Business World

Journal Record, The (Oklahoma City), May 22, 1998

Wham-O barnstormer

TORRANCE, Calif. (AP) -- Like most baby boomers, Bret Hadley recalls with fondness the zany Wham-O toys of his youth like the Hula Hoop, Frisbee and Super Ball. If all goes well, those trips down memory lane will reflect Hadley's future as well as his past. As president of the new incarnation of Wham-O Inc., Hadley is trying to hook a new generation of youngsters on those classic toys, plus a few new ones. "We are really bringing that whole brand, and fun, crazy aspect of it, back," said Hadley, 38, a former Mattel executive.

Whether the new Wham-O can lure kids to trade in their video and computer games for plastic hoops and discs will be tested this summer with the company's first major publicity campaign. Over this Memorial Day weekend, Wham-O is launching a 50-day, coast-to-coast tour of U.S. cities, dubbed the Wham-O Invasion, to tout its products. The company will be airing television ads featuring the Hula Hoop and a Frisbee that flies further. Super Ball, Monster Magnet and other toys will be reintroduced later in the year, Hadley said. Summer is the No. 2 season for toys, but accounts for only 10 percent of all sales nationally. But summer is Wham-O's bread-and- butter time, in part because there's not a lot of competition since other companies concentrate on the Christmas season, said Christopher Byrne, a product analyst with the toy industry newsletter Playthings Watch. Byrne said classic toys usually enjoy more than one resurgence. "There's always a market for these kinds of classic toys," Byrne said. "The challenge is really getting consumer awareness and really understanding that these toys are out there. I think they've got a decent shot." One of those perfect jobs LIVERPOOL, England (AP) -- John Halliday is about to start the perfect job for a Beatles' fan -- living in a former Beatle's house, in the Beatles' home city, talking with other Fab Four fans about, you guessed it, the Beatles. Halliday, 50, has beaten 45 other applicants to become custodian of Sir Paul McCartney's boyhood home, where the former Beatle wrote some of the group's early hits, including Love Me Do and I Saw Her Standing There. "I am very excited and cannot wait until the house opens," Halliday said Wednesday as he officially moved in. Britain's National Trust, a charity which administers many of Britain's great stately homes for public tours, bought the two- story, brick row house at 20 Forthlin Road in November 1995 with the aim of re-creating a typical 1950s working-class home. The trust bought the former McCartney house from a woman who had lived there for three decades after the McCartneys moved out. Halliday's job calls for welcoming visitors and maintaining the house, which already attracts thousands of visitors from around the world, in exchange for a $16,000 salary. The house -- where Sir Paul lived from 1955-64, with his brother Mike and father Jim, until the outbreak of Beatlemania -- opens July 29. The Viagra wars TROY, Mich. (AP) -- The nation's leading discount chains are vying to lure impotent men with the price of the popular potency pill, Viagra. Kmart has taken out national newspaper ads to promote its price of $39.99 for a five-tablet prescription. But industry leader Wal-Mart's unadvertised price is even lower -- $38.98, the company said Thursday. At pharmacies around the country, Viagra has been selling for about $10 a tablet, or $50 for five tablets. Viagra, developed by Pfizer, went on the market after receiving Food and Drug Administration approval March 27. Since it hit the market its sales have risen faster than any drug in recorded history. In the first three weeks of sales, pharmacists filled an estimated 150,000 prescriptions nationwide. Analysts who had originally estimated the drug would draw sales of perhaps $300 million this year are now saying it looks like it will top the blockbuster level of $1 billion and could exceed $3.5 billion within four years. Need cash in Times Square? NEW YORK (NYT) -- Times Square may have the reputation of being the center of the universe, but it is a virtual black hole when it comes to finding an automated teller machine. About 20 million tourists visit Times Square each year, and although the area is full of such high-tech wonders as the NBC Astrovision by Panasonic and the Dow Jones news "zipper" at 1 Times Square, finding a low-tech automated teller machine is not easy. Sure, there are some machines on the fringes of the neighborhood, and hotels will often cash checks for their guests. But for the tourists who spend their money in the area, there is only one place in the heart of Times Square where they can easily get more: at the Chase Manhattan branch at 1501 Broadway between 43rd and 44th streets. Although many New York banks have shown a reluctance to test that potential, a Boston bank plans to give it a try. As part of a marketing push to increase its 10 percent share of the banking business in the New York metropolitan region, the Fleet Financial Group plans to install more than a dozen of the machines at two locations. People without Fleet accounts will be charged $1 for using the machines. Transactions will be free for Fleet customers. Banc One sells branches CINCINNATI (Bloomberg) -- Fifth Third Bancorp will buy four Banc One branches in southeastern Ohio for an undisclosed amount. The branches, with $135 million of deposits and $76 million of loans, will become part of Fifth Third Bank of Southern Ohio, which previously had 15 branches and $400 million of deposits. The bank is a unit of Cincinnati-based Fifth Third Bancorp. The branches were part of Bank One Ohio, a unit of Banc One Corp., based in Columbus, Ohio. Fifth Third is one of the most profitable bank's in the country for its size. It recently moved to acquire CitiFed Bancorp based in Dayton, Ohio. A summer tanning tip BOSTON (NYT) -- The Dead Sea is the best place on earth to get a suntan. Why? Because ozone blocks ultraviolet radiation, providing a tan without burning. The Dead Sea -- at 1,312 feet below sea level, the lowest point on any continent -- has the most ozone protection, says David Smith, New England manager of El Al Airlines, which we suspect would be happy to book your flight to the Dead Sea for a tan. NYSE seat slips NEW YORK (Bloomberg) -- A seat on the New York Stock Exchange sold Thursday for $1.35 million, down from the most recent sale of $1.4 million on Tuesday. It was the third time the price of a seat has slipped since setting a record of $2 million on March 9. Before Tuesday's sale, the previous seat went for $1.6 million, on April 3. A seat gives the holder the right to trade stocks and vote at exchange meetings. The most an investor is willing to pay for one of the NYSE's 1,366 seats now is $1.325 million. The lowest price at which an owner is willing to sell is $1.775 million, the exchange said. The NYSE doesn't release the names of buyers and sellers.