The History of a Pie Tin

For all you Frisbee lovers, this is a momentous day. It was on this day back in 1957 when machines at the Wham-O toy company rolled out the first batch of the aerodynamic plastic discs that we now call Frisbees.


However, here's the rest of the story: The Frisbee is said to have begun in Bridgeport, Connecticut back in 1871 when William Frisbie opened the Frisbie Pie Company. Students from the nearby schools would throw the empty pie tins to each other, yelling “Frisbie!” as they let go.

Later, in 1948, Walter Frederick Morrison and his partner Warren Franscioni invented a plastic disc and called it the “Flying Saucer.” The plastic version could fly further and with more accuracy than the tin pie plates. The two men parted company and Morrison made an improved model in 1955 and sold the design to Wham-O as the “Pluto Platter.”

A year after the toy’s first release, Wham-O changed the name to the Frisbee disc, misspelling the name of the historic pie company. Since then, the game of Ultimate Frisbee, a cross between football, soccer and basketball, was invented, and now we have Frisbee Golf in which discs are tossed into metal baskets. There are hundreds of courses in the United States. In fact, there’s one at Lake Shawnee, a mere stone’s throw from my home.

And, of course, we can’t forget our four-legged friends who love to catch Frisbees. Many dogs are naturals, some even competing with choreographed routines set to music. But this bronze rendering by Patrick Villiers Farrow that sits on the lawn of Middlebury College Museum of Art in Middlebury Vermont, and is my very favorite.

So the next time you pick up one of those plastic discs and take off for the park or backyard, remember—it all started with a pie!



~Judy