A Game Maker's Life: A Hall of Fame Game Inventor and Executive Tells the Inside Story of the Toy Industry

by Jeffrey Breslow, Cynthia Beebe (Editor)

Overview

How do you spark genius? How do you earn a profit from fun? And how do you overcome unthinkable challenges? The developer of Simon, Fashion Polly Pocket, UNO Attack!, My Size Barbie, and Operation explains it all in this fascinating story of toys, transformation, and murder.

In his captivating memoir, Jeffrey Breslow tells how:

• Creating a game is a mix of Rube Goldberg, Santa’s elves, mass production, and the bottom line.
• He oversaw two multi-million dollar businesses that earned profits for more than four decades. Even while the industry transformed itself from using cardboard and plastics into electronics, his companies never acquired debt and never borrowed money from a bank!
• He overcame the terrible misfortune of a deadly workplace shooting and led his shaken employees through the tragedy and back to running a thriving business.

Millions of people around the world have played with games and toys Breslow and his partners invented—perhaps you have, too! Now, read Breslow’s remarkable story and see how a flash of inspiration, followed by hard work and ingenuity, brought these wonderful games to life.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781637584378
Publisher:	Post Hill Press
Publication date:	08/30/2022
Pages:	224
Sales rank:	1,161,907
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 8.90(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

Jeffrey Breslow, a preeminent toy and game inventor and designer, spent over forty-one years inventing toys and games since graduating with a BFA from the University of Illinois in industrial design in 1965.

Jeffrey, at age thirty-four, became the youngest managing partner of Marvin Glass and Associates, the leading toy design company in the world at that time in 1976. They invented games such as Simon, Operation, Guesstures, the Evel Knievel Motorcycle, Mousetrap, and UNO Attack!

Jeffrey was inducted into the National Toy Hall of Fame in New York City in 1988.

Breslow left the toy business in 2008 to sculpt full time. His sculptures are on display at the University of Illinois and the Lurie Children’s Hospital and on permanent display in Vermont, California, New Jersey, and Uruguay.

Table of Contents

Prologue ix

Chapter 1 Work + Fun = Happy 1

Chapter 2 Finding What I Didn't Even Know I Was Looking For 10

Chapter 3 Learning How to Think 18

Chapter 4 "Let's See What You Have" 27

Chapter 5 My New Career Is a Bucket of fun 36

Chapter 6 Game Design 49

Chapter 7 Inventing Ants in the Pants 59

Chapter 8 My Masterpiece Is Born 65

Chapter 9 Mr. Machine and Mouse Trap Make It Big 72

Chapter 10 Marvin Glass, Superstar 81

Chapter 11 The Evel Knievel Stunt Cycle Takes Off 90

Chapter 12 Marvin Exits the Stage 99

Chapter 13 Movies and TV: The Jaws Game and the Mickey Mouse Phone 107

Chapter 14 Tragedy 113

Chapter 15 Aftermath 120

Chapter 16 Simon Saves the Day 129

Chapter 17 The Soviet Union and the KGB 137

Chapter 18 Electronic Toys Explode and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (Not) 149

Chapter 19 Launching a New Company and Trump: The Game 155

Chapter 20 Ellen DeGeneres Loves Guesstures 162

Chapter 21 Building a Better Mouse Trap: Hot Wheels, Barbie, and Polly Pocket 166

Chapter 22 Finding New Blood and the Hall of Fame 175

Chapter 23 Adventures 184

Chapter 24 Creativity Is a Function of Pressure 190

Afterword 199