Lewis Galoob (November 22, 1918 – August 4, 1971) was an American entrepreneur, inventor and the founder of Lewis Galoob Toys.

Early life

Lewis Galoob was born in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, on November 22, 1918, as the third-youngest of seven children. His parents, Samuel "Sam" Galoob (1883-1973) and Sarah Leah Galoob (née Tarbis, 1887-1935), were both of

Jewish Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...

descent, and originally from

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...

and

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

respectively. He was married to his wife Barbara for 25 years.

Career

In 1954, Galoob founded Lewis Galoob Toys with his wife, originally as an import business. The California-based company later became a toy and stationary distributor. Later, after Lewis Galoob fell ill, leadership of Galoob fell to their son,

waterbed A waterbed, water mattress, or flotation mattress is a bed or mattress filled with water. Waterbeds intended for medical therapies appear in various reports through the 19th century. The modern version, invented in San Francisco and patented in ...

salesman David Galoob. The company then grew into one of the U.S. leading toy companies before being acquired by

Hasbro Hasbro, Inc. (; a syllabic abbreviation of its original name, Hassenfeld Brothers) is an American multinational conglomerate holding company incorporated and headquartered in Pawtucket, Rhode Island. Hasbro owns the trademarks and products of ...

in 1999. Galoob's most successful product include

Micro Machines Micro Machines are a line of toys originally made by Galoob (now part of Hasbro) in the mid-1980s and throughout the 1990s. Micro Machines are tiny scale component style "playsets" and vehicles that are slightly larger than N scale. The toys Ma ...

and

Game Genie Game Genie is a line of video game cheat cartridges originally designed by Codemasters, sold by Camerica and Galoob. The first device in the series was released in 1990 for the Nintendo Entertainment System, with subsequent devices released for th ...

Death

Galoob died in San Francisco on August 4, 1971.

References

1918 births 1971 deaths 20th-century American businesspeople Businesspeople from Oklahoma {{US-business-bio-1910s-stub American people of Jewish descent American toy industry businesspeople