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American Morning

Hoberman's Arch Getting Major Debut in Upcoming Olympics

Aired January 14, 2002 - 08:54   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: The collapsing and expanding sphere, a toy that's been delighting children for years, has now inspired a new geometric shape, the arch. Talk about great product placement. The arch is getting a major debut in the upcoming Olympics. It will be onstage where the medals are handed out.

A look at the man behind the arch, as our Jeanne Moos makes the most of it.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JEANNE MOOS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It expands, it contracts, it bounces. A very first one debuting more than a decade ago here at New Jersey's Liberty Science Center.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's like big scary and then it goes little...

MOOS: Kids tend to call it...

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Big ball!

MOOS: But its real name is the Hoberman Sphere.

Must be nice to have kids call you a genius.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You're a genius!

CHUCK HOBERMAN, HOBERMAN ASSOCIATES: Oh, well, thank you.

What I call these things are unfolding structures; it's something where it just magically transforms.

MOOS: And now Chuck Hoberman has transformed the Hoberman Sphere into the Honorerman Arch, gracing the Olympic stage where they hand out the medals. Cables and motors pull the interlocking panels in synchronous motion.

Hoberman has been wowing kids for years. His spheres range from mini to mega, mega enough to get inside of.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I don't know if I can.

MOOS: In a Hoberman Sphere, two's company, three's Hober- crowded.

Over the years, the spheres have appeared on a cruise ship and at a world's fair. They almost seem alive.

HOBERMAN: That's why people have that sense of, oh, it's breathing.

MOOS: They've even been used by marching bands.

HOBERMAN: They're marching, and they toss them in the air like batons.

MOOS: Bill Clinton once walked out of church with a Hoberman's Sphere that a clergyman had used in a sermon. Julia Roberts and Richard Gere tugged on one in "Runaway Bride."

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JULIA ROBERTS, ACTRESS: There's not a lot to do around here.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MOOS: There's plenty to do at Hoberman's Manhattan studio. Projects range from a retractable stadium dome that's never been built to a double spiral.

HOBERMAN: It's a sculpture that I built it for the National Inventor's Hall of Fame in Akron, Ohio.

MOOS (on camera): Hoberman cube.

HOBERMAN: A Hober Cube.

MOOS (voice-over): There are toys under development.

HOBERMAN: Creatures that live in the back room.

MOOS: The redheaded Hoberman appears on boxes as the company's icon, along with a warning: "beware of pinching" -- Hoberman pincher.

Hoberman has a dream for what to do with the Hoberman Arch after the Olympics.

HOBERMAN: What if that was the wall of a buiding, and all of a sudden you're in a building and the whole wall just melts away to nothing to reveal the outdoors?

MOOS: From the Hoberman Arch to the Hoberman Sphere, let the games begin.

Jeanne Moos, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

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