Barrel of Monkeys

Barrel of Monkeys is a toy game released by Lakeside Toys in 1965. It was created by Leonard Marks and Milton Dinhofer in 1961, and in 1964, Herman Kesler partnered to sell it to Lakeside Toys. Lakeside Toys released it in 1965 and today it is produced by the Milton Bradley Company within the Hasbro corporation. Milton Bradley's editions consist of a toy barrel in either blue, yellow, red, purple, orange, gray or green. The barrel contains 12 monkeys but can hold 24, their color usually corresponding to the barrel's color. The instructions state, "Dump monkeys onto table. Pick up one monkey by an arm. Hook other arm through a second monkey's arm. Continue making a chain. Your turn is over when a monkey is dropped." In addition to these basic instructions, the barrel also contains instructions for playing alone or with two or more players.

Time magazine ranked Barrel of Monkeys at #53 on their 2011 All-Time 100 Greatest Toys list.

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.

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.

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