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Visit HomeDepot.com, how doers get more done. This is Lee Habib and this is Our American Stories and we tell stories about everything here on this show. Every so often a gimmick comes along that's so simple. that it captures the hearts and minds of anyone who hears about it. From the fidget spinner and silly putty of yesteryear, There is one fad that stands out above all the rest.
in American culture. He used Jesse to tell the story. Um Born in December of 1936, Gary Ross Dahl was an American copywriter, entrepreneur, and the creator of The Pet Rock. Born in North Dakota and raised in Spokane, Washington, his mother was a waitress and his father was a lumbermill worker. While living in Los Gatos, California in 1975, he was sitting in a bar listening to people complain about the everyday burdens of looking after their pets.
So he jokingly suggested to them that they might be better off having rocks for pets. After all, a rock wouldn't need to be fed, walked, bathed, or groomed, and it would never die, become sick, or disobedient. Low maintenance.
So Gary Dahl begins to take his own joke a little seriously and drafts a 32-page instruction manual for said pet rock. Full of puns and gags, he called it, the care and training of your pet rock. There's nothing common about the genuine pedigree of pet rocks, it reads. Their ancestors can be found amongst the rubble of the pyramids, the cobblestone streets of ancient European cities, and the Great Wall of China. Further instructions show how to train your pet rock to stay, sit, heal, and roll over.
It's basically a box full of dad jokes. The biggest expense was cutting air holes into the boxes that the pet rocks came in, because they had to breathe after all. The rocks themselves cost somewhere around one penny each to import from Mexico's Rosarito Beach. The straw bed that the rocks sat on was acquired for pretty much nothing. As a freelance advertising copy editor genius, Dahl crafts a carefully written press release and it works.
Newsweek picks up the story with a half page. He even gets booked on The Tonight Show twice. For those fortunate few who do not know, pet rocks have been adopted and pampered by owners who claim stones are cleaner, quieter, easier to care for than other pets, and less likely to run away, die, or multiply. The pet rock begins its life on the beaches of Baja, California. Dahl is the man who created the pet rock.
An idea, he says, whose time has come. It's been incredible. We mailed our first pet rocks to the stores October 1st. And by Christmas, we'll have sold well over a million units. That kind of stuff just doesn't happen.
On the declining curve, we'll probably sell another million or two. And then you'll be out of the pet rock business. Then I'll be out of the rock business and into some other insane scheme. Or lying on a beach someplace, not caring about it. Spokesmen for the May Company say that they are beginning to get returns of the pet rock.
That one woman who bought one of these brought it back, saying it was moving in the box when she bought it, but when she got it home, It stopped moving. Another wrote a letter to the store saying after she taught Iraq a number of tricks, The rock died. and she had to give it a decent burial in the backyard. The pet rocks sold for $3.95 each, earning somewhere around $1 per unit in profit. Newspapers began printing stories about how pet rocks were now flying off the shelves.
Stores couldn't keep up. which made Americans want them even more. Starting in September of 1975 and sales peaking around Christmas, Dahl was shipping 10,000 rocks every day. America had pet rock fever. Sales tanked by February, with 1.5 million units sold and $6 million in gross profits.
One day my little boy came home just as proud as he could be. He said, Dad, I've got something here, I think, for you should see. He came straight home from school that day, didn't he even stop to roam? He rushed in the house with a silly grin and said a fit brought followed him home and I said, what? And he said, honest daddy, just followed me home.
I mean, I was there. He was there and Well, we was there. Oh Dad, can I keep him? Please, Dad. He won't be much bother.
His house broken dead. Then he said, but you don't know about Don't knock. I'm in love with my bedrock. What you don't know about, don't knock. I'm in love with my pet roll.
After a court ordered six-figure payout to his original investors, it's hard to say exactly how much money Gary Ross Dahl took home. But it's safe to say he'll go down in history as the guy who made a million dollars selling rocks. He went on to sell other less than successful gimmicks like Sand breeding kits. And it's dumber than it sounds. But he also went on to write a popular book called Advertising for Dummies.
Gary Dahl passed away on March 23, 2015, at the age of 78. in his home in Jacksonville, Oregon. For our American Stories, I'm Jesse Edwards. I came with instructions that made you laugh. It wasn't very much just a very And thanks to Jesse for this piece of Americana.
And we know these things come and we know these things go. And I think we know it while we're doing it, while we buy the pet rock or the lava lamp or the hula hoop. or the Rubik's Cube, or the Chia Pet. Or Disco, or the Macarina, or the Electric Slide, or the Clapper, or the Beanie Baby, or the Furby. And the slinky and the squirt gun, and we know we can keep going.
The poppets, the whoopie cushions, we know what these are. But the big fad story that we covered here on our American story is the pet rock. And my goodness, it's less likely to die, run away, or multiply, said one of the world's greatest promoters of nothing. And it's just a part of American heritage to peddle. Nonsense, and we love telling these stories here on our American stories.
If you've got a favorite fad or a favorite product that came and went, Tell us your story about it. I know I lived through disco and I have the graduation picture to prove it in high school. And my goodness, what we all look like. All of us look better in our 50s and 60s than we do back in high school. Given the hair, the bow ties, the suede, the really funky colors, and those platform shoes.
It was a really difficult time to meet a girl or a boy. The disco year. One of the greatest and worst fads in American history, all brought on by one movie, Saturn fever. This is our American Stories, the story of the pet rock. This is Lee Habib and this is our American Story.
This is Lee Habib, host of Our American Stories. Every day, we set out to tell the stories of Americans past and present, from small towns to big cities, and from all walks of life doing extraordinary things. But we truly can't do this show without you. If you love what you hear, go to OurAmericanStories.com and make a donation to keep the stories coming. That's our American stories.
Done. Saturday, August 22nd in Tampa, witnessing MMA Legends final fight. Chris Cyborg, one of the greatest in history. She's an absolute pioneer in the sport. Defends her PFL world title.
One last time. Unforgettable end. To an unforgettable career. Saturday, August 22nd, live from Benchmark International Arena. For tickets, visit pfl.info slash tampa.
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