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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsDonald Poynter dies at 96; Inventor Sold Whiskey-Flavored Toothpaste, Talking Toilets
Hat tip, The Wall Street Journal.
WORLD | OBITUARIES
Inventor Sold Whiskey-Flavored Toothpaste, Talking Toilets
Donald B. Poynter, who has died at age 96, toured with the Harlem Globetrotters before founding a maker of novelty gifts
By James R. Hagerty
https://twitter.com/jamesrhagerty
Sept. 1, 2021 10:00 am ET
Donald B. Poynter said one of his best ideaswhiskey-flavored toothpastecame to him while he was driving his car.
Mr. Poynter was working for an advertising agency in Cincinnati in the early 1950s. Eager to launch his own business, he pitched the toothpaste idea to a former fraternity brother who had become a bank loan officer. The resulting $10,000 loan allowed Mr. Poynter to create a product he sold for the next 17 years.
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Inventor Sold Whiskey-Flavored Toothpaste, Talking Toilets
Donald B. Poynter, who has died at age 96, toured with the Harlem Globetrotters before founding a maker of novelty gifts
By James R. Hagerty
https://twitter.com/jamesrhagerty
Sept. 1, 2021 10:00 am ET
Donald B. Poynter said one of his best ideaswhiskey-flavored toothpastecame to him while he was driving his car.
Mr. Poynter was working for an advertising agency in Cincinnati in the early 1950s. Eager to launch his own business, he pitched the toothpaste idea to a former fraternity brother who had become a bank loan officer. The resulting $10,000 loan allowed Mr. Poynter to create a product he sold for the next 17 years.
TO READ THE FULL STORY
SUBSCRIBE
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Entreprenuer, entertainer and man of his word, Don Poynter dies at 96; owned Triple Crown Country Club
Aug 14th, 2021
By Judy Clabes
NKyTribune editor
Don Poynter who built and owned the Triple Crown Country Club in Union and started the World of Golf, has passed away at age 96. His creative work was far from done.
Don Poynter
He was an entreprenuer (and entertainer) from an early age at least 11 and founded Poynter Creations, later Poynter International. He rubbed elbows with notables all over the world. At age 94, he called Walt Disney about doing some bobbleheads and was disappointed not to get better responses from the executive he talked to. I used to just deal with Walt, he told them.
{snip}
Don Poynter with Jayne Mansfield and the famous hot water bottle. (Cincinnati Public Library archives)
{snip}
Born in Cincinnati in 1925, he began making and selling remote-controlled tanks with working cannons at age 11. He served a two-year stint in the U.S. Army and then attended the University of Cincinnati where he graduated with a business degree.
Mansfield loved the hot water bottles, 1957. 10 million were sold.
Poynter started making novelty items in the 1950s when Cincinnati was a center for toy manufacturing and people want(ed) to laugh and have fun. As the Addams Family was a popular TV show in the 1960s, he created The Thing mechanical coin box and sold 14 million of them.
His other creations (and patents) included Arnolds Plumbers Putter, Jane Mansfields Hot Water Bottle, the Talking Toilet, Crooked Dice, Might Tiny Records and Golfers Dream: Hold in One Golf Ball. (Really a golf ball with a hole in it). And whiskey- and scotch-flavored toothpaste. He also made the melting wax that appears to drip from the top of Markers Mark bourbon bottles.
He collaborated with Mansfield on the hot water bottle, according to reports, paid her $5000 and went to Hollywood to make the mold.
Don Poynter, the baton twirler. (University of Cincinnati archives)
I stayed in California sculpting her for the mold for a week, he told a reporter. I could have done it in two days but thought why rush it?
A champion baton-twirler at his alma mater, the University of Cincinnati, got him a gig with the Harlem Globetrotters.
His bio on the University of Cincinnati alumni website summarized a remarkable career path:
Once an 11-year-old maker of remote-control toy tanks and working cannons, Don Poynter incorporated Poynter Creations while a UC student to sell Play Logs similar to Lincoln Logs, but large enough for children to play inside. He later changed the companys name to Poynter International and spent nearly half his time in Asia manufacturing novelties.
{snip}
Thanks to Poynter, the world got to enjoy the first basketball backboard for a wastebasket, The Thing coin box featured on the Addams Family (14 million sold), Uncle Festers mystery light bulb (also featured on the show), crossword-puzzle toilet tissue and the Jane Mansfield hot water bottle. Later, when the bottle aired on TV, Jack Parr covered part of its anatomy with a handkerchief. Poynter also created the worlds smallest working record player, sold with 39 tiny records that Poynter recorded with real orchestras, and a Steer-N-Go landscape for Matchbox cars, which grossed $75 million in its first year.
