Driving to a job with a friend today, in her hubby’s truck, outfitted with a pair of fuzzy dice on the rearview mirror; we were wondering about the origins of Fuzzy Dice. She and Hub are in their sixties, so remember the first 50’s wave of this, but not the origin or original manufacturer.
I did a Google,and an SD search, but did not come up with any solid explaination.
Here’s the Wikipedia entry for Fuzzy Dice, but there’s no information of the why’s or who first manufactured them.
The obvious theory, to my mind, would be that car rearview mirror displays are much like necklaces, in that they are a prominent focus for the personality of the individual, and display quirky fun for all to see. I did run across description of the Fuzzy Dice as being an signifying testicle thing, and a risktaker thing, but no concrete story of origin, and who specifically started them plushy bones a-rollin across the highways.
I have heard before, second hand , so no cite, that they were given as prizes at carnivales back in the 60 's and upon leaving said carnivale they were displayed on the rear view as a trophy of sorts ~
I hadn’t thought of the “paradise” wordplay, Whack A Mole, simply clever! But it doesn’t really answer the question.
I’m really surprised no one here can answer the question; seems like there would be a history somewhere on the web for a common icon, and Dopers usually have amazing Google-fu.
Maybe Cecil can get to the bottom of it in a future column ?
I grew up in the fifties (Class of '57) and fuzzy dice or other similar “decorations” were definitely not cool, despite what many believe. This was the era when the Detroit “boats” were being created, massive grills, fins, hood ornaments, lots of chrome. The youthful rebellion was away from this, to removing decorative add ons. To the best of my recollection, fuzzy dice were not widely available at carnivals, we had traditional prizes, stuffed animals, junk pottery, goldfish, etc. Cars that were “decked” and “shaved”, or “chopped” and “channeled” were cool, cars that were “decorated” were uncool. Even under the hood, if you added chrome w/o doing some serious work on the engine, you were considered to be a pretender, a phony.
I think the fuzzy dice idea was a Hollywood invention. I’m not saying nobody had them, I’m saying that they weren’t cool in the fifties.
I hear ya AR Cane, but, man, as I’ve been obsessively searching for an answer by Google, they are EveryDamnWhere for sale now, in a jillion colors and thematic permutations, most links to how to jazz up your renovated fifties cars. I still cannot find a original source or history.
The F***in’ Fuzzy Dice, as I’ve come to call them, are presented as a cultural talisman that completes the Fifties nostalgia, both here and abroad. So where did they come from??? I’ve done many searches, many different queries. Were they dropped down in the desert of New Mexico with alien ships?
OK, I’ll stop now. If someone comes up with the answer, I’ll send you a fine gourmet box of chocolates.
I am a first person witness to the fuzzy dice thing. They really were carnival prizes at least as early as the mid-1950s and well into the 1960s. And guys really did put them on their rearview mirrors. They were considered a semi-goofy status symbol. One of my family members in high school was part of the (British) sports car/3-sport athletes crowd and they thought they were cool.
Sure, Mad Magazine made fun of them at the time, but these kind of people are clueless about being mocked. People have been making fun of cheerleaders and such for generations but there seems to be even more of them.
Dice seem to show up in print around 1957. There were other things teens hung from their rear view mirrors. Shrunken heads, baby shoes, etc. But that’s about the beginning of the phenom.
I think they were available from car accessory mfg. Not county fairs. That’s my reading of newspaper articles from the period. I could always be convinced otherwise.