Bounce Houses, Bouncies, Space Walks, Moon Bounce, Jumping Castle – call them whatever you want but most kids can spot these gigantic, inflatable structures a mile away.  I personally have had to literally drag my two youngest children away from party-crashing another kid’s birthday event just because they spotted a fun-looking bounce house rental in the vicinity.  For some reason, telling them “not-your-party” doesn’t seem to stop them from trying to participate!

Nevertheless, I’d like to personally thank the inventor of these wonderful toys because without them, I couldn’t peacefully sit and talk to other adults at a party while all my children (yes, even the preteen ones) happily jumped in one of these houses for hours on end. Nothing burns energy quite like 2-3 hours of jumping, climbing, sliding, and even swimming in one of these inflatable bounce houses. 

But who invented these anyway?  As a child growing up, I think I saw a bounce house at a carnival or fair once in a while, but never a constant parade of bounce structures at practically every single birthday party, church event, beach gathering, or festival like nowadays. They’ve definitely been around for a while, but who invented them anyway? And how’d they get so fancy with so many options?!

Actually, many of the developments of the bounce house are linked to one man: John Scurlock from Shreveport, Louisiana.  The birth of the bounce house started out as basic, inflatable structure developed by John Scurlock back in 1959. At that time, he was an electrical engineer who enjoyed working on inflatable structures including tents, domes, and safety “nets” when he found one of his inventions – an inflatable cover for tennis courts – being used as a jumping toy instead.  

Shortly after, he began manufacturing and selling his inflatable structures, the first being just a flat mattress-type inflatable he called the “Space Pillow.”  Within a few years, he developed one with a top — the “Space Walk” – which also became the name for his company.  From that point on, he and his family business developed and tweaked the bounce house design into the wonderful structures we see today.

In 1968, his wife decided to rent out the “Space Walks” for social events.  There was definitely a better business in renting than selling the large inflatable structures.  During the 1970s, they created the “Jupiter Jump,” an improved design with built-up inflatable columns and net walls; they also added bounce houses with different themes and shapes.  In the 1980s, Scurlock’s family opened up play parks featuring inflatable structures and then later inflatable water slides in the 1990s. 

Nowadays, there are a number of bounce house manufacturers throughout the US and across the globe.  It’s amazing to see all the different designs these amazing jumping toys have to offer and to think it started as an accidental toy over 60 years ago!

References:

https://www.bouncehousenw.com/blog/why-bounce-houses-were-really-invented-plus-some-trivia-fun-facts

https://kidspartycentre.com/bounce-houses/#tab-con-1

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inflatable_castle

http://www.hullabaloosbounce.com/history_of_the_bounce_house/