Remember when your mother said "don't do that, you'll poke someone's eye out"? And then you actually found a way to put someone's eye out and you were allowed to do it? That was the advent of none other than Mr. Potato Head, a relatively unimportant invention that would one day almost change the face of American politics.
Which came first, the potato or the face? Well, technically the features, because in the beginning Mr. Potato Head was an assortment of ears, eyes and hands that you stuck into a plain old potato, something that could be used for quite a while before attracting your mother's eye by sprouting.
He was patented in 1952 by inventor George Learner, of New York, who now sold it as an entirely plastic toy used as a bonus in cereal boxes. Mrs. Potato head followed in 1953, and as these things go, after a honeymoon in Boise, Idaho, 12 little potatoes followed. Eventually, Learner sold poor Mr. Potato Head to the Hassenfed brothers, who were Hasbro Inc. They proceeded to market the couple as features to be stuck on a styrofoam body, although real vegetables or fruit were recommended.
Mr. Potato Head went on to become the first toy advertised on t.v. He was persuaded to give up his pipe for the sake of children, in 1987. That was after his failed effort at politics. For in the mayoral election of Boise, Idaho in 1985, he received only four write-in votes.
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