What is the story of Barbie’s creation? Such an interest is easily explained, as the doll from the American company Mattel, Inc. managed to capture the affection of children. Moreover, it is popular even today. Its inventor was Ruth Handler. I-los-angeles will tell more about her life and her source of inspiration.
Ruth Handler’s origin
Her parents, originally from Poland, moved to Denver, Colorado. In a large family, she was not lonely, as she had 9 other siblings. Ruth was the youngest, the tenth child. Her mother had health issues, so she was raised by her older sister Sarah and her husband Louis. Her father, Jacob, worked hard to provide for the large family. When Ruth was 10 years old, she started working in her father’s pharmacy.
Marriage and Children
At the age of 19, Ruth Handler left Denver, dreaming of visiting Hollywood. Subsequently, she ended up staying there. Her high school sweetheart followed her. In 1938, she married Elliot Handler.
The couple, along with their business partner Harold Matson, founded a small company in El Segundo that was engaged in the production of photo frames. They named the firm Mattel, combining their names Matt and Elliot. They started using fragments that remained from the photo frames to make furniture for dollhouses for their product line. It was a profitable idea that eventually led to toy manufacturing.
It was a business started in a garage. Several years of hard work paid off. The company of the couple and their partner reached the $2 million mark. After that, the range of toys diversified and included toy pianos, airplanes and kids’ guitars.
Ruth Handler named the famous dolls after their children, Barbara Millicent Roberts and Kenneth Handler.
Barbara was born in 1941 in Los Angeles. Her parents had only $14 in their account at that time. The family became very rich 15 years later when Barbie was created in 1959. In 1961, Barbie’s friend named Ken appeared.
Kenneth, unlike the doll, was always interested in reading books and watching movies with subtitles. He called himself a nerd and did not find any resemblance between him and the favorite of girls, Ken.
The story behind Barbie’s creation
The idea of creating the famous dolls arose while the family was vacationing in Europe in 1956. In Switzerland, Barbara saw a doll in a shop window that looked very much like an adult woman. It was the Bild Lilli doll. The girl was quite surprised because she used to play only with paper dolls. The daughter’s excitement prompted Ruth to take decisive action. Arriving home, she immediately got to work.
It is worth noting that the idea of making a doll that was not a baby, mother or housewife was revolutionary for those times. Ruth Handler believed that children might also be interested in playing with dolls that represented working women like herself. So, it is quite natural for this doll woman to have a proportional body. Ruth’s husband and his partner considered this idea unacceptable for the parents of young girls.
Three years later, the first Barbie doll appeared on the market. Clothing for the doll could be bought separately. It was a real boom. Sales skyrocketed, though not immediately. Initially, buyers were not impressed with the toy, and Ruth began actively promoting Barbie on children’s TV programs. The first commercial of Barbie started to air in 1959. Instead of parents, the woman chose children as her advertising target. After a successful television campaign, Barbie became a hit.
In 1960, when the company went public, it was valued at $10 million. This affected the company as well. The high demand necessitated the increase of factory capacity and expansion of storage facilities. Since then, the Barbie doll has become an archetype of the American woman.
Ruth Handler and Breast Cancer
The woman made history not only as the inventor of Barbie and Ken dolls. The pioneer in the world of toys, as she was called, launched a line of the first breast prostheses after overcoming cancer and mastectomy.
The inventor recalled how her breasts were removed and how it affected her. The fact that she was a public person made everything even more complicated. At first, she bought the prostheses that were already available on the market. Then she had custom-made breasts, but none of these options worked for Ruth.
Ruth Handler presented new silicone prostheses that looked more realistic for women. With these prostheses, women got the feeling of real breasts. Furthermore, her line was quite cheap (from $98 to $130). There were over 70 different sizes and options for the right and left breasts.
The sales drop of Mattel, Inc.
This happened in 1972, and in February 1973, The New York Times reported on two inconsistent income statements. The company published these reports within three weeks. The first statement showed high profits, while the second stated that the company’s losses had reached $32.4 million for the fiscal year.
The company’s shares kept falling. The couple resigned in October 1975 (they held co-chair positions). The story did not end there, as the former executives of Mattel (including Ruth Handler) were placed under investigation by the Securities and Exchange Commission. It was revealed that the impressive sales growth in 1971, 1972 and 1973 was a fake. At that time, company executives were trying to create illusions of success by deliberately releasing falsified data. Ruth and four former employees of the firm were accused of conspiracy, fraud and filing false financial reports. The inventor of Barbie was fined $57,000 and sentenced to 2,500 hours of community service.
What was the later life of the founder’s children?
The woman underwent colon surgery (she had colon cancer), which resulted in complications that were incompatible with life. Ruth Handler passed away in April 2002 at the age of 85.
Her daughter Barbara previously owned a bedding store but later retired from the business. She enjoyed playing golf. Barbara got married at 18 to Allen Segal. The couple lived together for 11 years and had two children. Interestingly, Barbara never liked being compared to the Barbie doll.
Kenneth Handler lived his entire life in Los Angeles and gained fame as an American screenwriter, director and composer. He directed films such as Delivery Boys and A Place Without Parents. He got married in 1963 and had three children. The man died in 1994. His mother publicly stated that the cause of death was a brain tumor. However, many writers (Jerry Oppenheimer and Robin Gerber) alleged that the death resulted from complications related to AIDS. In 1990, he confessed to his parents and wife that he was gay and they all fully supported him.
Barbara and Kenneth mentioned in many interviews that their children never played with Barbie and Ken dolls. They didn’t buy them such toys. Kenneth, in his letters to his parents, wrote that such dolls cause a challenge for those who cannot accept their own sexuality.
The children of the Handler family frankly said that the dolls with their names negatively affected them. Despite this, Hollywood produced a film named Barbie, thanks to Ruth Handler’s creation. Thus, the doll and its inventor, the Handler family, were in the spotlight again. The story of the creation of Barbie and Ken has gone down in history forever.