Workaholic aims for bigger, better candy machines

Dave Haymond smiles a lot - almost constantly. After a while, you begin to suspect he's hiding some wildly amusing secret just beneath the surface. He is. Haymond is The Gum Ball Wizard. The self proclaimed workaholic invented the mechanical, gee-whiz apparatus that causes children (and even adults) to stop and gaze in amusement when a coin dropped into a slot sends a brightly colored ball of bubblegum on a spinning roller coaster ride down a twisting track to their waiting hand.

   Daredevil gum balls. Speed demon sweets. "I'm doing the same things now that I did when I was a kid, just on a bigger scale," said Haymond, clad in T-shirt and rumpled shorts in the office of his Mesa manufacturing plant. Except for some litter, a cup of soda and an inert computer terminal, Haymond's desk is clear of paperwork. Business partner Curt Brown notes the lack of clutter but points out that Haymond's real work is done in "Dave's World," a nearby research and development shop where newer, bigger and better gum ball machines are in the works.

   An Idaho native, Haymond graduated from Brigham Young University in business and finance but says corporate ledgers and spreadsheets never were his forte.

   "When I was a kid, I wanted to be an automobile designer for Ford Motor Co.," he said. "I've made models all my life."As early as the fifth grade, though, Haymond admits an entrepreneurial spirit emerged when he used a toy molding kit to make wiggly plastic skeletons and sold them to schoolmates for a dime.For several years, Haymond made a living at restoring cars but took on a vending machine route for a more regular income. When the coin receptacle of the machines kept breaking down, he redesigned and rebuilt them to be "bulletproof," he said, eventually designing his own machine from scratch.

   By 1991- after deciding to design and build the world's largest gum ball machine - four monsters built from scratch in his garage generated so much loose change that Haymond gave up cars and the vending machine route to start up his present endeavor.A recently granted patent on the machine covers a dozen of Haymond's innovations, from the loopy spiral track to the clear cylinder design, which allows buyers to be entertained as they watch their treat take its precipitous slide down to delivery.

   Officially called Global Gumball, Haymond cannot say exactly, but believes he's built 25,000 to 30,000 gum ball machines.

   "I've always made my own stuff happen," he says. "I've never worked for anyone but myself."

   Blessed with a metabolism that allows him to function on three or four hours sleep a day, the 38-year-old Haymond calculates "by the hours I've worked, I'm about 48."A typical work day involves a 15-minute nap in the evening before resumed "puttering" in his shop until the wee hours."I have to have a project under way or I'd go nuts," he said.

   As for that enigmatic smile, the secret concealed just beneath his affable surface, the self-proclaimed Gum Ball Wizard turns to Brown and grins, "Shall I tell him my deepest secret?"

   "I've never learned to blow a bubble with bubble gum."

~ excerpt from Arizona Republic, January 17, 1996 ~

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