On January 23, 1957, machines at the Wham-O toy company rolled
out the first batch of their aerodynamic plastic discs—now known
to millions of fans all over the world as Frisbees.

The story of the Frisbee began in Bridgeport, Connecticut, where
William Frisbie opened the Frisbie Pie Company in 1871. Students
from nearby universities would throw the empty pie tins to each
other, yelling “Frisbie!” as they let go. In 1948, Walter Frederick
Morrison and his partner Warren Franscioni invented a plastic
version of the disc called the “Flying Saucer” that could fly further
and more accurately than the tin pie plates. After splitting with Franscioni, Morrison made an improved model in 1955 and sold it
to the new toy company Wham-O as the “Pluto Platter”–an attempt
to cash in on the public craze over space and Unidentified Flying
Objects (UFOs).

Walter Frederick Morrison
(January 23, 1920 – February 9, 2010)