The Slinky™ originated from James' experience as a shipbuilder when a coil spring he was working with fell off of a shelf and began to gyrate and make slithering movements as it moved across the floor. The spring appealed to his curiosity and he devised a plan to create a toy out of it. He got a chance to try the toy out on a bedridden boy. After the boy was delighted, James set forth producing and marketing the toy. He went from store to store and was rejected by all of them until he found a small shop that agreed to take on four dozen units on consignment. Before James got home, the toys had sold out and the shopkeeper begged for several more. James and his wife Betty set out producing and selling the Slinky™ full-time and over the Christmas season, the toy was a major hit and they had difficulty meeting the overwhelming demand for it.

The Slinky™ was made of an 87 foot piece of wire, three inches in diameter and two inches high when flattened. It could, however, be made to perform numerous tricks, the most famous of which was being turned end over end, seemingly walking down stairs.

James battled through patent litigation disputes, steel shortages, warehouse fires and problems with local Philadelphia inspection officials to sell an estimated 14 million units in a ten year period. Strangely enough, however, despite his burgeoning success, Richard was going through a difficult time in his life and became involved with a religious cult in Bolivia. So entranced with the cult was he that after giving large amounts of money to it, he abandoned his wife and six children and the company they had started and moved to Bolivia. With creditors pressuring her, Betty took over as the head of the company and instead of fighting just to stay in business ,she moved the company to Hollidaysburg, Pennsylvania, and developed a marketing campaign that enabled her to expand the line to include the Slinky, Jr., the Plastic Slinky and the Slinky Dog.

Under Betty's leadership (and later her son Tom) the Slinky would go on to sell over 300 million units worldwide. In 1999, the Slinky was honored by getting its own U.S. Postage Stamp and two years later the Slinky was made the Official State Toy of Pennsylvania. In the same year, Betty was inducted into the Toy Industry Hall of Fame.

The Original Jingle for the Slinky:

Who walks the stairs without a care
It shoots so high in the sky.
Bounce up and down just like a clown
Everyone knows its Slinky.

The best present yet to give or get
The kids will all want to try.
The hit of the day when you are ready to play
Everyone knows it's Slinky.

It's Slinky, It's Slinky
for fun the best of the toys.
It's Slinky, It's Slinky
the favorite of girls and boys.