The evolution of the American toy is chronicled in a grandly illustrated volume that recounts the stories of the inventors, manufacturers, and marketers of the essential childhood companion.
Richard O'Brien, (birth name Richard O'Brien - 1/13/34 - ),author, humorist, expert on collectible toys
O'Brien was a New York press agent for nearly seventeen years (beginning in June,1960), the last ten as head of his own agency. He had an instinct for comedy, and as a result several comedians gravitated toward him. He was responsible for kicking off the careers of Woody Allen, Bill Cosby, Joan Rivers and Flip Wilson. Other humorous long-term clients were Victor Borge, Fannie Flagg, Dick Cavett and Rodney Dangerfield. Eventually, he began to realize the gags he wrote for newspaper columnists (to which he attached the names of other, non-funny clients) were good enough to become a paying proposition.
Since March, 1968, O'Brien has had a continuing job as gag writer and idea man for Woody Allen. He also wrote for Rivers, both for nightclubs and her early afternoon talk show. For Borge he wrote comedy essays; sometimes alone, sometimes in collaboration with the veteran funnyman.
The comedy writing led to O'Brien's first book, "Jaws Jokes", writen with his son Sean and longtime friend Bill Kaufman. "Publicity: How to Get It" was his next, and his swan song as a press agent as he began to make a living from writing. "The Golden Age of Comic Books" was his third.
O'Brien's lifelong fascination with toy soldiers resulted in his doing the first edition of "Collecting Toys", which enabled him to began researching the American toy-soldier companies as well as investigate the history of general toymakers. The book, both a reference and a price guide, became a standard in the field, O'Brien continuing to expand each of the seven succeeding editions.
The first contained 319 pages. The eighth ran 766. Eventually, he added books on trains, toy cars and trucks and several on toy soldiers, including the mammoth "Collecting American-Made Toy Soldiers", which remains the Bible of the hobby. He also authored the coffee-table book "The Story of American Toys".
Along the way, O'Brien began writing novels. The first three were under the pseudonym of Brad Latham, in a series for Warner Books. His contributions were "The Gilded Canary", "Hate Is Thicker Than Blood", and "Corpses in the Cellar". His next two novels, "Ballyhoo Years" and "Dust in the Wind" were part of a jazz era series for Dell. All of the books in that series used his name for purposes of unity, since he refused to once again ghost a novel. His remaining novels have also been written under his name: "Images", "Evil", "Never Tell Him You're Alone", "The One After Snelling", and "Hollywood Dreams", which is a revised version of "Dust in the Wind", as he had been unhappy with its editing.
Though "Never Tell Him You're Alone" was his most successful novel, with 46,000 copies sold in the U.S., and translations in all of the Scandinavian countries, plus pirated edtions in Hungary, Poland and possibly China, it is "The One After Snelling" that is considered his best.
In 1979, after having successfully written gags for seven syndicated and magazine cartoonists, he created and wrote the comic strip "Koky" for the Chicago Tribune-Daily News syndicate. The artist was Mort Gerberg. He also created and wrote the less successful "Suzy" with Bob Vojtko as the artist. Both strips have been reprinted in their entirety by Ramble House.
O'Brien was born in Queens, New York, raised in Manhattan, Sayville Long Island, and Brooklyn. He now lives in Tryon, North Carolina, with his wife of fifty-three years, the former Mary Ann Shelton. They have four children, Alison, Sean, Rebecca and Julie, and eight grandchildren.
O'Brien's most recent book (2009) is "Researching American-Made Toy Soldiers, 32 Years of Articles".
