If Not For Bakeries, There Would Be No Frisbees

Walter Fredrick Morrison, the man credited with inventing the Frisbee, died last week at age 90. Until reading his obituary, I hadn't realized that the flying disc began as a tin cake pan that he and his wife used to toss on the beach for fun. He worked to make...

By Lee Klein

February 18, 2010

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Walter Fredrick Morrison, the man credited with inventing the Frisbee, died last week at age 90. Until reading his obituary, I hadn't realized that the flying disc began as a tin cake pan that he and his wife used to toss on the beach for fun. He worked to make the pans fly better, manufactured them as plastic discs, and called the result Pluto Platters. Some time later, the Wham-O Manufacturing company bought the rights and renamed it Frisbee. That's what college students in New England had been calling Pluto Platters because they were like pie tins they used to toss from a local bakery called Frisbie Pie Co. Talk about your pie-in-the-sky!

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