True Toy Story: Why Barbie’s Inventor’s Kids Hated the Star 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. Her father, Yakov Mosko, was a blacksmith who deserted from the Russian army. Her mother Ida was illiterate. When Handler was only six months old, her mother became seriously ill and could no longer care for the children on her own. Her older sister Sarah took over the custody of the children, including Ruth.

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

The young couple moved to Los Angeles, where Eliot decided to start his own business. At that time, Ruth’s husband wanted to make furniture from two new types of plastic: lucite and plexiglass. At the same time, they first tried their hand at making toys, creating die-cast models of the Douglas DC-3 aircraft. Ruth managed to secure a contract with the airline. The contraptions the Handlers invented were purchased by Douglas Aircraft, where the planes were presented as company Christmas gifts.

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

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

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

Ruth admitted that she put her daughter to the test.

“She was just living, trying to be like everyone else, when she suddenly became the inspiration for the world’s most popular toy.”Handler recalled.

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

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

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

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

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

Kenneth said that he did not look like his plastic “analogue” at all, and this connection rather burdened him.

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

He also told the publication that he sees Barbie as a girl who “hangs out on the beach and doesn’t have a brain in her head.” Kenneth admitted that he didn’t like the doll at all.

His sister answered him.

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

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

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

The woman noted that her mother never dreamed 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.

Also read: Buyers were angry: how Ken appeared in the life of Barbie – unknown pages of the cult love story

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