Cassagnes built a working version and called it L’Écran Magique (the magic screen). It debuted at the Nuremberg Toy Fair in 1959 and drew little interest, partly because manufacturers thought he was asking too much for it.
The Ohio Art Company, a toy and metal lithography business in Bryan, Ohio, passed at first too, then took a second look. It paid $25,000 for the rights (roughly $270,000 today), more than the company had ever spent on a license. Ohio Art engineer Jerry Burger worked with Cassagnes to refine the design, swapping the original joystick for two white knobs.
The toy went on sale July 12, 1960, for $2.99 (about $33 today). Ohio Art backed it with heavy television advertising, and the Bryan factory kept running until noon on Christmas Eve to meet demand. About 600,000 units shipped that first year.
The mechanism is pretty simple. The back of the gray screen is coated with aluminum powder and tiny plastic beads that cling by static, and the knobs move a stylus horizontally and vertically, scraping a dark line wherever it goes. (Diagonals and curves require turning both knobs at once, which takes some practice.) Flipping the toy over and shaking it spreads the powder back across the screen, which a 1967 Ohio Art ad summed up as “shake to erase and start all over again.”
Ohio Art kept the classic red frame in production while adding variations over the following decades. Pink and blue frames arrived in 1970, and the Etch A Sketch Animator, an electronic version that could store 12 frames and play them back as a short animation, came out in 1986. Pocket and travel sizes followed in 1992, along with a six-color model in 1993.
The toy had a supporting role in Disney’s Toy Story in 1995 (as a character named Etch), and sales jumped. In 1998, it was among the first 17 toys inducted into the National Toy Hall of Fame.
Production stayed in Bryan for four decades. Rising labor and production costs pushed Ohio Art to move manufacturing to China, and the last American-made Etch A Sketches came off the line on December 22, 2000. Only about 30 jobs were affected, though the move stung in a town of roughly 9,000 people where the toy was a point of local pride.
VIDEO | Toy Story: “Hey, Etch: Draw!”
In February 2016, Ohio Art sold the Etch A Sketch brand (along with its stylus-based spinoff, the Doodle Sketch) to Toronto-based Spin Master and turned its focus back to metal lithography. By the toy’s 60th anniversary in 2020, Spin Master put total sales at 175 million, and the red frame and white knobs look about the same as they did in 1960.
Below are vintage Etch A Sketch ads spanning 1967 to 1987, including a look at an electronic “New Generation” model from 1987. Some of Ohio Art’s other creative toys from the era turn up too, such as the Kaleid A Sketch and Twirl O Paint.
Vintage Etch-A-Sketch: 50 million moms can’t be wrong (1970s)
Moms know, nothing draws out creativity like the Etch A Sketch magic screen. The power of imagination. To explore. To discover. To accomplish. To think.
Remember? It’s that one toy you would never use the same way twice, and it seemed to last forever. Open their world with the Etch a Sketch magic screen. It’s one of the nicest childhood memories anyone can have.
Retro ’70s Etch-A-Sketch toys: It’s new and different every day (1973)
Ohio Art’s world-famous drawing toy
As new as the day. As different as your dreams. Etch A Sketch will change right along with your mood…because it draws on your imagination. Just by turning the knobs, you can create countless drawings and designs.
To erase, turn Etch A Sketch upside down and shake. The picture magically disappears. No matter how often you use it, there is always something new to make. Etch A Sketch… it’s new and different every day.
Vintage Etch-A-Sketch can make a horse fly! (1987)
Etch A Sketch: It takes a kid’s imagination as far as it wants to go.
Make a doodle diddle!
Sketch A Doodle: Creativity comes in all kinds of shapes and sizes.
Make a squiggle wiggle
Kaleid A Sketch: Now the fun of a kaleidoscope and the creativity of drawing come together.
Make a twirl swirl
Twirl O Paint: Kids pick the colors, spin the art, and create an original every time.
Ohio Art – The world of toys – Making creativity fun
Vintage Ohio Art Toys Give Happiness: Including the Etch-a-Sketch
Through hour after hour after hour of play. Naturally, a parent wonders why this is so, and we’d like to tell you.
Ohio Art toys are designed to involve the child. Each has a built-in challenge with a reward in direct ratio to active participation.
Each is appropriate within the range of ability. This makes a happy experience of play — time after time. Isn’t that what you want from toys for your children?
Old-fashioned Etch A Sketch toys (1967)
Favorite drawing toy of the century! Just turn the magic knobs to create thousands of designs and sketches on teh magic Etch A Sketch screen. Shake to erase and start all over again. Just like magic! No paper. No pencils. No crayons. No mess. No fuss. Etch A Sketch is instant fun (even for grown-ups) wherever you are — at home, in plane or car.
Start the show! Musical TV in color / Spudsie, the hot potato game / Bizzy Buzz Buzz / World’s most fascinating work bench
Vintage Etch-A-Sketch: There’s nothing more challenging…
More appealing to all ages… more creative… more entertaining, original, educational, travel-perfect, relaxing, timeless in value, intriguing, more ideally perfect as a gift.
Little folks love ’em! (and so will you)
Ohio Art knows the secret of pleasing children… with fresh, exciting toys that stay exciting.
Toys they turn to again and again. Beautifully designed. Sturdy. Colorful plastic. Every one a work of art. Thrifty prices, too!
New Generation: Vintage Etch a Sketch electronic toy from 1987
ALSO SEE: Vintage Shrinky Dinks: How these shrink art plastic toy sets were invented & how they work
