The "The State Toy?" Story

It was an ordinary day.  Reading in the local paper about the Slinky which was one of my favorite childhood toys as well as one of the favorite toys of my children and grandchildren.  It was invented by Richard James, a graduate of Pennsylvania State University, who earned a degree in mechanical engineering in the late 1930's.  As a naval engineer he designed and built tools for submarines and iron ships.  It was while doing these jobs in 1943 that he invented one of the most memorable toys in history.  While designing a system to support and stabilize sensitive instruments aboard ships in rough seas he knocked spare parts from an overhead shelf.  One of the items that fell was a spring that wobbled across his desk, down a stack of books and onto the floor.  The Slinky was born!  For over a year he experimented with various wire types and tensions until he came up with the right combination for his walking spring that moved effortlessly down a staircase.  

Richard James show his son the Slinky.

His wife came up with the name of Slinky for his invention.  With a $500 loan from a friend he formed LLC -- James Spring and Wire Company.  He took several thousand yards of wire to his local machine shop and produced 400 Slinky units which he wrapped in simple parchment paper.  Eventually Gimbels department store in Philadelphia began to sell the units at Christmas in 1945.  They didn't sell so Richard took it upon himself to set up a display inside the store, sit down with children and show them how his Slinky worked.  90 minutes later he had sold all 400 Slinkys at $1 each and there was a line waiting for more.  By Christmas that year he had sold 20,000 Slinkys.  Two years later the toy was a national phenomenon. The fame and money seemed to go to James' head and he became more isolated from society and his family.  He began to give huge sums of money to evangelical religious groups and in 1960 bought a one-way ticket to Bolivia where he joined an evangelical Christian cult.  His wife then assumed sole ownership of the company. In 1962 his wife Betty, commissioned three musicians to write a jingle for the Slinky and introduced a rainbow-colored plastic version in the early 1970's.  

If my memory serve me well, this is the type of box that
my Slinky came in when I was a child.

Betty James sold the company in 1998 after she'd sold more than 300 million Slinkys.  I still remember the Slinky that I had as a child.  Came in a small, plain box with a Slinky pictured on it.  Often wondered what I did with it.  Now a retired math teacher has come up with the idea that the state of Pennsylvania should name the Slinky as the state toy.  He set up a booth at Penn State's HUB to present his idea to the students of Richard James' Alma mater.  He also has an idea of placing an interactive Slinky sculpture on Penn State's campus.  He has approached a State Representative with his idea.  With all the other important matters in our state government, I'm not sure how soon the Slinky may become the state toy.  It was another extraoridnary day in the life of an ordinary guy.  PS - Check out the 1960's ad for the Slinky