Retiring in the late 90s, Poynter has held patents on 100 or so novelty items, admittedly a nebulous number because I never really bothered looking it up, he says.
{snip}
Aug 14th, 2021
By Judy Clabes
NKyTribune editor
Don Poynter who built and owned the Triple Crown Country Club in Union and started the World of Golf, has passed away at age 96. His creative work was far from done.
Don Poynter
He was an entreprenuer (and entertainer) from an early age at least 11 and founded Poynter Creations, later Poynter International. He rubbed elbows with notables all over the world. At age 94, he called Walt Disney about doing some bobbleheads and was disappointed not to get better responses from the executive he talked to. I used to just deal with Walt, he told them.
{snip}
Don Poynter with Jayne Mansfield and the famous hot water bottle. (Cincinnati Public Library archives)
{snip}
Born in Cincinnati in 1925, he began making and selling remote-controlled tanks with working cannons at age 11. He served a two-year stint in the U.S. Army and then attended the University of Cincinnati where he graduated with a business degree.
Mansfield loved the hot water bottles, 1957. 10 million were sold.
Poynter started making novelty items in the 1950s when Cincinnati was a center for toy manufacturing and people want(ed) to laugh and have fun. As the Addams Family was a popular TV show in the 1960s, he created The Thing mechanical coin box and sold 14 million of them.
His other creations (and patents) included Arnolds Plumbers Putter, Jane Mansfields Hot Water Bottle, the Talking Toilet, Crooked Dice, Might Tiny Records and Golfers Dream: Hold in One Golf Ball. (Really a golf ball with a hole in it). And whiskey- and scotch-flavored toothpaste. He also made the melting wax that appears to drip from the top of Markers Mark bourbon bottles.
He collaborated with Mansfield on the hot water bottle, according to reports, paid her $5000 and went to Hollywood to make the mold.
Don Poynter, the baton twirler. (University of Cincinnati archives)
I stayed in California sculpting her for the mold for a week, he told a reporter. I could have done it in two days but thought why rush it?
A champion baton-twirler at his alma mater, the University of Cincinnati, got him a gig with the Harlem Globetrotters.
His bio on the University of Cincinnati alumni website summarized a remarkable career path:
Once an 11-year-old maker of remote-control toy tanks and working cannons, Don Poynter incorporated Poynter Creations while a UC student to sell Play Logs similar to Lincoln Logs, but large enough for children to play inside. He later changed the companys name to Poynter International and spent nearly half his time in Asia manufacturing novelties.
{snip}
Thanks to Poynter, the world got to enjoy the first basketball backboard for a wastebasket, The Thing coin box featured on the Addams Family (14 million sold), Uncle Festers mystery light bulb (also featured on the show), crossword-puzzle toilet tissue and the Jane Mansfield hot water bottle. Later, when the bottle aired on TV, Jack Parr covered part of its anatomy with a handkerchief. Poynter also created the worlds smallest working record player, sold with 39 tiny records that Poynter recorded with real orchestras, and a Steer-N-Go landscape for Matchbox cars, which grossed $75 million in its first year.
Retiring in the late 90s, Poynter has held patents on 100 or so novelty items, admittedly a nebulous number because I never really bothered looking it up, he says.
{snip}
Poynter Productions Little Black Box from 1959
4,699 views Apr 2, 2016
CJ Holmes
6.79K subscribers
Predating The Addams Family Thing Coin Bank by 5 years, this little gem from 1959 was the brain child of Don Poynter, SUPER genius. Flip the switch, the box Mysteriously groans and shakes, an eerie green hand comes out and...and...AND... it shuts itself off.
{snip}
Poynter Products Little Black Box Vintage Toy Useless Machine
84 views May 27, 2021
Jason Eshelman
11 subscribers
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Donald Poynter dies at 96; Inventor Sold Whiskey-Flavored Toothpaste, Talking Toilets (Original Post)
mahatmakanejeeves
Sep 2021
OP
Maeve
(42,224 posts)1. I remember so many of those things!
Used to get a strange catalog that carried many of them....
mahatmakanejeeves
(56,890 posts)2. Archie McPhee?
central scrutinizer
(11,617 posts)3. Whiskey flavored toilet seats
And talking toothpaste didnt test well.