Innovation's no joke for maker of novelties
By Michael L. Diamond
Asbury Park (N.J.) Press
NEPTUNE, N.J. — Chris Adams was raised in a world of joy buzzers and disappearing ink, dribble glasses and reigniting birthday candles, but his latest trick might require the best magic yet.
The third-generation owner of the novelty gadget manufacturer S.S. Adams Co., Adams needs to guide the company into a future where children get their kicks not from the trusty old nickel that squirts a stream of water, but from the latest computer game.
The company has 30 employees working out of a 45,000-square-foot building in Neptune, N.J. Its products include spicy hot bubble gum, sneezing powder from finely ground pepper and double-headed quarters. Adams, 41, wouldn't disclose the company's sales, but he said demand is stable.
The company was started in 1906 by Adams' grandfather Sam, an immigrant from Denmark who worked at a job selling coal-based products. One of those products was a dye that irritated nostrils and made people sneeze.
"He decided as a joke to blow the product into a room, and people started sneezing," Chris Adams said. "He thought it was quite funny."
So did others. Sam Adams packaged the product in envelopes, called it Cachoo and sold it for 10 cents apiece or $5 for 100. As competitors caught on, he invented more gags.
Eventually, the company offered snakes springing out of cans of mixed nuts, flowers that sprayed water, and stink bombs — all of which amused children in the 1930s, '40s, and '50s.
"It seemed silly, but the whole country laughed," said William Rauscher of Woodbury, N.J., author of "S.S. Adams: Merchant of Magic and High Priest of Pranks."
Sam Adams died in 1963, and his son Joseph "Bud" Adams succeeded him.
Chris Adams worked at the family business during summer vacations. After he graduated from Cornell University, he worked at a New York City publishing company. But in 1988, his father said he would sell the business if Adams didn't return.
The company needed modernizing. Adams shifted some work overseas. He computerized the office. And Joseph Adams handed him more of the daily operations before he died two years ago at age 83.
Little has changed since the company moved here in 1932. The floors are creaky and wooden. The machinery is 50 years old. Adams said the company's best-selling products are the old standbys: the joy buzzer, the bug in the ice cube, the leaping snake.
Which sets up the trick: Convince consumers to spend $1 to $5 to buy novelty items when they have high-tech options at their fingertips.
"They're not in demand with a capital 'I', but are kids still enthralled with magic? Yeah, they're impressed with what S.S. Adams has to offer," said Jack Pentifallo, a salesman at Magical Enterprises in Dover Township, N.J.
How does the company survive? Adams said it's simple.
"It's human nature," he said. "People always need a little laugh or surprise or a way to jolt someone out of their ordinary everyday existence."
