Uncle Milton Celebrates 50 Years

Scientists claim that ants can carry more than 50 times their body weight. But Milton Levine knows ants can carry far more than that—such as the success of his business, Uncle Milton Industries, for 50 years. In 2006, while Milt celebrates his 93rd birthday, his most famous product, Ant Farm, will celebrate its 50th “ant-iversary” of bringing happiness—and bugs—into homes across the country.

How did such an unlikely idea like putting live ants into millions of homes—and charging for it—become such a success? To answer that, we'll have to go back to Pittsburgh, 1946.

Upon his return from military duty (Milt was sergeant of an engineering platoon that built bridges for Patton's tanks in Germany), Milt and Joe Cossman, Milt's brother-in-law, saw a baby boom on the horizon, so they decided to start a mail-order novelty company. Their first products included animal balloons, plastic shrunken heads and dwarf tree kits. Remember “100 soldiers for a dollar” advertised on backs of comic books? That was Milt and Joe's item. So were the 100 cowboys and Indians, and 100 circus figures.

In 1952, the company moved to the West Coast, taking offices in a converted two-story house on Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood. They were still churning out zany mail-order items when Milt hit on an idea. It was in 1956, during a Fourth of July family barbecue at Joe's San Fernando Valley home, that Milt noticed ants scurrying about between the cracks around the pool deck. He recalled watching ants for hours as a kid while on visits to his uncle's farm just outside Pittsburgh. Munching on a charred burger, he asked Joe, “Why don't we come out with some kind of observation toy, so kids can watch ants at home?”

They immediately got to work on the project. A major feature of their product was a “stock certificate” to send away for a tube of live ants, thus relieving the consumer of the chore of collecting the insects. The stock certificate was a big part of the success of the product, as well as a source of valuable PR.

To test the idea, they put a small ad in the Los Angeles Times mail-order section for a home ant habitat. What they were offering was essentially an off-the-shelf, clear plastic box filled with dirt and a coupon to send for ants. A few days later they were swamped with orders.

Milt and Joe realized they had a potential hit, but they also had a problem: where to find all those ants? So they placed another ad in the Los Angeles Times—this time in the classified section—looking for “ant pickers,” and offering a penny per ant. This wasn't exactly a standard job category in the classifieds, but surprisingly they received a number of applicants, most of whom turned out to be a little peculiar. Luckily, Milt and Joe found one worthy candidate, Kenneth Gidney. Kenneth and his family went on to provide a steady supply of live ants to the company for almost 30 years.

Once Milt and Joe saw that the demand was real, they created a clear plastic habitat framed in green with art deco design elements. They wanted to create a “fun” context for watching ants, rather than having their product look like some kind of laboratory apparatus. Eventually, they settled on a farm theme, and called their creation an “Ant Farm.” (Prior to that, there was no reason for anyone to put the words “ant” and “farm” together.) They had an engraver make tooling for the above/below-ground divider, an ant-sized farm scene complete with barn, silo, windmill, farmhouse and barnyard animals in incredibly detailed bas-relief. And they replaced the dirt with clean, white volcanic gravel.

To be sure, Milt and Joe didn't invent the ant habitat; there had been handmade wood and glass “formicaria” around for years, mostly used in classrooms and museums. But they were first to develop and mass produce the idea—and the first to provide the live ants to consumers.

After selling Ant Farms via mail order for six months with much success, Milt and Joe began to attract interest from the toy and gift trade. Retailers wanted to get in on the success of Ant Farms by selling them in stores. But there was a problem: how would the ants survive inside a package that could sit inside a warehouse for months? The solution was as simple as their slogan (which is still used today), “You Take the Farm, We Mail the Ants.”

The retail version of the Ant Farm included the same “farm” habitat with a “stock certificate” inside, so the purchaser could send it in to obtain a tube of live ants. The stock certificate also relieved the consumer of the chore of collecting ants for themselves.

Soon, Ant Farms were being sold everywhere— toy stores, department stores, hardware stores, pet stores and, of course, mail-order catalogs. In 1966, Milt bought out Joe's interest, and renamed the company Uncle Milton Industries.

Today, more than 20 million Ant Farms have been sold around the world, and the product has become a treasured part of American culture, having been recognized as one of the Top 100 Toys of the Century by the Toy Industry Association, as well as garnering considerable media attention through the years.

To commemorate the Ant Farm's 50th “ant-iversary,” two new Ant Farm products are making their debut at the 2006 American International Toy Fair. Uncle Milton is introducing a collectible vintage edition consisting of a gold-plated, classic Ant Farm packaged in the original 1950s-era box. The company will also introduce a futuristic gel version called the Ant Farm Gel Colony.

Uncle Milton Industries remains a family business. I joined the company in 1978, and took over as president in 1989. The company is proud of its rich heritage, and remains committed to bringing creative, innovative toys to kids and parents around the world. Some of today's offerings from Uncle Milton Industries are Star Theater, 3-D Adventure Projector, R/C Snake, Shadow Magic, Planet Frog, Hermit Crab Island, Jet Hawks Air Powered Gliders, T-Rex Battle, and P-Brains, as well as classic Ant Farm, Giant Ant Farm, Ant Farm Village and Extreme Ant Farm.

Back in 1956, Milt probably never thought selling ants would put his three children through college, and Joe probably never thought he would write a best-selling, how-to book about making a million dollars in mail order. But sometimes all it takes to find the big idea is to pay attention to the small stuff… like ants!