BRYAN, Ohio (AP) — Andre Cassagnes, the inventor of the Etch A Sketch toy that generations of children drew on, shook up and
started over, has died in France, the toy's maker said.
Cassagnes died Jan. 16 in a Paris suburb at age 86, said the Ohio Art Co., based in Bryan in northwest Ohio. The cause wasn't
disclosed Saturday.
"Etch A Sketch has brought much success to the Ohio Art Company, and we will be eternally grateful to Andre for that. His
invention brought joy to so many over such a long period of time," said Larry Killgallon, president of Ohio Art.
Then an electrical technician, Cassagnes
came upon the Etch A Sketch idea in the late 1950s when he peeled a
translucent decal
from a light switch plate and found pencil mark images transferred
to the opposite face, the Toy Industry Association said.
Ohio Art saw his idea at the Nuremberg Toy
Fair in 1959. The toy, with its gray screen, red frame and two white
knobs that
are twisted back and forth to create drawings, was launched in
1960 and became the top seller that holiday season. More than
100 million have been sold worldwide since.
Though passed over in popularity for video
games and gadgets, the toy has a steady market, the company has said. It
got a
big jump in sales after Etch A Sketch was featured in the first
two "Toy Story" movies, and Ohio Art capitalized on a much-publicized
gaffe by a Mitt Romney aide during last year's presidential
election, who was asked about his candidate's views during the
primary season versus the general election.
He likened the campaign to an Etch A Sketch: "You can kind of shake it up and we start all over again."
Democrats and Republicans alike seized on
the remark as evidence that Romney was willing to change his positions
for political
gain. And Ohio Art seized on the publicity, creating a politically
themed ad campaign and manufacturing blue versions of the
famously red toy.
Etch A Sketches were made in Ohio until 2000, when the company moved production to China because of increasing costs.