The "Kings" of West Virginia: The Marble King

In the 1930's and '40's, traveling salesman Barry Pink had been criss-crossing the eastern part of the United Sates.  One of his lines was a then-very-popular children's toy - marbles - manufactured by the Peltier Glass Company of Ottawa, Illinois and marketed under the name "Marble King."  In the course of his travels, Pink not only gave away free samples of the product, but he hosted marbles tournaments throughout the mid-Atlantic region.  Barry had been selling marbles for quite some time, and was quite good at it...so good that he had become known as the marble king.  So good, in fact, that he sold more marbles than Peltier could produce.  And so, in 1949, Barry Pink joined forces with Sellers Peltier (the son of the owner of Peltier Glass Co.) to form a new company.  Pink retained majority interest in the new venture, and Marble King, Incorporated was born.  Barry Pink was now, indeed, "The Marble King."

Marble King marbles, STILL proudly made in the USA

Fast-forward sixty-six years.  Today, Marble King is still making marbles.  Its original location in St. Mary's, West Virginia, was destroyed by fire in 1958, and Roger Howdyshell, who managed the facility, moved it to Paden City, West Virginia, where it is still located.  There are other marble-makers in the United States - Jabo, Inc. in Parkersburg, WV is one - and a number of specialty companies that sell a lot of imported marbles (Moon Marble Company in Bonner Springs, KS, for example) but Marble King is the undisputed leader, currently producing over one million marbles per day and shipping them world-wide.  The factory operates seven days a week, twenty-four hours per day, halting production only on holidays or for scheduled (and sometimes unscheduled) maintenance.

The Marble King factory in Paden City, WV is not a very imposing place,
considering that they are a company whose products are shipped world-wide
from right here at their "world headquarters" in Paden City, WV

Except for that John Deere Lawn Tractor, the interior looks pretty much like it did
when it opened here in 1958, after a fire destroyed the original location in St. Mary's, WV

In the mid-1950's, the Japanese threatened to dominate the market with the introduction of a new marble called the Cat's Eye, with an opaque center inside a clear, tinted glass marble.  Pink and Howdyshell traveled to Japan to try to learn or buy the process.  Failing in their endeavor, they returned home and Howdyshell, who had been an engineering major prior to serving in WWII (he attended college on the G.I. bill following the war and got his degree in business) came up with his own process for making Cat's Eyes.

Barry Pink passed away in 1962 and Roger Howdyshell continued as co-owner of the business.  He became the sole owner in 1968 and ran the company until his death in 1991.  Marble King is still owned by the Howdyshell family.  Roger's daughter, Beri Fox, is now at the helm of the company of 38 employees, and her daughter, Jeanne, who has worked for Marble King since she was sixteen years old, plans to someday carry on the family business.

Marble King President and CEO Beri Fox with Stephen Colbert

and with Martha Stewart.  The tower in front of them makes
different tones as the marbles drop down from one level to the next

Walking up to the plant, one gets the impression of a recycling center - which, of course, is exactly what it is.  Piles and bins of clear and colored broken glass sit just outside the factory.  Marble King buys glass from recyclers.  It also gets broken glass from other glass manufacturing operations.  Some of the marbles that you played with as a kid may well have been made from glass produced by such notable names as Fostoria or the Fenton Art Glass Company.

Glass dumped in the yard at Marble King looks like snow that has been plowed into piles

Barrels of broken glass sit outside, waiting to be used

Green glass.....

Blue glass...

Clear glass....

White glass....

Marble King melts 4.5 tons of broken glass each day to make one million marbles

Seventy-five pounds of broken glass are fed into the 2,350-degree gas-fired furnaces every twenty minutes - 4.5 tons of broken glass each day - producing a steady stream of molten glass that is cut into small pieces and dropped onto a series of rollers that form the glass into perfectly round little orbs as it cools.  After cooling for twenty-four hours the marbles are all sorted by hand.  Imperfect pieces are discarded, to be melted down and re-used in another batch.  Marbles are sized and packaged for shipping.

Pushing the glass into a 2,350 degree oven has to be hot work

The molten glass from the furnaces drops onto these rollers, which
keep rolling and turning it as it cools, forming perfectly round little spheres

After cooling for 24 hours, the marbles are inspected by  hand, and sorted by size

And just what does one do with a million marbles per day?  The majority of the marbles are used for industrial purposes.  You know that "rattle" that you hear when you shake a can of spray paint?  Most people think that is a ball bearing.  Wrong!  It is a marble, and chances are, it is a Marble King marble.  The petroleum industry uses marbles to un-clog and scrub out pipelines.  Marbles are also used in jewelry, in decorative landscape and accent pieces, in fish tanks, and more.  As far as toys are concerned, marbles are found in board games (Chinese Checkers) and other games (remember Hungry, Hungry Hippos?)  

The Marble King gift shop features authentic American toys

including this rug, on which you can play a variation
of marbles much like shuffleboard

The tower that was in the picture with Martha Stewart
is also for sale in the gift shop. It is not made by
Marble King but by another local West Virginia craftsman

Marbles sold by the pound...pick out your favorite colors

And, of course, the requisite T-shirts are available

But the original purpose - the ancient game of marbles known as "Ringer" - is still around.  Each year since 1968, Marble King has been a contributing sponsor and supporter of The National Marble Tournament.  And the winners of the tournament each year, one boy and one girl, under the age of 14, are crowned "Marble King" and "Marble Queen" and are each awarded a $2,000 college scholarship, compliments of Marble King.  Talk about "taking home all the marbles..."   

Youngsters from all over the U.S. enter local and regional competitions to
qualify for the National Marbles Tournament, held each spring.

In addition to sponsoring the National Marbles Tournament,
Marble Kings presents programs and demonstrations at
schools, for scout troops, and other community groups

There is even a "official" marble sizing tool, calibrated and certified
by NASA's National Institute of Science and Technology. Marble
King marbles have flown in space on a NASA mission.

 Oh, yeah, one other significant event occurred in 1949.  Mrs. Byrne's little boy, Mike, was born.

An American icon.....since 1949

Mike and Marble King, both still going strong at sixty-six...now, that's gotta' be good for some Road Stories.

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