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Alfred Carleton Gilbert
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Business New Haven
2/26/2001
By:
Priscilla Searles
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Magic ... the key to Alfred Carleton Gilbert's success. Magic helped pay his way through college and eventually led to the formation of the A.C. Gilbert Company. Given a set of magic tricks at age 11, Gilbert developed such skill that his magician fees paid his way through Yale and gave birth to some of the most popular toys in history.
Graduating from Yale in 1906, Gilbert began to manufacture boxed sets of magic tricks under the name Mysto Manufacturing Company. Gilbert himself designed, built, packaged and sold the products from a rented barn in Westville. Eager to expand the line, Gilbert hit the stores in time for Christmas, 1912 with a new toy, the Erector Set. Children and parents alike were intrigued with this new toy, making it an instant success. Toys were not the only products produced by Gilbert. In 1915 the Gilbert Polar Cub Fan hit the market, America's first $5 electric fan.
By 1916 sales exceeded $1 million. Gilbert changed the name of the firm to the A.C. Gilbert Company and added chemistry sets to the line. That same year Gilbert founded and served as the first president of the Toy Manufacturers of the U.S.A. The growth of the company was nothing short of phenomenal.. Tool chests, electric sets and additional scientific toys were added and by 1917 a six acre lot was purchased on Blatchley Avenue and Peck Street, with railroad siding facilities. Continuously improving and adding to the toy and electrical products line, during World War I the Company manufactured gas mask and machine gun parts for the war effort.
In the early twenties in a circus train car, demonstrating Erector and other Gilbert toys, he toured the country entertaining thousands of children. The train received broadcasts from a transmitter in New Haven and was the sixth licensed broadcasting station in the United States. In 1928 Gilbert sponsored the first sports broadcasts ever heard on a national hookup, with Gilbert himself acting as master of ceremonies. American Flyer Trains were taken over by Gilbert in 1938, making the company the world's largest manufacturer of scientific toys. Modernization and plant additions were made and by the outbreak of World War II the company was prepared to manufacture precision ordnance.
Any reference to Alfred Carleton Gilbert would not be complete without mention of his hobbies and other interests for it helps us to understand what made the man and his company unique. Committed to athletics his life, Gilbert described himself as a child as being "rather skinny but proud of my muscles". At one point in his life he ran away with a traveling minstrel show and billed himself as "The Champion Boy Bag-Puncher of the World." He held numerous records, including an Olympic gold metal in the pole vault at the 1908 London games (the winning height was 12-1).
Serving as a member of the Track Advisory Committee at Yale for a number of years, he served as a member of the American Olympic Committee from 1924 to 1948. Passionate about hunting, he built a log cabin on the grounds of the Preston Mountain Club near Kent and filled it with trophies he had bagged on hunting trips. He raised German shepherds, including many champions.
When Alfred Carleton Gilbert died in 1961 the toy market was changing. Kids were beginning to spend more time in front of the television and operating electronic toys. In 1967 company closed its doors and although the Erector Set is still manufactured by another firm, a special era in hands-on toys that forced children to be creative while learning died with the A.C. Gilbert Company.
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