RUTH HANDLER The Handlers
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historical
Barbie doll's mom &
co-creator
Barbie's
Mom, creator (November
4,
1916
-
April 28,
2002)
was an American businesswoman, the president of the toy
manufacturer
Mattel, Inc.,
and is remembered primarily for her role in marketing
the
Barbie doll.
She was born
Ruth Mosko
in
Denver, Colorado,
the youngest daughter of Polish immigrants Jacob Joseph
Mosko and his wife, née Ida Rubenstein. In
1938
she married Elliot Handler.
Handler and his business partner, Harold "Matt" Matson,
formed a small company to manufacture picture frames,
calling it "Mattel" by combining their names ("Matt" + "El"liot).
Later, they began using scraps from the manufacturing
process to make dollhouse furniture. The furniture was
more profitable than the picture frames and it was
decided to concentrate on toy manufacturing. The
company's first big-seller was the "Uka-a-doodle", a toy
ukulele.
Ruth Handler had noted that her daughter Barbara
preferred playing with paper dolls that looked like
adults rather than like children. When in Europe, she
noticed a German doll named Lilli (which was
not meant for children at all; rather a gag gift for
men) and bought it for Barbara.
Barbie doll's mom &
co-creator
Ruth Handler says that when she bought Lilli
for her daughter, she was ignorant of its adult nature.
Mattel bought the rights to market Lilli: with
a hair color change from blonde to brunette, and a name
change to Barbie (after Ruth's daughter
Barbara) she was sold in the United States starting in
1959.
Ruth Handler had stated that she thought it "was
important to a girl's esteem that she play with a doll
with breasts," and Barbie was certainly qualified to be
that doll. If the doll originally marketed were
human-sized, her measurements would have been
39"-18"-33". These measurements were based on male
fantasy rather than actual human metrics, and the
unrealistic size of Barbie has been controversial, with
many suggesting that playing with Barbie decreases
rather than enhances a girl's self-esteem. In response
to criticism, Mattel adjusted the chest measurement
down, and the waist measurement up, though the
proportions are still uncharacteristic of most women.
Barbie
became a big seller, and Ken (named for the Handler's
son Kenneth) was introduced as her boyfriend in 1960.
Mattel continued to diversify its toy line, which grew
to include Chatty Cathy, See 'n' Say,
Hot Wheels,
Creepy Crawlers and Incredible Edibles.
Ruth Handler became president of Mattel in
1967.
RUTH-THE BARBIE DOLL credits: The Invention
Dimension website
http://web.mit.edu/invent/iow/i-archive-hi.html more
articles
Ruth Handler invented something in 1959 which became so
quintessentially American as to be included in the
official "America's Time Capsule" buried at the
celebration of the Bicentennial in 1976: the Barbie
doll.
In the early 1950s, Handler saw that her young daughter,
Barbara, and her girlfriends enjoyed playing with adult
female dolls as much or more than with baby dolls.
Handler sensed that it was just as important for girls
to imagine what they themselves might grow up to become
as it was for them to focus on what caring for children
might be like.
Because all the adult dolls then available were made of
paper or cardboard, Handler decided to create a
three-dimensional adult female doll, one lifelike enough
to serve as an inspiration for her daughter's dreams of
her future. Handler took her idea to the ad executives
at Mattel Corp., the company that she and her husband,
Elliot, had founded in their garage some years before:
the (all-male) committee rejected the idea as too
expensive, and with little potential for wide market
appeal.
Soon thereafter, Handler returned from a trip to Europe
with a "Lilli" doll, modeled after a character in a
German comic strip. Handler spent some time designing a
doll similar to Lilli ,
and even hired a designer to make realistic doll
clothes. The result was the Barbie doll (named in honor
of the Handlers' daughter), a pint-sized model of the
"girl next door."
Mattel finally agreed to back Handler's efforts; and the
Barbie doll debuted at the American Toy Fair in New York
City in 1959. Girls clamored for the doll, and Barbie
set a new sales record for Mattel its first year on the
market (351,000 dolls, at $3 each). Since then, Barbie's
popularity has rarely flagged; and today, with over one
billion dolls sold, the Barbie product line is the most
successful in the history of the toy industry.
From the beginning, Barbie has also had her critics: the
major accusation, from feminists
and others, has been that she reinforces sexism,
representing a young woman with questionable
intelligence and a near-impossible physique. The late
60s even saw the creation of the "Barbie Liberation
Organization," after Mattel introduced "Ken" (named
after the Handlers' son), as Barbie's "handsome steady."
Despite such criticisms, playing with Barbie dolls seems
as a rule to enhance girls' self-image and expand their
sense of their potential rather than the opposite. This
has become more true over the years, as Barbie herself
has expanded her horizons: she has now appeared as a
doctor, astronaut, businesswoman, police officer, UNICEF
volunteer, and athlete.
Ruth Handler undeniably invented an American icon that
functions as both a steady cynosure for girls' dreams
and an ever changing reflection of American society.
This can be seen in the history of Barbie's clothes, and
even her various "face lifts" to suit the times; in her
professional, political and charitable endeavors; and
more recently in the multi-culturalizing of her product
line. There is little doubt that Barbie will accompany
America into the new millennium. <<
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