Betty James

Betty's husband, an engineer, conceived of the toy in 1943 while working at Cramp Shipbuilding Yard in the Port Richmond section of Philadelphia after a torsion spring fell off a table and started flipping end-over-end across the floor.^[5] The following year, Betty came up with the name Slinky after leafing through the dictionary and thinking that the word described the motion of the spring.^[5] The couple made 400 of the toys^[6] and convinced the Gimbels department store in Philadelphia to carry the toy for Christmas 1945 displayed on a ramp. These first models were all sold within 90 minutes at a price of $1 each.^[3][7]

Betty James insisted upon keeping the original Slinky affordable. The Slinky toy sold for $1.00 in 1945. If the Slinky's sale price kept pace with inflation, the Slinky would have sold for $13.83 in 2018. In 1996, when the Slinky's retail price ranged from $1.89 to $2.69, she told The New York Times: "So many children can’t have expensive toys, and I feel a real obligation to them. I’m appalled when I go Christmas shopping and $60 to $80 for a toy is nothing." In 2008, Slinkys cost $4 to $5, and Slinky Dogs about $20.^[8]

In the face of declining sales, her husband left the family and moved to Bolivia in 1960 to join Wycliffe Bible Translators.^[9] She took over management of the firm, and responsibility for the family's six children,^[10] running it for almost 40 years until selling the company to POOF Products of Plymouth, Michigan in 1998.^[5] The Slinky Dog helped turn around the sales slump and a new version issued after a version featured in the 1995 movie Toy Story was another top seller.^[3]

She was inducted into the Toy Industry Hall of Fame in 2001.^[11][12][13]

James died at age 90 on November 20, 2008, of congestive heart failure at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia.^[3][4] She had lived in Hollidaysburg, Pennsylvania, where James Industries was headquartered.^[3] By the time of her death in 2008, Slinkys were priced from $4 to $5, with Slinky Dogs selling for about $20. More than 300 million Slinkys in all their variations had been sold in her lifetime.^[3]