Betty Mattas was born in Altoona, Pennsylvania back in 1918.After graduating from Altoona Area High School, she attended Pennsylvania State University, leaving when she married James. Her husband was an engineer, working at a shipbuilding company in Philadelphia. He saw something that gave me an idea. He related this to Betty, this got her to thinking, more on this in a moment.
In 1943, she came up with a name for the toy. The couple made 400 of them and they sold out in 90 minutes at Gimbels Department Store for a whopping $1.00 each. In the face of declining sales her husband left moving to Bolivia in 1960, leaving Betty to take care of the six children and run the business. She sold the business to Poof Products of Plymouth, Michigan in 1998.
Betty Mattas James died in 2008. At the time of her death, more than 300 million had sold. She was inducted into the Toy Industry Hall of Fame in 2001.
Now, you may be asking yourself what toy would sell for that long, well I’m about to tell you. Her husband while working at the shipbuilding company he saw a torsion spring fall off of a table and started flipping end of end, thus the Slinky was born.
Your day is worthwhile when you make someone smile, so give the free gift of a smile today
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