I have written my two columns about the Sun Rubber Co. Talley argued that the prolonged strike forced their customers to seek sources of supply from other manufacturers. The strike continued until mid-April 1974, when Talley Industries closed the plant permanently. 5, 1973, the 226 members of United Rubber Workers Local 58 struck over economic issues and working conditions. Production focused on manufacturing interior trim for automobile companies, junior sporting goods (basketballs, footballs and volleyballs), and Hoppity Hop balls. In 1969, Talley Industries of Phoenix, Ariz., purchased the company. The final $750,000 consisted of a term loan from the Cleveland Trust Co.īy 1962, the plant was largely a plastics division of the McNeil company. Another $1 million was received from McDonald & Co., a Cleveland investment house that underwrote 6 percent debentures.
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of Akron, Ohio, loaned the company $1 million in exchange for a license to manufacture and sell machines that rotationally cast vinyl products under Sun’s patents. Smith admitted that he “considered moving the plant South.” In May 1960, Sun Rubber announced a $2.7 million refinancing program, the results of two years of effort by Smith and others to keep the plant in Barberton. In the late 1950s, the company, suffering from union problems, financial difficulties and toy pirates, closed down. United Rubber Workers Local 58 represented the Sun Rubber Co. Sun also made a Gogg doll, clown, riding horses, and sport-car bodies for children. The mannequins had wigs and were dressed in bra and bikini pants. In 1958, it produced more than 100 different products, including vinyl, life-size mannequins for a California company. In 1955, Sun Rubber gave birth to the Gerber Baby in a variety of sizes and packaging. The doll drank from her own bottle, wet her diaper, blew bubbles from a plastic pipe, and cried when squeezed. In 1954, the Bannister Baby, named after a famous baby photographer, was introduced. The mid-1950s represented a post-war “golden era” for Sun Rubber. Coupled with the introduction of Disney-related toys, including the famous Mickey Mouse fire engine, Sun Rubber enjoyed an era of modest prosperity. In the late 1940s and early 1950s, Newton also designed several models of the Sunbabe doll, including “So-Wee,” “Cindy-Lee,” and “Babee-Bee,” and several inflated rubber toys such as Chunky (girl) and Rompy (boy). Employment at the plant increased from 800 to 1,150 to meet production demands of 12,000 dolls per day. Newton, a children’s book author and illustrator, was the designer. The 10-inch doll had a soft rubber head with painted features, was fully jointed, and drank, wet and cried when squeezed. In February 1949, Sun Rubber introduced Amosandra, the radio daughter of Amos and Ruby from Columbia Broadcasting’s Amos n’ Andy show. In 1947, Sunbabe dolls were produced at the rate of 20,000 every 24 hours to meet Christmas orders. It came with a flannelette diaper and safety pin and included the “Sunruco” drinking and wetting feature utilizing a glass nurser bottle with rubber nipple. The initial model was jointed, flesh colored, had a hard rubber head, metal sleeping eyes, and painted hair and mouth. However, it was the doll line that guaranteed Sun Rubber Co.’s strong position in the toy market. This is one of the key reasons why 1940-41 represents a significant dividing line when differentiating “antiques” from “collectibles” in the 1990s. As a result, household products and toys from the pre-war period are vastly different from the toys of the post-war period. Few new household or toy products were developed and manufactured during this period. Manufacturers across America produced war-related goods between 19.
What happened to Sun Rubber was not unique. The plant operated 24 hours a day and employed about 900 workers.
One casualty was toy production.ĭuring the war effort, the company made molded rubber goods (face blanks for high-altitude oxygen masks and respirators, corrugated rubber mask tubing, rubber bellows for testing the fitness of high-altitude oxygen masks, grommets for batteries and flashlight equipment, and pipeline gaskets), rubber bonded to metal (bullet-sealing cell fittings), self-sealing fuel cells for airplanes, and all-rubber athletic balls for troops in training camps and fighting zones. In 1942, Sun Rubber “went to war,” entering the battle of production waged by American industry. with its Sunruco products focused on three consumer areas: educational and recreational toys and playthings office specialties, and custom-molded rubber articles and surgical goods. Now, the rest of the story.īefore 1941, the Sun Rubber Co. of Barberton, Ohio, from its founding in 1923 until the advent of World War II. In a previous column I covered the history of the Sun Rubber Co.
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