For the employees at the Nissen Trampoline Company, 1960-1961 must have passed by in a blur! Things were happening so quickly that not all made it into the bi-monthly newsletters.
I'll fill in with a few highlights.
My father successfully staged a photo session of himself bouncing on a trampoline with a kangaroo! The photo not only appeared in newspapers around the world, it also became THE iconic photo used forever to capture the image of "George Nissen."
Network television executives snapped up an idea pitched to them by Bud Beyer, head of Nissen's Publicity, Promotion and Public Relations. In 1960, Jackie Gleason's "Sunday Sport's Spectacular with Putter and Cue" featured a synchronized trampoline production number with female bouncers on 12 trampolines. It was so popular that a similar show was staged for Bob Hope's "Buick Sports Award Show" on NBC, February 15, 1961.
Finally, Nissen's began chroming their trampolines and gymnastics apparatus. The innovation stemmed from my father's desire to not only have safe, reliable and durable apparatus, but to have it be appealing to the eye as well. The plating tanks, valued at two-hundred thousand dollars, were one of the largest nickel-chrome-plating tanks in the Midwest.
Here we meet the men responsible for bringing my father's dreams and many doodles on
paper napkins into reality; the "R & D guys."
These next few pages are filled with employee news; sports awards, new folks in the factory and the annual Company Picnic!
Do you have memories of the Nissen Trampoline Company?
Please share your stories and comments below.
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