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 One
of the most famous toys in history originated in a meter for
testing horsepower on battle ships. As World War II raged on
in 1943, marine engineer Richard James worked at his desk in
Philadelphia's Cramp Shipyard. It was a routine day, but a harmless
mishap forever changed the life of James and his wife Betty and
sowed the seed that produced the immortal Slinky®.
A
torsion spring used in a testing meter fell off James' desk and
tumbled end over end across the floor. James took it home to
Betty that evening and said, "I think I can make a toy out
of this." This he did by devising a steel formula that allowed
the spring to "walk".
This
accomplished, Betty thumbed through the dictionary for a fitting
name for the toy and found it in Slinky®, which was defined
as "stealthy, sleek and sinuous". In 1945, Richard
and Betty used a $500 loan to pay a company for manufacturing
a small quantity of Slinks and an attempt was made to sell it
through retail outlets in Philadelphia.
However,
with no name recognition, the spring didn't sell. It
just sat on the counter. As Christmas neared, Gimbels
Department Store agreed to provide counter space for
400 Slinkys and Richard James went down ahead of Betty
to demonstrate the toy. It was a snowy evening, and
the Jameses feared the worst, but when Betty arrived
at Gimbels, she spotted a mob of people with dollars
in their hands, and they were gathered around the Slinky®
display. Within 90 minutes all 400 Slinkys were sold,
and the rest is toy history.
 A factory was established
in Philadelphia and Richard quit his job at the shipyard
to devote full time to the Slinky®, which was the
hit of the 1946 American Toy Fair in New York City.
During the 1950's business boomed, but Richard James'
life took a course that led to his going to South America
in 1960.
Left
with the responsibility of six children and now a floundering
business, Betty James began a rebirth of the Slinky dream by
relocating the factory to her hometown of Hollidaysburg, a small
town adjacent to Altoona. By 1960, Betty had a unique co-op advertising
plan in full swing, aided by the production of a "jingle"
that is still the sound behind Slinky® television commercials.
Slinky®
sales continued to increase through the years and a number of
new items were added to the James Industries line of toys. In
1990, a national survey by a publication revealed that 89.8 percent
of the people in America knew what a Slinky was or were familiar
with the jingle.
Purchased
in 1998 by Poof Products, a leading American toy company, Slinky®
is firmly entrenched as one of the leading staples of the toy
industry and is one of America's most recognized brand names.
 Other milestones include:
- The
Discovery and History Channels selected Slinky as one of the
top 10 toys of the 20th Century.
- The
U.S. Postal Service honored Slinky on a 1999 commemorative stamp.
- Slinky
participated on a NASA space mission.
- Over
300 million Slinkys have been sold.
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