get on these roller
coasters and we feel at home.

We have seat belts,
we have harnesses.

Everything is holding us in.

Not then.

- People are without a harness,

just with enough money
to ride the rollercoaster

and a little bit
of a death wish.

- People were passing out,

they were getting bloody noses,

like, they were seeing God.

Their brains were rattling
around their skulls,

they were getting
flattened like pancakes,

and then they'd have to pay a
nickel or something like that

for the pleasure of it.

- Chances are, if you
ride the Flip Flap once,

you are never riding it again.

- The Flip Flap
Railway was so bad,

it started to be called

one of the unholy
terrors of the beach.

And in 1901, New York City
finally just shut it down.

- A kid's science kit today
might teach some simple physics

or maybe some color
changing chemistry,

but I guarantee you
it wouldn't come close

to the experience you got
from older science kits.

- In the early 20th century,
A.C. Gilbert was one of

the most famous toy
makers in America.

In fact, he's the
guy who invented

the immensely popular and
successful Erector set.

- On the heels of his success,

Gilbert starts producing a
line of science kits for kids,

including a chemistry set
that comes out in 1920.

- Gilbert's kits
are actually meant

to teach the youth of America

to be our future chemists.

- Professional
chemists at this time

had to make their own beakers,

their own glass equipment.

- So to make the
experience complete,

A.C. Gilbert comes out

with the Gilbert
Glass Blowing Kit.

- And it comes with
its own blowtorch.

- If I had gotten
this kit as a kid,

oh, this would've been amazing.

I would see glass
blowing on television

and I thought that was amazing,

and now I could play with fire

and blow glass in my own room?

Yeah, great.

- The instruction
manual asks you

to take one end
of the blow pipe,

dip it into the molten glass,

roll it and implement
it into the shape

that you intend to make,

and then blow the 1,200
degree molten glass

until it expands into a
balloon shaped bubble;

then remove glass, let cool.

Voila!

- As someone who has
blown glass before,

it's really, really dangerous.

- These children are melting
immense amounts of glass

to create flasks and beakers.

- It's really kind
of hard to imagine

putting this in the hands
of an eight or 9-year-old

and just telling them,
"Best of luck to you, son,

and we'll see you
at dinner time."

It was really a very
different world back then.

- Today's chemistry sets
don't even have burners,

let alone blow torches.

But back then, the
mindset was about

preparing kids for adult life.

Playing with fire
was part of that.

- By the late 1940s,
Americans were preparing

for a completely
different kind of future.

And once again,

A.C. Gilbert was there
to get the kids ready.

- In the wake of World w*r II,

kids were into science,

they would soon be
into the space race.

Kids loved building things

and there was all this
interest in the modern world.

- [Henry] In 1949, A.C.
Gilbert teams up with Uncle Sam

to make a new
science kit for kids:

the Atomic Energy Lab.

- So here's what the ad says.

I mean, imagine turning
on the radio in the 1950s,

"Atomic Energy Lab, with
real Geiger counter, $49.50.

Boys, explore the
secrets of the atom!

Prospect for uranium!"

- Everyone's involved in this,
to the top levels of government.

Nuclear scientists are
working on this thing

with Gilbert and his team,

creating these instruments
and an experimental manual.

The Atomic Energy
Commission is even involved.

- The A.C. Gilbert
Atomic Energy Kit

actually came with
its own cloud chamber,

so you could create, like,

your own little miniature
version of the Atomic Cloud.

I don't know what kid
wouldn't wanna play with it!

- [Henry] But in order
to make an atomic cloud,

what do you need?

- The Atomic Energy
Lab has, in it,

actual radioactive sources.

- It comes with four different
samples of uranium ore.

- The kit arrived with the
samples in sealed jars,

but once you take them out,

now it was exposed radiation.

You can't just
simply put it back,

the radiation's escaped
from its container.

[Geiger counter crackles]

- This kit has uranium
ore, alpha emitters,

beta emitters, and
gamma emitters.

All of this is bad stuff.

We have labs around
the country right now

that use these.

I used to run those labs.

Let me tell you what
the protocol is:

they're kept in a lead safe

and when you put it
into your experiment,

you have these tweezers

that are about a
foot and a half long

so that you stay
far away from it.

So they decided, "Hey, let's
just give 'em to kids.

See what they do with it."

- Just invite the uranium
into your bedroom,

into your living room,
in your kitchen.

