The History of Magic 8 Balls

The Magic 8 Ball was introduced by Abe Bookman of the Alabe Crafts Company of Cincinnati in 1946. It featured a flat spot that allowed it to stand on a desktop and contained a 20-sided plastic polyhedron floating in a diluted liquid. Each of the facets was inscribed with a different answer to a yes-or-no question. While Bookman originally marketed the item as a paperweight, he quickly realized that it was popular among children and re-marketed it as a toy. Today, the Magic 8 Ball is still a popular toy among children and adults alike — in fact, millions of them have been purchased over the last seven decades.