The Pet Rock was one of those toy fads that comes and goes in the blink of an eye. However, this fad would make creator Gary Dahl very rich, very quick.
In 1975 Gary Dahl began selling smooth stones from Mexico’s Rosarito Beach and marketed them as live pets.
Each Pet Rock came in a cardboard box, complete with straw and breathing holes. While the fad only lasted six months, Gary was able to sell 1.5 million pet rocks for $4 each, making him a millionaire.
Gary got the idea of a Pet Rock after listening to friends complain about their pets. A Pet Rock would not need to be walked, fed, watered, groomed or require costly vet visits.
He began to take the Pet Rock idea seriously after creating a 32-page instruction manual for them which was full of puns and gags which referred to the rocks as actual pets. The manual taught you how to make your pet ‘sit’ and ‘stay’. It also claimed that ‘roll over’ would often require a little help from the pet owner.
From then on he managed to get a hold of the rocks for just a penny each. The straw was free and so his only real cost were the boxes and manuals.
With the money Gary made from his Pet Rock idea he would open a bar in Los Gatos, California named ‘Carry Nation’, a reference to Carrie Nation, a radical member of the temperance movement who apposed alcohol. She if often remembered for attacking alcohol-serving establishments with a hatchet.
In 2012 the Pet Rock finally made a reappearance, almost four decades after the fad had ended. Rosebud Entertainment, who hold the US trademark for Pet Rock, relaunched the product.
