On May 9^th, 1986, a very unique domino topple happened, yet no information about it exists on the internet today because it was for a private party and had no press coverage. Erez and I were fortunate enough to be part of that event, so 39 years later, here’s the story of how a team of 6 topplers created the first around-the-world domino topple. 

Back in 1985, there were just a handful of big-time domino topplers in the whole world and in the Fall of that year Thom Harrington mailed letters to most of them to ask if they wanted to participate in a topple commissioned by a multi-national company. 

So, you’re probably wondering who’s Thom Harrington? Well, back in the mid-70’s, he was the executive vice president of the National Hemophilia Foundation in New York City who actually has an important place in domino history. 

Thom was the first to recognize the fund-raising potential of this new domino toppling thing started by Bob Speca in 1974, so he created the World Domino Spectacular and produced world record topples with Speca in 1978, Michael Cairney in 1979, and Erez and me in 1980, all while raising a ton of money for hemophilia research and awareness. Thanks to the massive press coverage Thom Harrington helped bring to those 3 events, domino toppling began receiving widespread global exposure, resulting in the international growth it enjoyed over the years that followed.   

In the 80’s, Thom became the de facto agent for most topplers in the states. As inquiries came into his office for domino-related commercials or events, Thom would assign each project to one of the various topplers with whom he had worked. However, when this request from the multi-national company came across his desk in 1985, Thom knew he had to assemble an elite team. So, in October, he sent that letter to 6 of the world’s best topplers: Michael Cairney, Akira Enomoto, Scott Suko, Dan Beckerleg, John Wickham (me), and Erez Klein. 

Once all of us agreed to do the project AND keep it a secret, Thom revealed that the multi-national company was Coca-Cola and this topple would be part of Coke’s corporate-wide 100^th birthday celebration on May 9^th, 1986.  

After weeks of initial planning done thru phone calls and letters, the 6 of us travelled to New York City in January for 2 days of meetings with Thom and other Coke representatives. 

The topple would take place on 6 continents, so we first had to decide who would go where: I got Atlanta in North America, Scott got Rio De Janeiro in South America, Michael got London in Europe, Erez got Nairobi in Africa, Akira got Tokyo in Asia, and Dan got Sydney in Australia. 

Now, this wasn’t going to be just 6 separate topples. What made this event so unique was that the topple actually would jump from city to city. The plan was to have the dominoes close a switch at the end of each topple, causing a signal to be sent via satellite to electronically ‘push’ the first domino in the next city. 

The concept seemed easy enough when it was presented to us, but when we finally saw this illustration at the New York meeting showing all the ground stations and all the orbiting satellites that would link our 6 set-ups into one continuous topple, we knew Coca-Cola was sparing no expense. This was state-of-the-art technology in pre-internet 1986 and reserving that satellite time wasn’t cheap. Oh, and Coke also spent a pretty penny on the dominoes themselves, custom making over 500,000 in ten colors. Each was a 6/1 domino, signifying 6 continents, 1 topple, with the Coke centennial logo on the back.   

With everyone in the same room, the meetings were very productive, with most of the time spent brainstorming ideas for the domino stunts and patterns that would be themed around Coca-Cola products. By the time we adjourned, all the major details were set.  

At the beginning of May, we travelled to our designated cities and began setting up dominoes, except for a few of us. All the boxes of dominoes shipped to Rio and Nairobi were held up in customs at each airport for more than a day, and in Atlanta, construction of the domino site in the huge convention hall took longer than expected. These delays put Scott, Erez, and me behind schedule before we even started. 

On top of those delays, Erez had an added headache. Nairobi was getting unusually heavy rain, which caused large insects to seek shelter in the hall where he was setting up. Erez had to keep cans of bug spray handy to go after anything flying or crawling near the dominoes. Despite those efforts, a giant moth like this one managed to land within the set-up, knocking over several hundred dominoes. Erez was living through every topplers worst nightmare, but he managed to get his set-up completed on time.      

When May 9^th finally arrived, parties for local Coke employees were held at all six topple sites, with the largest being in Atlanta, home of Coke’s corporate headquarters. As I was working to finish my set-up before the 2 PM start time, I could hear the noise getting louder in the huge convention center as the crowd grew to thousands of people. 

Then at 2:05 PM, Coca-Cola president Brian Dyson, started the dominoes falling in Atlanta. After 20 seconds, the dominoes closed the switch on a little blue box to trigger Rio, and then continued falling for another 10 seconds, which covered the time it could take for the satellite signal to reach its destination. This was done in each city so dominoes always were falling without gaps between the topples. 

I couldn’t see the large screens on the convention center floor showing everything, but when Scott’s dominoes started toppling in Rio, the Atlanta crowd let out a loud roar, so I knew the first electronic trigger worked perfectly. Scott’s Rio topple was smooth from start to finish and then it closed the switch to make the jump to Michael’s London set-up. Here are a few video highlights from that portion of the topple.

That third satellite trigger from London to Nairobi again worked just as planned and when Erez’s topple in Nairobi finished up and closed that fourth trigger switch, the domino chain moved into tomorrow when Akira’s dominoes started falling in Tokyo, because there it was early morning on May 10^th. After Tokyo, the domino chain stayed in the future as it moved on to Dan’s Sydney Australia topple. While those dominoes were falling, the mood back in Atlanta was electric and when that last switch closed in Sydney, everyone in Atlanta, including me, held their breath. 

When that little blue box started the dominoes falling again in Atlanta, bringing the chain back from the future to May 9^th once again, I was pumping my fist in the air and the Atlanta crowd was erupting in loud cheers. Nobody could believe it made it around the world. Eventually, the Atlanta chain snaked its way to the finale, which was a 7-foot-tall birthday cake. When the last domino closed a switch, all the candles lit up and started flashing, sirens went off, and confetti shot out of the top of the cake and the crowd went wild one last time. What a birthday party that was!

In the end, the chain of 373,031 dominoes traveled 35,901 curved earth miles (via 356,782 satellite transmission miles) and fell in 31 minutes and 42 seconds. All 6 of us were exhausted, but thrilled to have been part of this one-of-a-kind domino event.  

Oh, and a couple years later, there was a little added bonus. Though this Coke event was not a world record, our around-the-globe domino topple was so unique, it did earn a mention in the 1989 Guinness Book. Though that entry didn’t list any names, Michael Cairney, Akira Enimoto, Scott Suko, Dan Beckerleg, Erez Klein, and myself, John Wickham, under the guidance of Thom Harrington all can be proud of our efforts that made that topple such a success.

– Erez and John