- See, I'm not a
radiologist nor a physicist,

and even I know kids
should not be seeing

the intricate paths of
electrons in a cloud chamber.

Like, is this only
sold in Los Alamos?

- Radiation, over
time, alters your DNA,

it alters your
cellular structure.

And it leads to
abnormal cell growth

and it leads to cancers,

so you could have
devastating effects

from a radioactive toy.

- This lab is clearly

one of the most dangerous
toys of all time.

- The Atomic Energy Lab

stops being produced
after a year,

and it is not the outcry
of concerned parents,

it is not the
scientific community

reacting to harmful radiation.

No, Gilbert himself pulls
it from the market.

When it debuts, its $49.50,

which is the equivalent
of like, a $600 toy today.

- It was just too expensive

and families didn't want to
pay that amount for a toy.

- When it comes to play,

maybe it's best to
keep things simple.

- Kids can be delighted
by the simplest things.

You give them a box,
they'll play for hours.

For me, one of life's
greatest pleasures

came in a little
jar with a wand.

- What is it about
human evolution

that makes us
attracted to spheres?

When you have a little kid,
whether it's a bubble or a ball,

they love 'em!

- But one of the first
things you learn,

playing with bubbles,

is you try to touch them
and of course, you can't.

They pop immediately.

- But in 1970, toy designers
developed a miracle product.

- [Children] Super
Elastic Bubble Plastic!

- [Announcer] Squeeze
it out and blow it up!

- The idea was, what if
you could create a bubble

that just stuck around

and became more like a ball
that you made yourself?

- The way it worked,

you squeezed this really
stretchy polymer out of a tube,

attach it to the end of a straw,

and you could blow
beach ball sized bubbles

that wouldn't pop.

Basically, you defy the
rules of bubble making.

It's really exciting.

- If you were a kid,

these were the
greatest thing ever.

You wanted to pinch
it on the sides

'til it faintly
resembled a matchstick.

Didn't want it too thin,

but you wanted most of
the thickness on the top.

[bubble pops]
Mother of pearl.

- The thing about Super
Elastic Bubble Plastic is,

they weren't easy to blow.

They weren't like soap bubbles
that you can just make,

they were this plastic
chemical compound.

You had to try multiple
times just to get it to work.

- You had to blow from
the soles of your feet

and you would give
it that first blow

and you pop blood
vessel in your eye,

and nothing would happen.

So what would you do?

You'd inhale, right?

[Adam inhales deeply]

- And the thing was, it
had this strong smell

because it was made
of polyvinyl acetate,

ethyl acetate, and acetone.

In other words,
its toxic as hell.

- Polyvinyl acetate is
essentially wood glue,

ethyl acetate is used
in cleaning solvents,

and acetone is nail
polish remover.

And it's all done in a putty

that you then put on a
straw and you inhale!

- Super Elastic Bubble Plastic
impacts your lung functioning,

affecting your breathing,

and then impacts
your nervous system

leading you to feel jittery.

- Kids are throwing up
after playing with it

and they're reporting
burning sensations

in their lungs and
in their throat.

- Conventional
wisdom would dictate,

parents would go, "Whoa, my
kids are inhaling toxins?

Let's get this off the
market immediately."

But that's not what happened.

- [Henry] Oddly, it's
not the toxins themselves

that worry '80s parents,

it's something else.

- Now, the thing about the
Super Elastic Bubble Plastic

and its strong smell is
that it had a surprise,

and if you smelled it up
close and got a nice whiff,

you got a buzz, you
got a bit lightheaded.

- If you were looking for
just a slight little high,

you could just start huffing
Super Elastic Bubble Plastic.

- And so this comes butt
up against Nancy Reagan

and the whole, "This
is Your Brain on Drugs"

anti-drug campaign that
started in the '80s.

- When it comes to
drugs and alcohol,

just say no.

- Parents and teachers and
school principals worry

that it's a gateway drug,

possibly leading to worse things

and so they need
to curtail this.

- Super Elastic Bubble Plastic

is taken off the market
in the mid-'80s.

- Not because it
was made of poison,

but because they were afraid

kids would be
getting high from it.

Even now, it's still
lingering in my nose,

like, in a bad way.

- Dangerous toys came
in all shapes and sizes,

and temperatures.

Just ask anyone who
had toys that cook.

- [Announcer] Easy bake,
easy bake, fast as you can!

