Wooly Willy Turns 50

Olean Times Herald
May 2, 2005

One of Smethport’s more notable characters turn 50 this year and his birthday will be celebrated during Summerfest on June 23-26.
Wooly Willy, manufactured by Smethport Specialty Co., will be honored with a party on the courthouse lawn on Thursday, June 23.
Using a small, colorful magnetic stick, children – and adults, too – have been bushy eyebrows, beards and mustaches in the chubby face with the big round nose for several generations.

Jim Herzog, a former company owner along with his brother Don, said at the time he conceived the idea of Wooly Willy in 1955, Smethport Specialty, which was founded by there late father Ralph, made toy magnets that were sold to 5 & 10 Cents stores such as Woolworth and S. S. Kresge.

Jim Herzog said it occurred to him the grinding dust gathered in the dust collector might be used for some kind of decorative purpose and his brother took the idea of making a face to Bradford artist Leonardo Mackowski.

“Leonardo developed the art that would be on the background of the card,” Mr. Herzog said “and then we had to take our knowledge of magnets and printing and figure out how to make it all work.
Mr. Herzog said the company bought a hand operated plastic forming that would make the casting that would hold the metallic dust. After contacting, Arden Bush at Stackpole Carbon, which at the time had an operation in Kane, the brothers used Mr. Bush’s suggestion of magnetic iron powder, “The power is critical and the grindings were just the concept,” Mr. Herzog.
“So we found a source in New Jersey and it has been used since the beginning,” he said “We had to apply anti-static to the face so the powder wouldn’t stick to everything,” he said.
The idea of adding the yellow color to the little magnet stick used for drawing Wooly Willy’s face came from their father said Jim Herzog. “He said yellow would draw more attention and it wouldn’t cost anymore to add the yellow stripe to the red.
He said “The first ones fell apart because the adhesive would dry out. So we went to a wet adhesive which is still used today.”
No one wanted to buy Wooly Willy in the beginning, Mr. Herzog said “We took him to every chain store and the buyer at G.C. Murphy in Pittsburgh told us it was the worst toy he had ever seen.”
Mr. Herzog said, “Their store in Indianapolis took six dozen and they sold out in two days and he called us beck ordering 1000 dozen, saying he had made a mistake.”
From there the popularity of Wooly Willy being named one of the top toys of the century at the International Toy Fair Centennial Celebration in 1993 and named one of the top 40 toys of all time by Toy Shop Magazine in 1998.
Along the way Wooly Willy found a girlfriend, Hairdo Harriet, and production became totally automated.
In 1993, the Herzog brothers sold the business to brothers-in-law Scott Cavaganro and Rob Daggett of Bradford.
Mr. Cavaganro said Wooly Willy’s strongest market is in the U.S., Canada, and most English speaking countries.
“The larges outlet for our games is the Cracker Barrel chain,” he said. “We are in all 500-plus stores throughout the country.”
Wooly Willy which originally sold for 29 cents, is still a good buy at less than $2 today, he said, “and he is made with the same quality as the original.”
The company markets their toys to specialty shops and independent retailers, he said. Locally, their merchandise can be pound at Lingren’s and America’s First Christmas Store in Smethport as well as Bradford and Olean N.Y., hospital gift shops.
“Our company is one of the last remaining totally integrated toy manufactures in the United States,” said Mr. Cavagnaro.