She looks good for 50.
On March 9, 1959 Ruth and Elliot Handler introduced the world to a "teenage fashion doll' named after their daughter Barbara. As the founders of Mattel, the Handlers changed the business of toys forever with what would become arguably the most successful proprietary toy in history.
Plastic does not conduct electricity, but Barbie has certainly been a lightning rod for controversy. To celebrate her big day, below is the entire Barbie chapter from my book,
Timeless Toys. Barbie’s WorldI first realized that Barbie was from another world when I was six. My sister was seven, and to me, her Barbie was just another victim that my Super-Hero action figures could save … or kidnap, depending on who was looking. I didn’t realize Barbie was different until the day my Grandpa Horan came over and saw Barbie lying naked on the floor. That’s when he yelled (to no one in particular), “Will you get some clothes on that doll!?” I noticed he didn’t say anything about The Incredible Hulk, who was also naked, having lost his purple pants. Somehow, Barbie’s nudity made my grandpop’s ears turn bright red.
In the toy biz, they don’t get any bigger than Barbie. Her influence looms as large as her shoe selection––over 2 billion thus far. To gain a true appreciation for this pop culture icon, you have to look at the toy business pre-Barbie. Back then, most dolls were babies or children. Toy makers believed that a girl played with dolls so that she could pretend to be a mother. Manufacturers assumed that the only way to fill that need was to produce dolls that were the age of the girls they were intended for, or younger. Barbie changed all that. In 1959, plenty of dolls had the ability to burp or wet, crawl or cry, but Barbie possessed something that no other doll had: A figure.
Mattel conducted extensive market research before Barbie debuted in 1959. When mothers and daughters were shown the doll separately, all the girls loved her, but nearly every mother thought the doll was too “developed.” This illustrates the Barbie dichotomy. On the one hand, it (not she) is a doll. It’s not real, so what’s all the fuss about? On the other hand, if we’re going to give our daughters something new to idolize, then we want to know what it is. Who she is. Hold onto your high-fashion hats as more fuel is thrown on that polarizing fire: Barbie was inspired, at least in part, by a doll of ill repute.
In 1952 a cartoonist, Reinhard Beuthien, created a character named Lilli for a German tabloid newspaper called Bild Zeitung. In her book Forever Barbie: The Unauthorized Biography of a Real Doll, author M.G. Lord revealed this missing link in the evolution of the Barbie doll. According to Lord, Lilli was “a pornographic caricature” and “a gold digger, exhibitionist and floozy … (who) flung herself repeatedly at balding, jowly fat cats.” The cartoon’s popularity spawned a doll, but certainly not one meant as a plaything for little German girls. In the summer of 1955, the Lilli doll met her lustful audience—adult men, who received her as a sexy souvenir at bachelor parties. Sold in tobacco shops and bars, Lilli was shipped all over the world for a brief time and came in 7-inch and 11-inch sizes. She was made in Hamburg, Germany, at first and later in Hong Kong.
Max Weissbrodt, a doll maker for the O.M. Hausser/Elastolin Company, eventually got a patent on Lilli’s limb construction. Her neck was too thin, her waist too wispy, and her legs too long. In other words, she was 100% consistent with her cartoon inspiration.
One version of the story says that Ruth Handler first saw the Lilli doll in 1957 while visiting Lucerne, Switzerland with her husband, Elliot, and their two kids, Barbara and Ken. Oblivious to its bawdy roots, Handler bought several Lilli dolls. Years before, she was intrigued by the way her daughter Barbie loved to play with paper dolls—specifically adult paper dolls. Handler observed as her daughter and friends role-played with these flimsy, paper cutouts. Could a plastic doll, made in the image of an adult woman, bring more realism to a little girl’s dreams? Handler thought so. Discovering the Lilli doll confirmed that her vision was capable of being mass-produced.
Whereas many other inventors in this book started from scratch, Ruth Handler had an advantage. At the time of her chance meeting with Lilli, Handler and her husband ran a little toy company called Mattel. Ruth brought one of the Lilli dolls back to her designers. It took her some time to convince her husband and her all-male staff that if they built this doll, the little girls would swarm to it. Ruth Handler’s dominant personality and steadfast belief eventually convinced them, and in 1958 Mattel bought the Weissbrodt/Hausser body design patent. After their market research and refinements to tone down the streetwalker appearance of Lilli, Mattel unveiled the fruit of its labor.
When the curtain finally rose on Mattel’s new doll, it was evident that, visually speaking, the apple had not fallen very far from the tree. Mattel’s doll wore a black and white striped, strapless bathing suit, cat’s eye sunglasses and stiletto high heel shoes. Her facial painting was very similar to the Lilli doll, with a sideways glance under heavy makeup. Most noticeable were her measurements, which equated to 38"-18"-33" if she were life-size.
But appearance is where the similarities stopped. For inspiration in naming the product, Ruth Handler looked no further than her daughter, Barbara. The image Mattel constructed for their new “Barbie” doll was one that carefully combined innocence and sophistication, attractive to girls as a role model and aspiration. Only time would tell if the retail community would buy it.
