History / Inspiration
In 1957 Bay Area television personality Bruce Sedley invented the "Magic Key to Fairyland" for Children's Fairyland in Oakland, California. This little plastic key unlocked a Talking Storybook, an audio guide to many of the exhibits at Fairyland. Soon afterward, many zoos across the country adopted the Magic Storybook boxes. Sedley invented a new key for the zoos, called "Trunkey the Elephant," which was available at the zoos in a variety of colors, some even metallic or glow in the dark. Similar to the Magic Keys, when Trunkey was inserted into the boxes scattered across the zoos, he would play informational jingles about the animals, exhibit or the zoo itself. The keys were sold for a few dollars or less.
When the zoos got wise of the success of the keys and noticed that children brought back their zoo keys to subsequent visits, the called upon Sedley to make them only useful for one year. Sedley and his company then designed a magnetic key that expired after a given time (making each child buy new keys each year) and the original Trunkey keys became all but extinct.
At the height of their success 46 zoos across the United States used the elephant key and many today use some version of the updated electronic keys. At Fairyland, however, you can still use your original Magic Key to unlock the secrets of the talking boxes. Do you still have your zoo key?
Unlock the story behind the magic key that started it all.
For a longer history of the Zoo Key, watch this video narrated by Sedley himself.
Proceeds from the sale of this shirt go to: Apply Now
About the designer