- In 1963, the Easy
Bake Oven is unveiled.

They're so successful

that 20 million are
sold in three years.

Rival toy companies
are scrambling

and they think, "If Easy Bake
Oven is marketed towards girls,

what would appeal to boys?"

- [Henry] What they come up with

puts a whole new
spin on baking toys.

- [Announcer] Creature
from the Black Lagoon!

- It's the 1960s, the
height of sci-fi culture.

Creepy things are all the rage.

So what if we make a
toy that allows people

to build their
own creepy things?

- [Announcer] Now you can make

all kinds of
[indistinct] like these

with Mattel's
wonderful Thing Maker.

- So in the wake of
the Easy Bake Oven,

they came up with a thing
called the Thing Maker,

and it was awesome.

You got to make eyeballs,
and stars, and teeth.

- So you'd make these creatures
in something called a maker.

You'd get a mold and it was
like a real die cast mold.

You'd pour in this
stuff called plastigoop,

and then put it in
your childhood kiln,

then you would remove
this scalding hot thing,

and cool it in a cup of water,

and you could have a toy.

- It was super fun, exciting,

and also ridiculously dangerous.

- [Henry] It turns out,
this machine packs a punch.

- Where the Easy Bake
Oven took great pains

to be something where the
heat source was guarded,

the Thing Maker
didn't really do that.

- What was so wild
about the Thing Maker

is that it's essentially
just a hot plate

that plugs into the wall,

and then given to children

to play with on
a carpeted floor.

- The surface of
the burner itself

can get up to 400 degrees.

The outer edges of it can
actually reach 200 degrees.

Yeah, kids were
gonna get burned.

- The problem with
the Thing Maker

is there's no indicator saying

that it's hot enough to
start the baking process,

and there's no
indicator to tell you

that the baking process is done.

And when you think it is
time that the mold is done,

you have to grab a
little wire grabber

to pull the mold out.

- That's a little
hard to squeeze.

As a kid, a kid's probably
gonna be struggling.

This is sort of like
the game Operation,

but instead of just
getting a little sound,

a little buzz, there's the
chance of like, you know,

getting burned with
molten plastic.

- Even if the mold is done

and the plastigoop
has properly baked,

there's still a searing hot
aluminum mold to contend with.

- [Henry] By the 1980s,

enough hands and
fingers are burned

that regulators step in.

- President Richard
Nixon signs into law

the Child Protection
and Toy Safety Act,

and for the very first time,

the US government is
able to ban any toy

that presents a mechanical,
electrical, or thermal hazard.

- Any toy oven or Thing Maker

with an exposed 400
degree hot plate

cannot be used safely,
it just isn't,

so it's taken off the
market as a result.

- I'm sure there
are adults today

running around the world
with Thing Maker scars.

- There is nothing like
a backyard barbecue.

I love a great hot dog.

Fun times with people
that you love,

and what makes the
experience even better?

A few family friendly games!

Or were they?

- Before the post-w*r period,

the backyard was kind
of a utilitarian space.

After 1945, with suburbanization
and single family homes,

the backyard becomes an
extension of the house.

In the den, families are
playing Monopoly and Yahtzee.

Out in the backyard,

they're playing a new
game called Jarts.

- Jarts is a pretty simple game.

Its darts to be
played on the lawn.

- The Jart itself is this
winged plastic dart thing,

but the point of it is made
out of this heavy metal.

You're supposed to throw
them up into the air

and they're supposed to arch

and then land down
into the circle.

My first thing was,
screw the circle.

We don't need that.

We're just gonna
throw these things up

as high as we possibly can,

until if we can get to stick
perfectly in the ground,

because that was victory.

- By 1986, there's
somewhere between


million sets of Jarts

in homes across America.

- [Henry] Jarts may
seem like child's play,

but only if your
child's name is Brutus.

- Historically, the
Jart is based upon

this ancient Roman
weapon of w*r,

a weapon called the plumbata.

And so Roman infantry men
were given these things

and they would throw them
up as high as they can,

and they were meant to come
down to damage their enemy.

- It's been calculated
that a descending Jart,

when it hits something,

it can apply 23,000 pounds
of force per square inch.

To put that into context,

consider that an
F-16 fighter jet

with all its
compliments of weaponry,

weighs about 23,000 pounds.

Imagine applying the weight
of an F-16 in a square inch.

