Toy Makers Hitch a Ride on Bubble-Blower’s Ascent

Part bauble, part toy, the Bubbler hangs around some of the best-known necks in town.

Madonna has one and gave them as Christmas gifts.

Singer Tina Turner got hers when she turned 50.

Ron Howard, Darryl Hannah, Pierce Brosnan, Debra Winger, Dick Van Dyke and Olivia Newton John all have them.

“Everybody’s got them, from Whoopi Goldberg to Larry Hagman,” said Robert Walker, actor and co-owner of Tops Malibu, the functional art shop where the sterling-silver bubble blower is a bestseller. That’s despite--or perhaps because of--its $65 price tag.

So popular is the pricey little plaything that Walker and wife Judy have entered into an agreement with its creator, New Mexico jewelry maker Ted Cutter and his wife, Mary Quitzau, to market it throughout the United States and abroad.

In a recent interview in People magazine, Judy Walker compared the Bubbler, which hangs from a black satin cord, to a chain letter. “One person buys one and three or four friends come rushing in,” she said.

The trinket of choice is a round or cylindrical container that includes a reservoir for bubble fluid and a combination stopper and bubble wand. Some are inset with semiprecious stones. The pendant comes with a kit that includes a tiny funnel and a bottle of bubble soap. Recently, the Walkers found a formula that produces a better bubble. Instead of a stream, he said, “it gives us a bouquet of bubbles.”

Walker says that people sometimes look around nervously the first time someone pulls one out, apparently remembering the little silver coke spoons that once hung around people’s necks. But the Bubbler is as innocent as the Hula Hoop. In Quitzau’s view, its appeal is that it gives its owner permission to have fun.

“The look on a person’s face when she first sees the Bubbler is like that of a child whose mom just said, ‘It’s OK,’ ” she said.

For years Cutter made each bubble-blower himself. In 1987, he perfected a method for making the chic plaything in assembly-line fashion. Able to produce hundreds instead of dozens, the couple began distributing them through Neiman Marcus and other retail outlets. Cutter now has three helpers and can make 2,000 a month.

Walker, who looks remarkably like his late actor father and namesake, said the shop is a welcome distraction from his less-than-frantic acting career. “I’m so busy here I don’t realize I’m out of work,” he said.