If we had dinner with a young Elagabalus, 219CE, Rome, we might see a familiar gag. He used a pig bladder filled air and placed it under an unsuspecting guest. Yep, it is supposely the first Whoopee Cushion. Fast forward all the way to the 1930s where the Whoopee Cushion was reinvented by the Jem Rubber Co. in Toronto, Canada. The earliest prototypes were made of green rubber and were stamped with a drawing of a gun-toting boy, bearing a devious smile and wearing a kilt.
The Johnson Smith Company was a mail-order company established in 1914 by Alfred Johnson Smith in Chicago, Illinois. Born in England, Alfred Johnson Smith began by selling gags and novelties out of his car. Then came the catalog of surprising novelties, puzzles, tricks, joke goods and useful articles. The Johnson Smith & Company was the first to sell the Whoopee Cushion.
Later, few things were more fun than receiving your Atomic Energy Lab in the mail. Kind of puts the wind-up chattering teeth to shame for excitement.
Folklore suggests the name was inspired by Eddie Cantor’s song, “Makin’ Whoopee.” In the 1920’s whoopee was a word that could mean fun and also was slang for money.
By the 1950s, boys were reading comic books full of ads for the adolescent-friendly gags. (I beg to differ that girls didn’t find the Whoopee Cushions gag funny as well.)
Another immigrant, this one from Denmark, was also a giant in the novelties and gags world. Soren Sorenson Adams, was the genius behind the S.S. Adams Co. of Asbury Park, NJ. Calling himself Sam Adams, he also created over 650 items like Sneezing Powder, the Dribble Glass and the Joy Buzzer. The buzzer was a clever piece of mechanical equipment so unique that it was granted a U.S. patent in 1932.
The S.S. Adams Co. produced classic pranks and great beginner magic tricks from 1906 into the mid-1990s. On April Fool’s Day, 2009, the company was purchased by Magic Makers, Inc. They revived the best of the Adams novelties line complete with the famous authentic packaging.
Sources:
For E. Cantor album, eBay.com
https://archive.org/details/Novelties001
http://www.magictricks.com
http://secretfunspot.blogspot.com/
A great book on the history of the S.S. Adams Company is Life of the Party: A Visual History of the S.S. Adams Company Makers of Pranks & Magic for 100 Years by Kirk Demarais, published in 2006.
High five Canada, giving the world the whoopee cushion! 😁 Bet my grandkids would have a lot of fun with some of those older gag items.
😂❤