[ViewPoint] Milton M. Levine’s Ant Farm: 20 million sold and counting

Many people find obituaries depressing. I find them uplifting. I know that may sound strange, but there’s something about an entire lifetime being distilled into 24 inches of copy that brings out the best in a writer, particularly for those who take such a responsibility seriously, and what could be more serious than having the "last word" on someone’s life, a final press clipping that likely will be put away for safekeeping in a shoe box, dresser drawer or family album by a son, daughter, friend or loved one. For the journalists who are given this important, yet often under appreciated task, they hold a person’s life in their hands, figuratively if not literally.

I was reminded of this fact while reading an obituary that appeared in The New York Times recently, a Sunday evening ritual that I find both enlightening and strangely inspiring. The lead obit in the January 30th edition of the paper was a story about Milton Levine, 97. What caught my eye wasn’t Mr. Levine’s advanced age, but the accompanying photo and headline: "Milton M. Levine, 97, Dies; Put Ants’ Lives on Display."

You see, Levine is the inventor of the Ant Farm, an iconic toy that no doubt has launched the careers of thousands of budding entomologists, perhaps even some of our readers. "Milton Levine’s Eureka moment came in 1956," wrote reporter Dennis Hevesi, "when he spotted a mound of ants during a Fourth of July picnic at his sister’s poolside in Southern California. Recalling how as a boy he had collected ants in jars at his uncle’s farm in Pennsylvania, he told his brother-in-law and business partner, E.J. Cossman, ‘We should make an antarium.’"

Forty-five years later, more than 20 million Ant Farms have been sold worldwide, making Levine a wealthy man and his invention a treasured part of American pop culture.

Today, Uncle Milton’s Ant Farm — named one of the Top 100 Toys of the Century by the Toy Industry Association —
remains the flagship brand of Uncle Milton Industries, a leading manufacturer of science and nature exploration products that was acquired by a private equity firm last year.

"Selling for $1.98, the original 6-by-9-inch ant farm was an immediate hit, soon selling thousands a week by mail order to children persuaded by commercials on after-school television shows," according to The New York Times obituary. "They were entranced by the idea of staring at Pogonomyrmex californicus — red ants from California — digging those tunnels in boxed-in sand." Today, that same Ant Farm sells for $10.99, still a very good deal.

But that’s only part of the story. Levine also served in the Army during World War II, which is where he met his wife of 65 years, Mauricette Schneider, a French citizen who he first encountered at a USO in Normandy while she was playing classical piano. They married in 1945 and had three children, a boy and two girls. Steve Levine, who took over managing Uncle Milton Industries when his father retired, attributed the timeless popularity of the Ant Farm to people’s natural fascination with ants. "I mean, it’s a really cool thing to watch," he recently told Melissa Block, host of NPR’s All Things Considered, who interviewed Levine upon his father’s passing. "Ants instinctively build their nests, their tunnels underground....it’s just a fascinating thing to watch."

Milton M. Levine monetized that fascination, creating a remarkable personal and professional legacy in the process. Like many of his young customers, Levine was always fascinated by Pogonomyrmex californicus, the tiny, hard-working foundation of his sprawling toy empire, but for a different reason. "I found out their most amazing feat yet," he said on a number of occasions. "They put three kids through college."

The author is publisher of PCT magazine. He can be reached at dmoreland@giemedia.com.