Barbie debuted at the 1959 International Toy Fair to mixed reviews. Many doll buyers refused to stock her, others worried that she was too mature. Yet on Mattel’s reputation alone, some gave her a chance. Many parents had the reaction that the buyers had feared, but, to young girls, it was love at first sight. Mattel gambled on the girls winning over their parents, and won big. Over 350,000 Barbie dolls were sold in its first year. {Barbie Close Up} Caption: Shortly after her release, Barbie struck a nerve, Mattel struck oil, and the little girls of America were just … awestruck. No one had seen anything like her.
Time magazine wrote about our country’s increasing degree of affluence in 1959, declaring, “The new leisure is here.” The ultimate symbol of commercialism, the shopping mall, first appeared that same year. Barbie not only came at the perfect time, she came with needs. Although she was much maligned by feminists (despite early careers as a registered nurse in ’62 and an astronaut in ’68), Barbie owned her femininity, along with clothes, cars, jewelry, jeeps, pets, shoes, and houses. She may or may not teach our daughters to be feminists, but she certainly preps them to be dutiful consumers. Just walk into any discount department store and look for Barbie’s own pink aisle. It’s the Rodeo Drive of Toyland with everything and anything Barbie’s little plastic heart desires.
After just 10 years on the market, Barbie’s dominance was unquestioned when she entered the ’70s. The Barbie brand had expanded to include over 1,000 items, and she traveled all over the world. In 1971, Malibu Barbie looked us straight in the eyes for the first time, losing her coy, off-center stare. She also cracked her first smile and has had it ever since. Barbie made good career choices and gained a wide circle of friends under Mattel’s guidance, including Ken, Midge, Allan, P.J., Stacey and Christie.
Although these marketing decisions helped to soften Barbie’s image, other choices reinforced Barbie’s negative stereotypes. Consider 1978’s Teen Talk Barbie. She said six phrases, one of which was “Math class is tough!” So much for that career as an astronaut.
In 1979 Barbie’s shopping list included a safe for her fur and jewels, a convertible Super Vette Corvette and a Dream House—each sold separately. You could easily conclude that this was all in preparation for the selfish decade of the’80s, but as always, Barbie was not so easy to pin down. Instead, the new decade marked a period of purpose and empowerment for her. In 1980, the first African-American and Hispanic Barbie dolls arrived with skin tones, hair and facial features modified. By 1984 a new slogan, “We Girls Can Do Anything!” spoke of Barbie’s change from fashion model to role model. Like never before, she enabled girls to imagine becoming anyone they wanted—a vision Ruth Handler maintained all along.
Perhaps Barbie can be summed up as extreme, because in all aspects—whether it’s her body, clothes, accessories or various careers— that word seems to define her. She’s worked for NASA and has a medical degree. She ran for president of the United States twice (in 1992 and again in 2000). She’s been an officer in the Army, Navy, Air Force and Marines, and has her pilot’s license. Despite all this extreme empowerment, her shallow, bombshell reputation followed her. Barbie needed to gain a few grams of plastic before she could start to shed her negative persona.
It was news big enough for the Wall Street Journal when, in 1998, Mattel announced that they would begin selling a more anatomically “normal” Barbie. With a smaller bust, thicker waist, wider hips and flatter feet, the new Barbie promised to bring some realism to her role as a representative of the feminine ideal. In the eyes of millions of little girls, these changes may go unnoticed; more likely they’ll become part of Barbie’s influence on their collective subconscious—a place that parents should guard with great care.
When I asked my young daughters if they noticed any difference in the new Barbie, they both spotted some missing plastic flesh, but not in the area you might think. “She’s got a belly button!” they shrieked. Change is good I suppose (it’s an innie, by the way). At least my Grandpop Horan isn’t here to see the navel ring that Barbie will surely be sporting next.
She’s an inspiration to some and a perversion of femininity to others. She reinforces sexism to some; but to others, represents the ultimate feminist lifestyle. Her reign as the biggest pop culture icon of the toy world, however, remains unquestioned. Mattel sells over 172,000 Barbie dolls per day. Numbers like that are sure to irritate her detractors and confirm what her fans already know: It’s Barbie’s world—we’re all just living in it. (Reprinted from
Timeless Toys).
I was interviewed for a piece on Marvin Glass & Associates for Esquire magazine the other day and it was so fun that I thought I'd share some of my pictures from Timeless Toys and a memory or two.
Marvin Glass was an entrepreneur and the creative force behind Marvin Glass & Associates, a toy, game and novelty design firm in Chicago. His personal life was often a mess, but his salesmanship and his uncanny ability to spark creativity in the designers he employed was unparalleled. In 1949 he licensed a "novelty item" to H. Fishlove & Company called Yakity-Yak Talking Teeth. They were invented by Eddy Goldfarb, who worked for Marvin for a very short time after World War II.
The first big hit in toys for Marvin Glass & Associates was Mr. Machine, a toy invented by an former watch maker named Leo Kripak. A kid could take Mr. Machine apart and put him back together. It was licensed to Ideal Toys and became such a hit for them that Lionel Weintraub made it his company mascot and featured it in many of Ideal's early TV ads. 
In the 1960s and early '70s, this was the mark of a fun game. For more on Marvin Glass, check out these links: 
