Have you ever wondered about the mysterious and elusive rubber duck? There are many kinds – yellow, pink, rainbow, vampire, elf ones, and so many more. They are mass produced in huge gray boxes with workers and machines. They are native to lakes surrounded by white flat mountains, with huge giants that squeeze the life out of them. After they are 50 years old in duck years (3 weeks old) they are buried in a silver can in piles of white paper, at least that’s how they see it.
Rubber Ducks were first spotted in the 1800s but it couldn’t even float and it was supposed to be a chew toy. In 1947 Peter Ganine sculpted the duck and patented it, then he reproduced it as a floating toy. It was so popular that they sold 50,000,000 in a short amount of time, which developed into our beloved creatures made of plastic. This toy was really recognized in 1970 when Ernie, orange Muppet on Sesame Street sang the catchy “Rubber Duckie” song.
The creator was born on October 11, 1900 Tiflis, Russia and died August 11, 1974 Hollywood, California, U.S. at the age of 73. He began his art studies in Russia, then he spent five years as a trader in the Belgian Congo. He got a scholarship to Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. For the rest of his life he lived in Hollywood. He was a sculptor and best known for his ceramics and his chess sets.
There are many rubber duck collectors and there is even a national rubber duck day, it’s on January 13th. You have to celebrate by watching Sesame Street’s Ernie sing the famous rubber ducky song. There is also a rubber duck race or the rubber duck derby on August 10th. That’s when a bunch of people buy rubber ducks for five dollars to represent them, then the ducks are dumped into a river and whoever the duck represents wins. The first place prize is 10,000 dollars, the second prize is 1,000 dollars, and third prize is 500 dollars. The person with the most ducks in the world is Charlotte Lee, who is 54 years old and has 5,631 rubber ducks. In Toronto the biggest duck in the world is 60 feet tall.
