Ruth Handler

Ruth Handler (November 4, 1916 - April 27, 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.

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. She wanted to produce a plastic doll with an adult body but her husband and Mr Matson thought it wouldn´t sell. But when the Handlers were on an European trip, Ruth Handler saw the German Bild Lilli doll (which was not meant for children at all; rather a gag gift for adults) in a Swiss shop and bought it.

Ruth Handler says that when she bought "Bild Lilli" she was ignorant of its adult nature. Back home she reworked the design of the doll and re-named her Barbie, who debuted at the New York toy fair on March 9, 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". Critics claimed measurements were based on male fantasy rather than actual human metrics, and the ostensibly 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 Handlers' son, Kenneth Handler) 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. She developed breast cancer and had a mastectomy in the 1970s, and irregularities in reporting to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission led to her resignation at Mattel.

Because of difficulties in finding a good breast prosthesis, she went on to found a company, Ruthton Corp, which manufactured a more realistic version called "Nearly Me".

Upon her death in 2002, a short time after undergoing surgery for colon cancer, at the age of 85, she was interred in the Hillside Memorial Park Cemetery in Culver City, California, survived by her family.

Categories

Find

Find