That's what a Jart's giving you.

- I had my own
experiences with Jarts.

Fortunately, I got out
unscathed, unscarred,

but a friend of mine,

they were playing with
Jarts and the Jart went up.

When it came down, it
landed into her head

requiring an emergency room
visit, an ambulance ride,

and a surgical removal of
the Jart from her skull.

However, if you're
wondering if she's okay,

there was no long lasting
effects, allegedly.

- [Henry] And it wasn't
just Jason's friend

who suffered a Jarts
related injury.

- The Consumer Product
Safety Commission

investigates the safety of toys.

And from 1972 to 1986,

something like 6,000 separate
Jarts injuries were reported.

- A week before
Christmas in 1988,


were first introduced,

the Consumer Product
Safety Commission

bans them from being
sold in America.

- Today, kids battle with
Nerf g*ns and Super Soakers.

But back in the day, it was
all about futuristic ray g*ns.

- In the 1940s, American kids
are obsessed with Buck Rogers

and one of the things that
kids love about Buck Rogers

is his ray g*n.

- So in the 1950s,

the Austin Manufacturing
Company outta Michigan

comes up with this
amazing looking toy

called the Austin Magic p*stol.

- The Austin Magic
p*stol is cool.

It's bright red, it's
big, it's chunky.

It looks like the phaser
g*ns of the comics.

And what it does
is equally cool.

- [Henry] The
Austin Magic p*stol

can sh**t ping pong ba*ls

up to 100 feet away.

This little g*n achieves
such power and speed

thanks to some literally
expl*sive technology.

- The Austin Magic p*stol

doesn't accelerate
its projectiles

through a spring
loaded mechanism

or anything like that.

It accelerates them through
the use of magic crystals

that you load into the back
and then blend with water.

- The magic crystals are
made of calcium carbide,

which today you'd find
on pretty much any list

of hazardous materials,

because mixing water
with calcium carbide

creates acetylene gas.

[flame roars]

That's right, the same acetylene
that powers a blowtorch.

- It's literally one of

the hottest burning
materials you can buy.

There are actually stars

whose surfaces are
that temperature.

- It can burn at upwards
to 5,500 degrees.

You think this is
safe for children?

Have fun, kids!

- When you pull the trigger,

there's a flint
that creates a spark

that sets off the
calcium carbide.

That reaction then
pressurizes the barrel,

then fires this ping pong
ball out of it at high speeds.

- You have a firearm!
[g*nsh*t fires]

They're selling a
firearm to children.

It's a low powered
firearm, yeah,

but it's still a firearm.

- You think, well, ping pong
ba*ls are immensely light.

However, an ultra
lightweight ping pong ball

traveling at high
speed at close range,

probably gonna leave a bruise.

- It's also sh**ting
out a flame and sparks,

and sometimes the
flames and sparks

would come out the
back of the g*n

so they would hit your wrist.

If there was any
kinda damage or dents,

that back little panel
could actually fly off

during the expl*sive event,

splashing your face with
hot metal, expl*sive flames.

Doesn't sound like so
much fun at that point.

- So what happens to
the Austin Magic p*stol?

Well, following many
reports of accidents,

several states pass laws

making it ill*gal for
a toy g*n to discharge

using combustible materials.

- And while you
can sometimes find

a few vintage ones
for sale online,

good luck buying
one legally today.

[g*nshots fire]

- Today, because it uses
a chemical expl*si*n

to propel a projectile,

most states classify
the Austin Magic p*stol

as an actual firearm.

- Any parent knows
there is nothing worse

than a toy that
makes a lot of noise.

But there was a 1960s classic

that had more to it than
just its annoying sound.

[clackers clacking]

- In 1968, the world is
introduced to Clackers.

[clackers clacking]

And they're the fidget
spinner of the day.

- I'm an adult, I
assume I've acquired

all my hand-eye
coordination development.

It's not easy.

[clackers clacking]

- I don't know how you're
supposed to use these.

- You do really feel like
this could be something

that could get
annoying to adults.

- Miracle Clackers,
Click Clacks, Clickers,

they're all the
same type of toy,

the same, basic,
ba*ls on a string,

makes a lot of noise.

Clackers were developed

based off an Argentinian
weapon called a boladero

that they use to rustle cattle.

