True Toy Story: Why the Barbie inventor’s children hated this doll

It seems that we already know everything about Babri herself, but the biography of the “mother” of the cult doll, Ruth Handler, often remains in the background. But Ruth’s invention affected not only the interests of children around the world, but also her own family.

Today we invite you to learn more about the personal life of the co-founder of Mattel.

Handler was born in 1916, the youngest of 10 children of Polish Jewish immigrants who settled in Denver. His father, Yakov Mosko, was a blacksmith who deserted the Russian army. His mother Ida was illiterate. When Handler was only six months old, his mother became seriously ill and could no longer care for the children herself. Custody of the children, including Ruth, was taken by her older sister Sarah.

In 1938, Ruth married her high school sweetheart, an art student named Eliot Handler. They later had two children: a daughter, Barbara, and a son, Kenneth.

The young couple moved to Los Angeles, where Eliot decided to start his own business. At that time, her husband Ruth wanted to make furniture using two new types of plastic: lucite and plexiglass. At the same time, they first dabbled in toy production, creating die-cast models of the Douglas DC-3 aircraft. Ruth managed to secure a contract with the airline. The trinkets invented by the Handlers were purchased by Douglas Aircraft, where the planes were presented as corporate Christmas gifts.

Six years later, the Handlers co-founded Mattel, Inc. with friend Harold “Matt” Matson. In 1946 Matson sold his share and Ruth took over as the company’s first president.

The idea to create a slender miniature doll came to Handler when she saw her daughter playing with paper dolls. The idea finally took shape during a trip to Switzerland in 1956, where Ruth saw Lilly, a fashion doll based on the popular German comic strip that appeared in the Bild newspaper.

Ruth named her dolls after her own children. But they were hardly grateful. By the time Barbie went on sale in 1959, Barbara, born in 1941, hadn’t played with dolls in a long time, so she could barely appreciate the benefits of a toy. But she didn’t like the attention she was suddenly attracting.

Ruth admitted that she had put her daughter to the test.

“She just lived, tried to be like everyone else, when suddenly she became an inspiration for the most popular toy in the world”Manager recalled.

People asked Barbara about the doll and even asked her for an autograph, treating her like some kind of movie star.

Barbara, on the other hand, did her best to hide her connection to the doll and even categorically forbade her family to call her Barbie from now on.

The inventor’s son Kenneth, who was three years younger than his sister and at the time of Ken’s release, was to taste the glory he didn’t ask for, was also in high school.

Young girls lined up outside the house to meet him, but at the same time the guy was teased at school, especially because of Ken’s almost smooth crotch, as Handler recalled.

The Ruth children spoke candidly about the impact the dolls had on their lives in a rare 1989 interview with the Los Angeles Times.

Kenneth said it didn’t look like its plastic “analogue” at all, and that connection rather weighed it down.

“Ken is from somewhere in the world of Malibu. He goes to the beach and surfs. It combines all of these things of the ideal American life. I was a botanist, a real botanist. All the girls thought I was a jerk”– admitted the son of the inventor.

He also told the publication that he views Barbie as a girl who “hangs out on the beach and has no brains in her head.” Kenneth admitted that he didn’t like the doll at all.

His sister echoed him.

“I’m tired of being a Barbie doll”she says.

Neither Barbara nor Kenneth ever bought Barbie dolls for their children.

Kenneth Handler died in 1994 at the age of 50 from a brain tumour. He left three children. Barbara Handler is still alive today – she is already 82 years old. And, although she was embarrassed all her life to communicate with Barbie, she could not leave her. Either way, Barbara cares about her mother’s legacy and even praised the trailer for the next Barbie movie and the work of Margot Robbie.

The woman noted that her mother couldn’t even dream that her creation would one day form the basis of a Hollywood production, and she thinks Ruth would be happy to see the doll come to life on the big screen.

Read also: Buyers were angry: How Ken appeared in Barbie’s life – untold pages of a cult love story

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