| With the popularity of Internet shopping, classic toys | | | | Around 1960, Richard James suffered what some |
| that were hard to find, have now started to find a | | | | called a mid-life crisis and left his wife, their six children |
| whole new audience. These classics, which sold very | | | | and joined a Bolivian religious cult. He also deserted the |
| well after they were introduced, never seem to go out | | | | Slinky toy he worked so hard to produce and left the |
| of style and can still bring a smile to any child?s face. | | | | company in debt and ruin. Betty James took over as |
| Let?s step into the past and take a look into the | | | | CEO of James Industries and introduced other toys |
| history of one of these classic toys. | | | | for the ?Slinky line-up? including: Slinky pets, crazy |
| In 1943, a Naval engineer accidentally knocked some | | | | eyes Slinky (glasses with Slinky-extended fake |
| springs off of a shelf while he was working on a | | | | eyeballs), neon Slinky, and also replaced the original |
| meter designed to monitor horsepower on battleships. | | | | black-blue Swedish steel with American steel. |
| He marveled at the way they ?walked? instead of | | | | Additionally she moved the company headquarters |
| falling and the odd movement of these springs gave | | | | from Philadelphia to Hollidaysburg, Pennsylvania and |
| Richard James an idea and an instant toy was born. | | | | began an aggressive advertising campaign, complete |
| That toy: The Slinky. | | | | with the now famous Slinky jingle: |
| Richard James then spent the next two years testing | | | | ?What walks down stairs, alone in pairs, And makes a |
| and refining the best steel gauge and coil to utilize for | | | | Slinkity sound? |
| his new toy. His wife, Betty appropriately found the | | | | A spring, a spring, a marvelous thing, Everyone knows |
| perfect name for this new toy- a Slinky; which is the | | | | it?s Slinky? |
| Swedish word meaning traespiral or sleek. | | | | It?s Slinky, it?s Slinky, for fun it?s a wonderful toy |
| The couple borrowed five hundred dollars and James | | | | It?s Slinky, it?s Slinky, it?s fun for a girl or a boy? |
| designed a machine to coil eighty feet of wire into a | | | | However, the Slinky is not just an entertaining toy for |
| two-inch spiral and manufacture their new toy. Sales | | | | children. It is used in schools in physics classes to |
| were slow at first, but soared after the Slinky was | | | | demonstrate wave properties, forces, and energy |
| demonstrated at Gimbel?s Department Store in | | | | states. The Slinky still continues to sell (250 million have |
| Philadelphia for the Christmas season in 1945. The first | | | | been sold to date) and are still manufactured in |
| 400 sold within the ninety-minute demonstration and a | | | | Hollidaysburg, Pennsylvania using the original equipment |
| new fad had begun. | | | | designed by Richard James. |