<P> In 1961, a greeting cards salesman, Leonard Marks, was in a small mom - and - pop shop to sell his line of cards . As he waited for Robert Gilbert, the shop owner, he fiddled with an open box of snow tire replacement chain links . Marks was so interested in playing, he hadn't realized so much time had passed . When he told Gilbert that the links would make a great toy, Gilbert referred Marks to a successful local toy inventor, Milton Dinhofer . Marks already knew Dinhofer from his high school days and immediately reached out to his old friend . Dinhofer asked Marks to bring him a plastic sample of the hooks to their meeting . </P> <P> At the time, Milton Dinhofer was a graduate of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and a successful importer . Prior to meeting with Marks, Dinhofer already had two major toy achievements to his credit . He created the first full - size wearable toy space helmet . The helmet made the covers of both The Saturday Evening Post (November 8, 1952) and Collier's magazine (April 18, 1953). He also designed and brought to market Sip - n - See . Sip - n - See was the first plastic drinking straw on the market and the first twisted straw, selling over 5 million pieces . The straws had different characters on them, and it was the cowboy character's s - shaped arms that would inspire the shape of the monkeys . </P> <P> When Marks met Dinhofer at his home in Roslyn, New York, he brought a pile of red s - shaped 1 / 4" rod plastic hooks . Dinhofer immediately imagined monkeys and envisioned them with arms like those on his cowboy straw . Marks and Dinhofer agreed to form a partnership that night . It was decided that Dinhofer would design the toy, and Marks would sell it . It then took Dinhofer three months to go from sketch to functional monkey . He made a sketch for a face and one for a body . The biggest challenge was the monkeys' balance . Once that was achieved, Dinhofer hired A. Santore of A.S. Plastic Model Company to carve a sample under his supervision . Dinhofer took Santore's sample to a company that could make a beryllium mold of it . Finding a mold maker was quite a challenge and very expensive, as working with plastic was still relatively new . The initial run of monkeys were in many assorted colors, but their shape was just like those that Lakeside would release in 1965 . (Lakeside would eventually add a little more hair to the bodies .) </P> <P> Marks and Dinhofer named their game Chimp to Chimp and chose three colors for their monkeys - four were yellow, four were green and four were red . Twelve total monkeys allowed three to twelve year old children to link them without needing to stand on stools . The Chimp to Chimp prototype came in a flat expensive - to - make packaging, which the Woolworth chain offered to carry in their stores . Woolworths stipulated that Marks and Dinhofer must provide 13 weeks of television advertising . Neither Dinhofer nor Marks could afford a television advertising campaign, and there were no other buyers found . It seemed the game would never come to market . Then in 1964, Herman Kesler agreed to join the partnership and pitch Barrel of Monkeys to Lakeside Toys where he had connections . </P>

Where did the term barrel of monkeys come from