Page 27 - Demo

25From a time when a Sunbeam frypan was a de facto member of the family came a humble Aussie invention that took some sections of the world by storm %u2013 okay, a rather little storm. The Splayd was the idea of unemployed Sydney engineer William McArthur. According to his wife, restaurateur Suzanne, he was inspired by a magazine article featuring a glamorous bu%u00a0et dinner in Rome.%u2018Here were all these magnificently dressed women balancing food on their knees,%u2019 she told The Sydney Morning Herald in 1966. %u2018Bill thought it was barbarous, and how much better it would be if they had one utensil to do the work of a knife, fork and spoon.%u2019Initially sold through Suzanne%u2019s restaurant and to catering companies, the humble Splayd didn%u2019t find fame until it was released commercially in the 1960s by manufacturer Stokes. By then, people had started eating in front of the TV, and casual events were all the rage. If you were serving tuna mornay on a paper plate at a party, then a Splayd was your best friend. Housed in an attractively presented box (see page 15), they soon became the go-to wedding gift in the 1960s and 1970s, and there%u2019s no doubt hundreds of boxes of these unopened stainless-steel utensils remain in cupboards all over the country.Overseas markets beckoned, with the famous Viners of She%u00a0ield successfully producing Splayds under licence in the 1970s. Stokes claim that by the early 1990s, they had sold almost five million units in more than 52 countries, but the Splayd%u2019s popularity has definitely waned over the years.Cynics will say that the Americans had the Spork %u2013 a hybrid spoon and fork %u2013 well before the Splayd, which is true, but it took an Australian with a bit of spare time on his hands to add the knife component into the mix.Bill McArthur died in 1963, and Suzanne continued to push the product, once even forcing%u00a0 a box into the hands of US president Jimmy Carter. In the 1970s, she checked in to the%u00a0 infamous Sebel Townhouse in Sydney, and used her immense wealth to stay there as a guest until 1980.With a large dash of irony, Dad gave my wife and me a couple of boxes of Splayds for our wedding in 2009, and we%u2019ve used them ever since. If you can find a better utensil to eat lasagne with, I%u2019m all ears.YEAR 1943DESIGNER William McArthurMANUFACTURER StokesIf you were serving tuna mornay on a paper plate at a party, then a Splayd was your best friend.