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Page 28 The Antique Shoppe February, 2018
The Game of Cootie Spreads Infectious “Cootie” Bug

By Larry LeMasters

LeMasters’ Antique News Service
If you were a child in the 1950s In 1915 Irvin-Smith Company of
or ‘60s, you probably knew someone Chicago capitalized on the “cootie” lice
who had the “cooties,” since the highly that proliferated Europe’s battle zones and
infectious and nearly microscopic cooties, issued a hand-held Cootie Game, involving
an imaginary childhood disease that made ←The complete tilting capsules (the cootie bugs) into a trap.
a carrier a social outcast, swept the nation Game of The illustration on the board was a WWI
in those decades. Since 1967, random Cootie battlefield. Historians believe this is the game
outbreaks of cooties still occur. by that launched the term “cooties” in America.
A child is said to “catch” the cooties WH Schaper In 1927 the Charles Bowlby Company
from a girl or boy of the opposite Mfg Company released Cootie, a pencil and paper game
gender and of a similar age. It is also (1949); $75. based on a “build a bug” concept similar
possible to “catch the cooties” from an to Schaper’s. In 1937, Rork’s released The
already infected person. One way little Game of Cootie, another pencil and
boys caught the cooties was when an paper game. In 1939, Transogram
unpopular boy wanted to hang out or play released Cootie, a game featuring a three-
games with the other boys. Unpopular dimensional wooden bug.
children were always cootie carriers and Schaper Toys issued the most
thereby rejected by the popular children. famous cootie game in 1949—The
My sister, Kathy, has been a cootie carrier Game of Cootie. William H. Schaper, a
most of her life. Minneapolis postman, whittled a bug-like
While the origin of the word “cootie” fishing lure in 1948. Believing his lure
is not fully known, it is believed to Offered by Sears in had commercial toy potential, Schaper
have developed from the Maori (a 1966, this Cootie molded it in plastic and created The
Philippine language) word kutu, which Game of Cootie. Schaper formed W.H.
refers to a parasitic biting insect. The House board game Schaper Mfg. Company and in 1952 sold
earliest known uses of the term “cootie,” is valued at $40. → 1.2 million Cootie games (over 50 million
referring to a bug, were by British games sold between 1949 and 2005).
soldiers during World War I, referring Schaper Mfg eventually manufactured
to lice in the battlefield trenches as other cootie games, such as Deluxe 6
“cooties.” Cootie and Giant Cootie.
Continued →

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