The History of the Toy and Games Industries Seen through a Jewish Lens: An Interview with Stephen Jacobs

Stephen Jacobs, a game historian, traces the history of the toy and game industries through the contributions of Jewish designers, entrepreneurs, and inventors spanning more than two centuries. His research identifies over one hundred figures, and roughly one-third of Toy Industry Hall of Fame inductees have Jewish backgrounds. The account centers on the German toy industry from the 1850s to the early 1930s, a period when relative tolerance coincided with industrial growth and Jewish founders became prominent. Firms such as Gebruder Bing, J. W. Spear and Sons, and Ernst Paul Lehmann Patentwerk illustrate this era, which ended with the rise of Nazism. Gebruder Bing went bankrupt in 1932, and of the twenty-nine businesses identified in the research, J. W. Spear and Sons was Aryanized in 1938.

The narrative then turns to the postwar period, when the toy and game industries reorganized around new conditions. Spear Games, acquired by Mattel in 1994, and the Lehmann company, which survived the war and was nationalized in East Germany, mark key threads in this history. American innovators including Lewis Cohen, Lionel Cowen, Beatrice Alexander, Jack and Lynn Pressman, Ruth and Elliot Handler, and Louis Marx shaped the industry through innovation, licensing, and advertising. Structural shifts such as cheaper plastics, a growing entrepreneurial workforce, and the decline of European competitors helped establish the United States as the center of toy manufacturing.

The final portion extends this account into pinball and video games. Marvin Glass, whose royalty-based design firm influenced industry contract practices, and Eddy Goldfarb, credited with over 800 toys and 300 patents, represent the toy design sphere. David Gottlieb and the Stern family pioneered pinball, and Gary Stern's company remains the only major pinball manufacturer. Ralph Baer, inventor of the first home video game console, and the Jewish founders of early Japanese arcade companies Taito and Sega extend the story into electronic entertainment. Jacobs closes by describing efforts to preserve this history through a website, a forthcoming book, and a planned 2025 exhibit with The Strong museum.