The Making of Barbie
In 1937, Ruth and Elliot Handler left Denver, Colorado for California to make a fortune for themselves. The Handlers were optimists and willing to take risks. Ruth was the youngest of ten children and Elliot the second of four brothers. Their first gamble was to chuck their jobs and start their own business, peddling Plexiglas furniture that Elliot had been building part time in their garage. During the first years of World War II, they expanded their business to include the manufacture of jewelry, candleholders, and Art Deco novelties.
In 1945, they started Mattel Creations with their onetime foreman, Harold Matson. He and Elliott name fused their names to form MATTEL. Harold apparently wasnt the gambler the Handlers were, so he sold out in 1946. Moving on without him, Elliot introduced the Ukedoodle, a plastic ukulele, that secured Mattels niche in the toy world. The popular jack-in-the-box followed and, by 1955, Mattels net worth was in the area of $500,000.
Disneyland opened in July 1955 and Walt Disney had the Midas touch. He prepared to launch a TV series, The Mickey Mouse Club. Toy advertising on television never had been attempted prior to the show. However, ABC, Disneys network, wanted to give Mattel the opportunity to sponsor the show. The venture was risky, though. ABC conditioned the opportunity on Mattel paying the cost of putting on the show for an entire year. Doing so would cost Mattel almost its entire net worth - the gamble of a lifetime!
Mattels first commercial advertised a toy called the Burp Gun. The ad depicted an animal running backward when the gun was fired, appearing to retreat. Children loved the ad and by Christmas, all of the inventory had sold.
At this time, the Handlers had two children, Barbara and Ken. While watching Barbara play with her paper dolls, Ruth imagined Barbara and her playmates in grown-up roles. The idea hit Ruth to make a teenage doll that little girls could play with and dream about their future. After careful research Ruth confirmed there were plenty of baby dolls but no three-dimensional teenage dolls. The idea of the Barbie doll now was Ruths pet project.
While in Switzerland, Ruth had encountered the Lilli doll. Lilli was a very hard doll, both in her feel and in her features. Her hard plastic body was made by the process of injection molding. Her sharply lined body and somewhat scant clothing gave her the look of a prostitute. Ruth believed she could create a beautiful, yet more child friendly doll. She and Elliott made a deal with Kaisha (KBK) a Japanese novelty maker, to craft a soft, vinyl doll, with finger and toes, through the then-new technique of rotation molding.
Now that the Barbie doll was created, the Handlers started working on her first wardrobe. They turned to Charlotte Johnson, a fashion designer from Los Angeles, California. Charlotte was extremely fussy about the fabric to be used. Barbies first outfit was a smart looking black-and-white striped swim suit.
In 1959, Barbie made her debut at the American Toy Fair, which was the industrys annual trade show in New York City. Surprisingly, Barbie didnt fare well. Sears at the time was Mattels largest customer and it rejected her as it felt Barbie was too sexy! The Handlers were not discouraged, however. They knew Barbie would be a success with the right strategy. They did a commercial blitz in March, 1960 and by that summers end, kids had to have Barbie. Sales went wild and have continued to do so now for almost 50 years, making Barbie one of the most popular toys of all time.
1# Information for this article was obtained from Forever Barbie: The Unauthorized Biography of a Real Doll, by M.G. Lord, published by William Morrow and Company, Inc., 1994.
