Slinky Springs Back Into Popularity With Hit Movies

It’s a long coil of steel that winds and wiggles and makes sounds like chink and chunk and even flips and flops and walks down stairs.

It’s Slinky.

A toy that’s so low-tech it’s timeless.

Slinky has wiggled in and out of fashion for the last 50 years, wedging its way firmly into the American fabric.

And now, Slinky’s gone Hollywood.

There’s a stunning scene of Slinky on the stairs in “Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls” that rivals Scarlett O’Hara’s tumble down Tara’s staircase in “Gone With the Wind.”

But that’s just a measly walk-on compared with the role Slinky plays in Disney’s runaway hit “Toy Story.”

That’s a role with legs. Literally.

Slinky Dog, a modern version of the traditional Slinky dachshund toy, plays a crucial role in the computer animation movie as Woody the cowboy’s faithful companion.

Talk about an overnight success story.

Slinky sales have gone up 30 percent since the two movies premiered, according to Bob Lestochi, comptroller of James Industries, the tiny company in central Pennsylvania that’s been cranking out Slinkys for 50 years.

It’s run by 77-year-old Betty James, whose late husband, Richard, invented the Slinky when he worked as an engineer at the Cramp shipyard in Philadelphia for $50 a week.

He tested the horsepower of naval battleships, using a tool called a torsion meter. The meter had a torsion spring, and one day the spring fell off of his desk and wiggled and seemed to walk all by itself.

He took it home, and he and Betty made history.

The first Slinky factory was in Philadelphia, and in 1951 the factory moved out to Paoli.

But in 1960, James left his wife, running away to Bolivia to join a religious cult. Betty James was left with six children and Slinky.

She moved the company to a modest factory in Holidaysburg and has run it ever since - refusing to change the way the Slinky is made, resisting an increase in price (it’s still no more than $2), and deflecting buyout requests from giant conglomerates.

Lestochi, who has worked there for 34 years, said people are calling the company looking for Slinky Dog toys.

He said they stopped making the original Slinky dachshund four years ago (although there are still Slinky frogs, worms, seals and kittens out there) because there were too many parts required to make it cost-efficient.

“There were 12 or 13 parts,” Lestochi said. “The other animals are molded plastic and have far fewer parts.”

Still, don’t think for one minute that Slinky isn’t going to cash in on its current Hollywood cameo.

The company is introducing a dog toy just like the dog in the movie. But the modern dog is going to cost a modern price, about $14.95.

Unfortunately, the company fell behind and can’t get the Slinky Dog on the shelves before Christmas.

And that hasn’t made people happy.

“We had no idea of the impact that the movie would have,” Lestochi said. “We have an outlet store here, and people are driving the clerks nuts because we don’t have that toy.”

But the folks at Slinky aren’t too worried about it.

The toy will come out when it comes out.

You don’t rush a classic.