It all started with a few white ladies in Naperville, Illinois – because of course it did. In the mid-1990s in the culs-de-sac of the affluent suburban Midwest, where triple-wide driveways flank brick McMansions, Joni, Becky and Mary Beth decided they liked cute little hand-sized stuffies produced by modestly sized toy company Ty Inc., and wanted to collect them all. An inauspicious beginning, yes, but one that would find Ty founder, future billionaire and eventual criminal tax evader H. Ty Warner ignoring how Mary Beth helped stir nationwide consumer frenzies for his products, and suing her for copyright infringement. So this story has its heroes and villains, a couple who fall somewhere in-between, and a nation of millions who caused a subsequent consumer demand for plastic totes so they can shove their hundreds of worthless Beanie Babies beneath the basement steps. (The real winner here? Probably Rubbermaid.)
At the time, Ty Inc. had 14 employees, and Warner – characterized here as an elusive, Oz/Wonka type – seemed like a nice guy with a crisp mind for marketing. Modest! He had no interest in selling his wares in Wal Marts and the like; he preferred the mom-and-pops, the Hallmark franchisees and gift shops. Noble! He hired Lina as a telemarketer, and after she suggested putting cute little poems inside the tags of the first line of Beanie Babies, he asked her to write them. Aww, sweet! After Ty made billions, Warner was still paying Lina $12 an hour, so she quit. Typical!
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