Lived Through This
My Dad Helped Bring Inflatable Flailing Tube Men to Life
He engineered these dudes, but most people don’t even know his name
On Father’s Day 2019, I found myself driving home in tears. Father’s Day and Mother’s Day have always been difficult for me since I lost my parents, but this made it harder. As I waited at a stoplight, I saw it.
It’s almost impossible to ignore: a wacky inflatable tube man, bobbing up and down and flailing with a stupid grin on his face. I couldn’t help but smile — not because it was goofy or fascinating (though it totally was), but because I know how these things were invented. My dad had a hand in bringing these funny, campy, wacky inflatable tube dudes to life.
Some people may be familiar with the “Tube Men” episode of the podcast 99% Invisible. My dad’s involvement was completely omitted from that story, which focused primarily on Doron Gazit and Peter Minshall and a disagreement over a patent.
So, after running into one of these tube dudes at a stoplight, I decided to tweet about my dad’s involvement. I dug up some photos and tweeted about my dad, LouLou (short for Leon, which was short for Arieh Leon Dranger). The tweet went viral, and replies poured in about the tube dude’s joyous impact on people’s…
