When McCarthy interviewed Crutchfield for her Mental Floss profile, she asked him to share his favorite note. So when he sent out the first prototypes, he included a feedback card. People bought more than 75 million of them.ĬHANG: Crutchfield himself was curious why. SHAPIRO: The Trapper Keeper never ushered in technological apocalypse, but it did take over the world in a way. Because it will hybrid with all those other processers and generate a whole new era of technological darkness. Cartman, you cannot buy your son, Eric, another Trapper Keeper - not now, not ever.ĮLIZA SCHNEIDER: (As Ms. KYLE MCCULLOCH: (As Bill Cosby) And so you see, Ms.

But it stayed relevant even into a new millennium when 'South Park' aired a Terminator-themed episode about it. I was definitely into, like, the Lisa Frank.ĬHANG: And, of course, who could forget that Velcro closure?ĬHANG: The Trapper Keeper launched in 1978, and its popularity exploded in the 1980s. You could pick a Trapper Keeper that had a dog on it or a soccer player on it, or you could go with a designer series. MCCARTHY: It was something that allowed you to kind of express your personality in a way that a lot of other school supplies didn't. She profiled Crutchfield in 2013 and wrote that the Trapper Keeper's style made it stand out. And so I think the Trapper Keeper is the origin of that for me.Įrin McCarthy is editor-in-chief at Mental Floss. UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #2: (As character) Traps in all my papers.ĮRIN MCCARTHY: I'm someone who really likes to be organized. UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #1: (As character) Trapper? UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #2: (As character) Everything I need's in my new Trapper Portfolio. UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #1: (As character) That's all you're taking to class? The Trapper Keeper, as you might recall, was the hot school supply to have in the 1980s. Bryant Crutchfield, the inventor of the Trapper Keeper, has died.

Eliza schneider 1978