- With the toy version,
instead of bagging a steer,

the goal is to move
your hand up and down,

creating a rhythmic clack
as the two ba*ls collide,

impact, fly away,
and come back again,

thus creating a rhythm

and the clack that
they're famous for.

- Clackers are about as
ubiquitous, at one point,

as yo-yos and hula hoops;

they are everywhere.

- [Announcer] Unbreakable,
Miracle Clackers

are for everyone,
even the little guy!

- They're popular.



Over 1,600 companies
across forty countries

are manufacturing clackers.

They've gotta get
in on the trend.

- [Henry] What
parents don't realize

is that clackers
aren't just annoying,

they're also dangerous.

Since 1960s, the Food
and Drug Administration

has been protecting children

from chemical, flammable
and radioactive

dangers in their toys.

You would think that a
toy like the Clackers

would not fall into any
of those categories,

but actually, it does.

- The initial design had glass
ba*ls at the end of the strings,

and when they were
left in the sun,

they would just
focus the sun's light

through the lens
of the glass ball

and ignite anything
sitting next to it.

- Early versions of clackers
are made from tempered glass,

which is four times stronger
than regular glass.

- So in terms of
specific injuries

that clackers can cause,

there are black eyes,
blunt force trauma,

permanent eye damage.

These are not garden
variety playground injuries.

- These things are
clacking together hard

and sometimes they'd shatter,

creating a cloud of
shrapnel, sharp shrapnel.

- If your clackers survive
not being shattered

and splintering your eyeballs
with particles of glass,

you can still always
have the pleasure

of getting a hand caught
in it, chipping a tooth,

or even worse,
getting a concussion.

- So at a point,

they move clackers away
from this tempered glass

to an acrylic plastic,

but that hard acrylic would
still shatter sometimes,

which is just as bad as glass.

- [Henry] Clackers are
eventually taken off the market,

but not before
they make headlines

for a very unexpected reason.

- So there's a fascinating
story involving clackers,

which takes the
clackers in a place

you wouldn't expect them to go.

It's March of 1971.

A gentleman named Diego Ramirez

is boarding a plane
in New York City

to go to Puerto Rico.

- And as they're in the air,
he gets out of his seat

and begins walking up
and down the aisle,

clacking his clackers.

[clackers clacking]

- And as you can imagine,
if you're in that plane,

well, you're
immediately annoyed.

[clackers clacking]

- Diego Ramirez pulled
a flight attendant over

and told her, "There
will be annihilation

if you don't take
this plane to Havana."

- They do redirect the flight.

They land in Havana, Cuba.

And to their credit,

Castro's police force
immediately arrest

the man upon landing.

And as it turns out, he had
no b*mb, he had no g*n.

He just had a pair of clackers.

- Toys come and go,
but there's one place

that every kid remembers:
the playground.

But the swings and slides
for most 20th century kids

were a far cry from the
ones kids play on today.

- The late-1800s into the 1900s,

millions of people arrive
from Europe primarily,

and they are crowding
into these neighborhoods

of New York City, and
Boston, and Philadelphia,

piled on top of each other,

absolutely nowhere
for kids to play.

So where do they go?

Out into the streets.

- They'd be getting into
trouble, getting into fights,

and we're talking
thousands of kids.

- They are involved in
gambling, drinking, smoking.

What kids do when they
hang out on the streets.

They're also getting
run over by trolleys.

Mothers, community
leaders, politicians,

everyone starts to look for

healthy alternatives
for these kids,

and what they come up
with are playgrounds.

- [Henry] The idea
behind playgrounds

is to create a local spot

where kids can get all
their bottled up energy out.

- They've got
everything we think of

that a modern
playground would have,

swings, and monkey
bars, and slides.

- Any kid who's gone
down any metal slide

knows that steel gets
really, really hot;

like 150 degrees hot.

Your skin makes this
screeching sound

as you get stuck going down.

- [Henry] But there was one
legendary piece of equipment

that was on nearly
every playground

until it went extinct.

- One of the most popular
pieces of playground equipment

is the Miracle Whirl.

It's a metal disc on an axis.

You run top speed,
grab a handle,

and when you feel it's
going fast enough,

you sort of throw caution
and your life to the wind

and just jump on.

The park that I grew up
had two Miracle Whirls.

It served one purpose,

and that was to see who
could throw up the fastest.

- It's a vomit machine.

There is always some
kid spinning so fast

that other kids are puking.

And if they're not puking,
they're falling off.

