How a Centre County native helped Slinky spring to worldwide fame

If you’ve been a kid sometime in the past 75 years, chances are you’ve played with a Slinky. But you might not know about the woman behind the toy — a former Penn State student who earned a spot in the Toy Industry Hall of Fame.

Betty (nee Mattas) James was born on Feb. 13, 1918. In 1943, she helped the Slinky spring to fame after her husband, Richard, had the idea for the toy. Now, there’s a “National Slinky Day” and according to a a 2015 Time Magazine article, more than 300 million Slinkys have been sold.

A hundred years ago, however, the world was reading about other toys.

The Ladies’ Home Journal ran an advertisement for Gilbert Toy company’s erector set. Good Housekeeping advertised a set of cut-out brass jointed cardboard animals.

James died on Nov. 20, 2008 — a decade ago — at age 90, but put the Slinky into the Toy Hall of Fame, and America’s consciousness.

Gaining leadership skills at Penn State

She was born in Centre County, and attended Altoona Area High School, where her nickname was “Betts,” according to information from the Altoona Area High School yearbook and AAHS librarian Tanya Lucas. Betty was part of the dramatic club, served as homeroom vice-president, president and sales manager, was a member of the school’s Carnegie Science Club, and participated in a play with the English Department.

After graduating, Betty attended Penn State, where her leadership skills came into play. The number of female students at Penn State was growing, from 14 percent of the campus population in 1930 to 20 percent by 1940, according to an article, “Enduring the Great Depression,” from the Penn State Libraries website.

James joined the Women’s Student Government Association, and was later elected treasurer, according to the La Vie and Penn State Collegian archives (the newspaper didn’t change its name to The Daily Collegian until 1940).

Slinky is born

At Penn State, Betty also met her future husband, Richard, who was a mechanical engineering student.

They married, and a few years later, Richard invented a toy — made of a compressed spring — after noticing the movement of a spring which had fallen at his workplace, according to a 1995 Collegian article. Betty named the toy “Slinky” after its sinuous nature, and the toy eventually became immensely popular after a demonstration at a Gimbel’s department store, according to The Daily Collegian article.

In 1960, Betty took over James’ Industries, putting her earlier leadership skills to work after Richard left the company and his family to move to Bolivia.

Lauren Golder is a dual Ph.D. candidate in History and Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies at Penn State. Though Golder’s research doesn’t focus on the 1960s or women in business, she was able to offer insight into what James would have likely faced as a businesswoman taking over a large corporation in that era.

“Right off the bat, I can say that a woman taking on a role as a business leader was very unusual in 1960, and it’s likely that she faced some backlash from within the company,” Golder said via email. “...(T)his was a time when women couldn’t have their own credit cards, had very limited job opportunities, and there were no laws concerning gender discrimination or sexual harassment in the workplace.”

Accomplishments to honor

James ran the company from 1960-1998, according to her New York Times obituary, and raised six children while reviving James’ Industries.

Bob Swaim is a retired math teacher who has campaigned for the Slinky to be officially recognized as the Pennsylvania state toy. He has talked to many of James’ family members, and believes James should earn more widespread recognition for her accomplishments.

“A lot of people would have just folded,” Swaim said. “You know, you’ve got six kids right, from 18 down to four or five or six (years old), and you’ve got this company that’s going under, and some people would’ve just walked away and went back to Altoona, or where she was from in that area.”

According to a blog post celebrating Women’s History Month on the the U.S. Department of Labor website, as of 2017, women are “the primary or sole earners for 40 percent of households with children under 18 today, compared with 11 percent in 1960.”

Swaim thinks her business accomplishments were “incredible” regardless of gender, but especially considering that women were less accepted into the business industry at that time.

“To me it’s a no-brainer (why we should honor her),” Swaim said.

In 2001, James was inducted into the Toy Industry Hall of Fame. In addition, Swaim has nominated her for a Distinguished Alumna award at Altoona Area High School, and for other recognitions as well.

According to her obituary in The Los Angeles Times, the Slinky Dog, various Slinky creations and the Slinky jingle were all created during James’ tenure.

“She did a lot of innovative things, creative things,” Swaim said. “She was a really savvy businessperson.”

This story was originally published November 23, 2018 at 9:39 AM.