Handler was born Ruth Mosko, the youngest of 10 children of Polish immigrants. Her father was a blacksmith who deserted the Russian army and her mother was illiterate. They came to the United States in the steerage section of a steamship and settled in Denver, Colorado. Ruth Handler graduated from East Denver High School.

She married her high school sweetheart, Issadore Elliot Handler. She then attended the University of Denver. She moved to Southern California at 19, and in her 20's married her high school sweetheart over the objections of her parents. The Handlers began their married life together in Hollywood in the late 1930's, where she worked as a secretary at Paramount Studios and Elliot studied industrial design at the University of California in Los Angles.

After her children were born, Ruth became bored staying home. They launched a giftware business out of the garage. Eventually the Handlers began making and selling plastic bowls, mirrors and other houseware items. The garage business boomed and was followed in the 1940's by a picture frame company. Elliot's partner in the picture frame business was Matt Matson. In 1942, Ruth suggested they combined their names and call their company "Mattel". They decided to use the scrap left over from the picture frames to make doll house furniture. This led to an interest to toys.

The company had early successes with a toy cap pistol and a child sized ukulele.

In 1959, Mattel introduced the product that would lead it into the forefront of the toy industry and fascinate generations of young girls. In the mid 1950's, while visiting Switzerland, Ruth Handler purchased a German Lilli doll. Lilli was a shapely, pretty fashion doll first made in 1955. She was originally fashioned after a famous cartoon character in the West German Newsletter, Bild Lilli, and her own daughter's fascination with cut-out adult paper dolls, would inspire Ruth Handler to design the Barbie doll. Ruth suggested making a three-dimensional doll through which little girls could act out their dreams. She named the doll "Barbie," which was the nickname of her daughter.

The doll was originally designed in 1956 but wasn't brought to market until 1959, because the male ad executives at Mattel were unimpressed with the idea. The first Barbie, "Barbie Teenage Fashion Model," debuted in 1959 at the American Toy Fair, sporting a black-and-white bathing suit, a ponytail and high-heeled shoes. At the Toy Fair, buyers were skeptical and did not give the doll raving reviews. Many retailers bought...holding their breath that the doll would be accepted. The public went wild over the doll. Mattel sold thousands of Barbies.

More than 350,000 dolls were sold that first year. By the time the doll turned 40, in 1999, Barbie and all her related paraphernalia generated more than $1-billion a year for the toy company, and various versions of the doll were being sold in 150 countries, at a rate of two dolls every second. Barbie went on to make a fortune for Mattel, which sold not only versions of the doll but an expanding number of outfits and accessories, not to mention Barbie's boyfriend Ken, named for Handler's son; her little sister, Skipper, and pals Midge and Christie.

Later dolls were named for Handler's grandchildren. The original blue-eyed, blond fashion model has morphed over the decades into a variety of ethnic looks and has had many careers, from astronaut to veterinarian. "My whole philosophy of Barbie was that through the doll, the little girl could be anything she wanted to be," Handler wrote in a 1994 autobiography. "Barbie always represented the fact that a woman has choices." The success of the Barbie doll led Mattel to become a publicly-owned company in 1960. Within five years, Mattel would join the ranks of companies on the Fortune list of the 500 largest U.S. industrial companies. During the ‘60s, the company created some of its most successful early products, including Thingmaker (featuring Creepy Crawlers) and two classic talking toys, Chatty Cathy and See ‘N Say. In 1968, Mattel introduced Hot Wheels miniature vehicles, another landmark product. Things changed in the 1970's. Mattel began to diversify away from toys and the Handlers were forced out of the company.

 Handler, who struggled with breast cancer and had a mastectomy in 1970, started her second career due to the disease. When she was unable to find a decent prosthetic breast, Handler created her own, called Nearly Me, and formed a company to market it. The company earned more than $1 million in sales and was sold in 1991. Handler, who also co-founded the Mattel toy company, died at Century City Hospital in Los Angeles of complications from colon surgery she underwent. She is survived by her husband of 63 years, Elliot Handler, and their two children: Barbara and Ken. She was 85. http://www.toydirectory.com/MattelToys/                                                                Home  >     site map