Who made Connect 4?

Answer 1

Connect 4 was developed in 1967 by the Parker Games Company. Alfred Jackson an employee of Parker Games since the 1940's invesnted it. This is what Phil Jupitus said on Buzzcocks. But, Dr. Wexler, whose Ph.D. is not surprisingly in psychology, can boast a 30-year career in fun and games invented Connect Four (4). He has created more than 125 toys that have soldworld-wide, and, beside heading his own toy design company (Interplay, Inc.), he has developed products for Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus, Disney on Ice, Crayola, and such big birds of toydom as Hasbro, Mattel, and Milton Bradley.

A lifelong New Yorker who grew up in a Lower East Side tenement, Wexler was the only member of his family to graduate from high school. It was only after entering City College and studying educational psychology that he came to recognize that he was dyslexic. "This has motivated me to return to academe," he says, "I want to pass on some of the things which have enabled me to overcome obstacles." Wexler worked his way through college and graduate school, receiving both B.S. and M.S. degrees in education and education psychology, respectively, at CCNY.

Among Wexler's most notable creations are "Your Baby" (the first comprehensive developmental line of infant toys), the "Rodney Dangerfield Game," "Obsession," "Touché," and "Stuffs" (a line of sports toys carrying the Spaulding and Wilson trade names). And of course "Connect Four," which was introduced in 1974.

Asked by ACE director, Dr. Jane MacKillop, about a favorite among his toys, Wexler nominated a mobile which he made flat rather than vertical-much more appealing to a horizontal baby. "Prior to 1970 there were no infant toys," he says, "none that really considered the baby's line of vision and it derives pleasure from its surroundings. The mobile set a new standard in infant toys." Motivated by the wide appeal of "Connect Four," he is working on a version for toddlers.

Answer 2

David Bowie did not invent Connect 4. This is an urban legend made up by Stuart Maconie when he worked for NME magazine.