Jeffery Breslow’s life and the lives of those he worked with making toys for children were shattered on the morning of July 27, 1976, when another employee named Al Keller walked into his place of work with two handguns and began to kill.
Perhaps you fondly remember some of those items and, if not, memories will come rushing back when Breslow writes about such popular diversions as Ants in the Pants, Bucket of Fun, Rock ‘Em Sock ‘Em Robots, Guesstures, Hot Wheels Criss Cross Crash, Masterpiece or Simon, which Smithsonian Magazine noted “ushered in the era of electronic games.”
The book offers a rare intimate look at Marvin Glass, one of Chicago’s most notable if enigmatic characters and one hardly remembered since his death in 1974. He hired Breslow in 1967 as the youngest employee of his company, called him a “boy genius” and made him a partner in the firm in less than two years.
Especially timely is the story of his and the company’s mid-1980s encounters with a fellow named Donald Trump during the creation of a game called, immodestly, “Trump: The Game,” which was marketed by Milton Bradley. A later creation, “The Apprentice Game,” never got off the ground. “I thought it was important to clearly convey to the reader what happened inside the Glass building on that terrible day of killing, and also wanted them to understand the remarkable steps Jeffrey later took to help the employees deal with the aftermath. He is a sensitive man, very smart, collaborative and energetic. He’s a lot of fun to work with and I loved telling the story of his life and work.