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In the 1930s, the Frisbie Bakery in Bridgeport, Ct. sold a dessert called the Mrs Frisbie pie. That pie became popular with local Middlebury College students as a toy due to the aerodynamic qualities of its pan – it would fly a long way at a pace slow enough to be easily caught. The popularity of the Mrs Frisbie pie [pan] and its recreational use gradually spread beyond Bridgeport all the way to California and entrepreneurs Fred Morrison and Warren Franscioni.
In 1947, Morrison and Franscioni molded the Frisbie pie pan out of plastic instead of sheet aluminum and called it the "Flyin' Saucer." They then started a business named Pipco and marketed the new Pipco Flyin' Saucer at Woolworth's and Disneyland, as well as in the then-popular Li'l Abner cartoon strip.
Sales of the Flyin' Saucer were very slow at first because most people had never heard of a flying disc or a Frisbie pie pan. Morrison and Franscioni had to borrow money and find other work to keep their Flyin' Saucer business afloat. They also had to move apart in pursuit of income, but Pipco stayed in business in hopes of eventual profit from the Flyin' Saucer.
Then Morrison, without Franscioni's knowledge, started his own company, American Trends, on the side and marketed another plastic Frisbie pie pan that he called the Pluto Platter. He offered the Pluto Platter at a lower price than the Pipco Flyin' Saucer, which sunk Pipco and shunted Franscioni out of the profit.
Wham-O toys of San Gabriel, CA caught wind of the Pluto Platter in 1955 and contracted to sell it, with royalties going to Fred Morrison. Wham-O also decided to capitalize on the name recognition of the original Frisbie pie pan, but they changed one letter in the name so that they could say that the Frisbie Bakery had no claim to royalties or recognition.
Wham-O marketed the Frisbee toy on a much larger scale than Morrison and Franscioni had ever been able to. The Frisbee was new (to the mass market, anyway), different, cheap, and millions of them were sold. There was virtually no competition on the market, and the Frisbee was a major source of revenue for Wham-O and for Fred Morrison for decades to come.
The word “frisbee” has now, after 70+ years of use that began with “Frisbie”, become embedded in the English language as a common noun, as is evidenced by the following entry in the Modern Language Association’s dictonary:
(For those not familiar with the MLA, it is the standard reference for correctness in academic writings.)
frisbee - noun: a light plastic disk about 10 inches in diameter; sailed with a flip of the wrist for recreation or competition
Because of the blurred line between “Frisbee” and “frisbee” in all places outside courtrooms, consumers usually search for flying disc toys by using the word that first comes to mind – “frisbee”, i.e. “ring frisbee”, “aerobie frisbee”, “lighted frisbee”, “light up frisbee”… Unfortunately for them, though, “frisbee” is a word legally bootlegged and fanatically guarded by Wham-O. The way they see it, it is their word because they say they invented it. The way everybody else sees it, Wham-O and Fred Morrison short-changed the Frisbie Bakery and Warren Franscioni by using legal loopholes to cut them out of the deal.
Wham-O will even sue mom and pop retailers, or at least threaten to, if they use the word “frisbee” to describe any flying toy that is not the bootlegged 1930s pie pan idea still made by Wham-O. There are so many mom and pop retailers that sell the other brands’ discs, though, that Wham-O might as well try to count all the grains of sand in the ocean as try to sue everybody who uses the word "frisbee." Wham-O even monitors individual eBay sellers to make sure they don’t call their flying disc a "frisbee." The irony in this situation is the fact that Wham-O actually came into "possession" of the word by indirectly stealing it from Mrs Frisbie and the disc by stealing it, along with Fred Morrison, from Pipco and Warren Franscioni.
Here is an actual email sent by Wham-O to a person selling other brands’ discs on eBay:
Hi,
This is a friendly reminder that you are not allowed to use the word Frisbee in your title or body of these sales items, if indeed it is not the Frisbee Brand. Wham-O is the owner of the TM and i will watch to see if this continue's [sic] to report to Ebay's VERO promgram. I will give you a few days to "clean up the listings".
Thank you for your attention to this.
David Waisblum
Frisbee Brand Manager [hahaha]
Wham-O Inc.
Information Sources:
American Psychological Association (APA):
frisbee. (n.d.). Online Etymology Dictionary. Retrieved March 23, 2007, from Dictionary.com website: http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/frisbee
Chicago Manual Style (CMS):
frisbee. Dictionary.com. Online Etymology Dictionary. Douglas Harper, Historian. http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/frisbee
Modern Language Association (MLA):
"frisbee." Online Etymology Dictionary. Douglas Harper, Historian. 23 Mar. 2007. http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/frisbee
"Sports Illustrated," Aug. 3, 1970
The Ultimate [Frsibee] Handbook, Jeff McMahon
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