Frisbee as a consumer product was invented in the 1930s by Walter Morrison, after he and his wife-to-be had fun tossing a circular pan around and figured they could commercialize the idea. It had several names before Frisbee, such as Flyin Saucer, and the Pluto Platter:
Morrison had several companies, but eventually the rights were sold to Wham-O in 1957, where it was given the name Frisbee after the Frisbie Pie Company of Connecticut, itself named after founder William Frisbie. Here is a Frisbie Pie Company tin, designed for pies, not for throwing, but workers would toss empty tins around during breaks. The pie company, founded 1871, went defunct in 2022, but not before lending its name to one of the biggest toy crazes in history, with over 500M sold as of 2023.
It has spawned numerous sports like Disc Golf and Ultimate.
Dogs have never been the same.
Old Man Frisbie, looking down from up there in heaven, never got over the twist his legacy took.
Obituary site thinks Old Man Frisbie died in 1903, so I guess he never saw the fortune he narrowly missed! Slightly bigger than the pie market in Bridgeport, Connecticut. They have this anecdote:
They have a photo of his tombstone, too.