Yet another old Christmas ad, this one for Slinky Toys, with pictures of the Original Slinky, the Slinky Soldiers, the Slinky Seal, the Slinky Handcar, the Slinky Spiral, and the Slinky Dog. For Christmas 1957, you could place an Original Slinky, the Spiral Slinky or the Seal Slinky under the tree for only one dollar. The other pictured slinky toys would set you back two bucks.
I really like that Spiral Slinky. The other variations on the original are pretty silly, if you ask me. I remember the Slinky Dog from the movie Toy Story, but I still think it’s silly.
In one of the few photos of me as a toddler, I am holding a slinky. That photo would have been taken about 1957, so perhaps some child in Trailerville got a slinky for Christmas. (It wasn’t mine, because the only toys I had then were a little broom, a little red wooden rocking chair, and a piggy bank that I would soon drop and break into a million pieces.)
At the time of this ad, a good chunk of the resources from the Slinky empire were being funneled by Slinky founder Richard James into some sort of Bolivian religious organization. Details about the organization are sketchy. Some say it was a religious cult and others say it was just a group of Episocopalian enthusiasts. (Is Episcopalian enthusiasts an oxymoron?) Whatever it was, by 1960, Richard James had left everything behind, including his wife and six kids, in order to move to Bolivia. His company was near bankruptcy, but brave Betty James managed to turn things around, partly with the help of a new advertising jingle.
Do you remember the Slinky jingle? I’ll start it for you, and you see if you can finish. “It’s Slinky, it’s Slinky, For fun it’s a wonderful toy. It’s Slinky, it’s Slinky, It’s fun _______.” How’d you do?
Today, you can buy an Original Slinky for about $3.50 US or $5.00 Canadian and rest easy knowing that none of your money is going to fund Episcopalians, gung-ho or otherwise.