The room full of middle-aged ad executives were not impressed. Oh, they were smugly polite— after all they were in the presence of the company founders wife. But the proposal before them would be expensive and there was just no mass appeal to the buying public.
Disappointed but not discouraged, Ruth Handler didn’t give up. She knew that her three-dimensional female adult doll would capture the imagination of little girls as they dreamed of what it would be like to be a grown up. Four years later she returned with a prototype and persuaded the company to back her at the American Toy Fair of 1959 in New York City.
Response from retailers was lukewarm, but little girls went wild, buying 350,000 dolls the first year. Even the skeptics could not deny that Mattel had a hit. Through her persistence Ruth Handler had forever changed the American doll market with the doll she named after her daughter, Barbie.
While the little girls of the 1960s were thrilled with their new “grown-up” doll, the mothers of America were not as enthusiastic. Accustom to their daughters playing with baby dolls, like Chatty Cathy and Betsy Wetsy, many Mom’s felt that the “mature body” of the doll was inappropriate for their daughters.
In one study, conducted by Mattel, mothers interviewed were quoted as saying, “It is hard enough to raise a lady these days without undue moral pressures. These are actually “Daddy Dolls.” They are far too sexy for children and would be more suitable as a decoration for a man’s bar.” Fuel to fire was added by the fact that Barbie had been modeled after a German doll named Lilli, who had been produced for the sole purpose of adult entertainment with her large breasts and sexy clothing.
It was an uphill battle, but Mattel held firm to their stand that Barbie was intended to be a “model of bubbly teenage innocence.” Through clever marketing they sold the doll as “a projection of every little girl’s dream of the future.” The company insisted that Barbie represented the modern woman who could have it all — beauty, brains, family and success in the world of business. Eventually the moms of America bought the concept and sales soared.
One year after Barbie’s release she was joined by her significant other, Ken. He was tall, handsome and sported a head of fuzzy hair, which in 1962 would be replaced by blond or brown painted hair. In 1963 we met Barbie’s friend Midge and in 1964 her sister Skipper arrived. The year 1968 brought many changes. Barbie’s Afro-American girlfriend Christie was introduced, Ken disappeared (he would return a year later with bigger muscles), and Barbie uttered her first words…… “I have a date tonight.”
The changing attitudes of the female role in society are evident as we view Barbie through the years. She has been a bride, a hippie, a nurse, an Olympic skier, a surgical nurse, a surfer, an astronaut and a flight attendant. She is also the only fashion doll to have been Caucasian, Black, Hispanic and Oriental.
Always a symbol of fashion, the Urban Cowboy craze of the early 80s found Barbie in cowboy chic. In 1985 she went haute couture in designs by Yves St. Laurent. Pierre Cardin and Christian Dior. In 1987 she revealed her rock and roll side wearing a Madonnesque day-glow bustier and skintight black pants. Showing support for our women in uniform, in 1989 she joined every branch of the military and in 1997 she became a ‘biker-babe” in full Harley Davidson attire.
Now at age 54 Barbie, “the doll that nobody would buy”, has become the most collectible doll of the 20th century. Until next time……….Linda
Irvington resident Linda Kennett is a professional liquidation consultant specializing in down-sizing for seniors and the liquidation of estates and may be reach at 317-429-7887 or lkennett@indy.rr.com.