- [Henry] The Miracle
Whirl's design

has numerous potential pitfalls.

- The only thing
holding you on this ride

is the strength of your grip,

a child's grip.

- If for some
reason you were spun

from the high end
to the low end,

you can have your legs
trapped under the low end.

[tense music]

And should you be catapulted
from the high side,

you're not landing on

today's recycled
rubber, modular mats.

- Growing up in the 1970s,

there was no padding
on the ground.

You took chances.

- You're landing on
whatever was around

that the town had.

Could be wood chips,
could be asphalt,

could be bare earth,
could be bricks.

- [Henry] The Miracle
Whirl goes through

several safety redesigns
through the decades,

but eventually
falls out of favor

in the '90s and early 2000s.

- When you're being
raised in a world

where your parents are happy to
put you on the Miracle Whirl,

you know, you survived it.

But I just think that, like,

if your childhood
starts from a place

of t*rture devices for fun,

that you can handle almost
anything life throws you,

I think.

But I don't have kids.

[laughing]

- Of course, you don't have
to be a kid to have fun.

In fact, some rides aren't
meant for kids at all.

- In the early 2000s,

play for an unprecedented
number of Americans

came in the form of boating.

And what outing on the water

would be complete
without boat toys?

Trust me, put your life
jackets on for this one.

[cheerful music]

- Recreational boating
hit its peak in 2005,

and at that time,
there was something

like 80 million Americans

spending their weekends and
summers out on the water.

- And what do people love
to do when boating? Tubing.

[intense music]

- The most fun part is when
you get a little airborne,

[riders screaming]

but it's like, for a
fraction of a second.

So somebody got the bright idea,

"What if we could make
that airborne time

last even longer?"

- What I love about
Americans, you got a boat,

let's go out on the water
and have a good day.

Not good enough.

Let's get a rope and
let's put a tube on it.

Not enough!

What if, like, there's
a device on the tube

that lifts the tube into the air

and flies it around?

- [Henry] In the fall of 2005,

the introduction of Kite Tubes

takes tubing to new heights.

[engine whirring]

[boaters laugh]
- That's wild, man.

- Kite Tubes,

they don't just bounce
on a couple of waves,

they're made to take flight.

When you hit the wave,

you lift on the handles

and now the tube goes airborne.

- Going up in the air 20 feet

is nothing for a Kite Tube.

And depending on
weather conditions,

you could even go
higher than that.

- It's tube, kite, air, boat.

People loved it.

- In the first
nine months or so,

they're selling 2,000
Kite Tubes a month.

- [Henry] The Kite Tube
attracts so much attention,

it's named Product of the Year

by the Sporting Goods
Manufacturer's Association.

It's an honor that's
given a little too soon.

- When you're in the Kite Tube,
you're not even strapped in.

There's no safety precautions.

You've got two little handles,

then you got your feet
in this little holster,

but that's it.

- There is no
steering mechanism,

there's no braking mechanism.

If something goes awry,

you have no control.

You're crashing
back down to Earth.

[boaters laughing]
- Whoa!

- Traditional tubing,

which stays on the
water's surface,

is dangerous enough.

For Kite Tubes, when you add
higher speeds and height,

now you're really getting
in a dangerous realm.

- When you hit 25
miles per hour,

you get about 10 feet of air.

But you go a little faster,

you're 20, 30, 40 feet,

you're like, four
stories high right now.

That's a high fall.

[tense music]

[water splashes]

- If you fall from that height,

the water is not going
to be cushiony and soft.

It is going to be like
smacking a brick wall

at 50 miles an hour.

- [Boater] Oh, [bleep].

- So of course, there are
dozens and dozens of injuries.

People would break bones,
would knock out teeth,

would just skip like a
stone across the water,

and two people actually die.

- [Henry] The Kite
Tube's popularity

is quickly overshadowed

by its reputation
for injury and death.

- Kite Tubes are only
around for about a year

when they're taken
off the market.

- The Kite Tube is a
little bit like Icarus.

It flew too close to the sun,

and it maimed and
k*lled too many people,

and it was gone.

[pensive music]

But what an idea, what an idea.

- Looking back at our
bygone activities,

whether it was Jarts
or glass blowing kits,

or looping roller roller
coasters without a harness,

there was such a fine line
between play and peril.

Sure, it was more dangerous,

but that's what made
our hazardous history

such an adventure.

[dramatic music]