So sad that (Uncle) Milton Levine who created the ant farm passed away today at the age of 97. I bought mine out of the back of an Archies Comic in the early 70’s. When it arrived, all was suddenly right with the world. My close n’ play record player wouldn’t close or play, but I didn’t care anymore because I had the coolest new pets on the block — until my Sea Monkeys arrived. RIP Uncle Milton.
SAD PASSING OF ONE OF MY FAVE KITSCH CREATORS
Submitted by stevenw
January 27th, 2011
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Allee Willis
I never got into Aunt Farms myself as I can’t stand to see any animal or creature trapped (as comfy as it must’ve been inside one of those things for all the little ants). But the colorful ads all over comic books were very much a part of my childhood and they always fascinated me, albeit from afar.
I heard a great radio interview with Milton Levine’s son just a couple of hours ago. He said that when his dad came home from the war in 1945 he needed to start a business of some sort. He heard that there was going to be a big baby boom because of all the returning soldiers and thought what business would be better to get into more than toys and novelties? Ant Farms existed in the labs and it was his idea to build everything in plastic and then ship live ants to whoever bought one of the replicas. Milton was as smart as the ants, who are smart, organized and totally efficient.
I couldn’t deal with Sea monkeys either. I couldn’t deal with any breathing thing that had a limited lifespan. But I sure thought they wre cute!
Patty McDonald
Sorry to hear of Uncle Miltons passing. He sure did live a long life..97..wow..bet he did have some interesting stories and a very differant take on the times we live in now.
denny
I had ant farms but could never get the ants to set up house in them!