It all started with a simple question, "Is the golden plover Europe's fastest game bird?". That question was at the core of a debate at a shooting party in 1951. Sir Hugh Beaver was involved in the dispute, but couldn't find the answer in any of the books in the library. Then in 1954 another argument started on which was faster, the golden plover or the grouse. Beaver thought that questions like these must form in homes and pubs across the globe, and that putting together a book that held the answers would be a great tool to promote the product of the company he worked for, the Guinness Brewery.
Beaver turned to the twins Norris and Ross McWhirter to compile to book. The two had been working as sports journalists and ran an agency supplying facts and figures to Fleet Street newspapers. They duo compiled the facts into a book that would become The Guinness Book of Records in August of 1954. One thousand copies were printed and given away to promote Guinness beer.
Once the book went into regular printing Beaver was surprised to find it on the British bestseller lists.
"It was a marketing give away—it wasn't supposed to be a money maker"
But, it was a runaway success. The next year it was launched in the US and sold 70,000 copies. Soon more editions followed settling on a once a year pattern, always published in October to line up with Christmas sales. The brothers cultivated their success into a TV series called Record Breakers where they answered questions posed by children. Ross McWhirter was assassinated by the Provisional Irish Republican Army in 1975, after which Norris continued until 1994 when he retired from the show.
Today the Guinness Book of World Records has become a household name. The book, and related entertainment venues such as museums are now owned by the Jim Pattison Group which also owns Ripley Entertainment (of Ripley's Believe it or Not). The world records have evolved, eliminating ones that put the contestant at serious risk such as alcoholic consumption or sword swallowing.
-Professor Walter
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