SAN DIEGO (NEWS 8) - It is never too late to set the record straight, and in Friday's Zevely Zone, Jeff went to Carslbad to meet 94-year-old Joan Anderson - the woman who discovered and named the modern day, hula hoop.
Joan currently lives at the La Costa Glen Retirement Community and remembers getting worked over like it happened yesterday. She grew up in Australia and noticed Aussies playing with a bamboo exercise ring.
At first, she shipped the ring to her home in Los Angeles. She and her husband, Wayne, approached Wham-O with the idea of mass producing plastic the hula hoop.
Some time later, and after only a handshake deal, the Andersons saw their hula hoop at a toy show. Joan tried to negotiate just a penny for every hula hoop sold. By some estimates, Joan missed out on more than a hundred million dollars.
Joan's story is being told in a ten-minute short film called "Hula Girl."
Hula hoops may always go around in circles, but Joan said she is happy to finally straighten this story out.