The long line

From a Paris workshop to the Toy Hall of Fame

The magic screen was not invented by a toy company. It was invented by a French electrician who noticed pencil marks showing through a translucent decal.

L’Ecran Magique

In the late 1950s, electrician Andre Cassagnes built a drawing toy around aluminum powder and a scraping stylus and called it L’Ecran Magique, the magic screen. The Ohio Art Company of Bryan, Ohio saw it at a European toy fair, passed on it once, then thought better of it.

July 12, 1960

The first Etch A Sketch reached American shelves on July 12, 1960 at 2 dollars 99, in the red frame that has not changed shape since. Ohio Art kept the factory running late into that first Christmas season to keep up. The date stuck: people who draw with both hands still keep July 12 as Etch A Sketch Day.

The knobs outlast everything

By 1998 the same two knobs had been steering the same stylus for thirty-eight years, and the red frame entered the National Toy Hall of Fame alongside the yo-yo and the teddy bear. More than one hundred million screens have been sold worldwide since that first summer.

Same line, greener frame

Today the frame is made under Spin Master, and the newest run, the Sustainable edition, molds the classic body from 86 percent recycled plastic. Inside, nothing moved. Powder, stylus, wires, two knobs. Sixty-five years of updates and the honest answer to what changed is: the plastic.