07-09-2023, 06:45 PM
part two
Handler was certain of a successful launch in New York, an event that featured more than 16,000 wholesale and retail buyers from stores worldwide. Barbie, in her black-and-white striped swimsuit, heels and sunglasses — and modest $3 retail price — was sure to be a hit. Handler just knew it.
Only she wasn’t.
A New York Times article previewing the Toy Fair said Mattel’s hottest item for the coming year was “a yard-long, two-stage plastic rocket which soars to about 200 feet.” The article also cited Mattel’s new toy guns. Only a couple of paragraphs were dedicated to the new Barbie doll.
Toy buyers were also unimpressed. About half of the buyers who saw her wanted nothing to do with the doll. Never before had they seen a doll so completely unlike the baby and toddler dolls popular at the time. Many were put off by the doll’s womanly figure. To say the least, they didn’t share Handler’s enthusiasm.
“Ruth, little girls want baby dolls,” one buyer said in a story recounted by Handler in her autobiography. “They want to pretend to be mothers.”
Handler was shaken. Her baby, as she described Barbie, had been rejected. But Handler was far from defeated.
“One of my strengths is that I do have the courage of my convictions and the guts to take a position, stand up for it, push for it, and make it happen,” Handler wrote in her autobiography. “I can be very persuasive in getting others to see the light.”
Despite the cynics, Handler persisted. By sheer force of conviction, Barbie debuted. Mattel sold 300,000 dolls that first year. Outfits and accessories were sold separately. By the time Ken, Barbie’s boyfriend, made the scene in 1961, there was no stopping the teenage fashion model doll from becoming queen of the Toy World.
Although challenged by some for unrealistic beauty and her well-endowed physique, Barbie often opened little girls’ eyes to the potential of what might be. She was a college graduate in 1963 when few women attended college; she was a surgeon in 1973; a business executive in 1986; a summit diplomat and airline pilot in 1990; and a presidential candidate multiple times. Barbie was an astronaut in 1965, nearly 20 years before Sally Ride became America’s first woman in space aboard the shuttle Challenger in 1983.
Sixty years after her debut, it’s estimated that more than a billion Barbie dolls have been sold in more than 150 countries. Her appeal is worldwide.
“Ruth had a vision and when Ruth had a vision she was unstoppable,” Holder said. “Ruth didn’t pay any mind to a field dominated by men. In my opinion, Ruth dominated the field, not men.”
Handler helped run Mattel for 30 years, until she and her husband, then co-chair of the company, resigned in 1975. She survived breast cancer and embarked on a second career, starting a company that made prosthetic breasts for cancer survivors. She died in 2002.
Many of the big-bang explosions in politics, culture and technology of the 1960s were rooted in little bangs from the previous decade. In 1959, a confident and determined Ruth Handler, the woman behind Barbie, made a noise that still resonates today.
Handler was certain of a successful launch in New York, an event that featured more than 16,000 wholesale and retail buyers from stores worldwide. Barbie, in her black-and-white striped swimsuit, heels and sunglasses — and modest $3 retail price — was sure to be a hit. Handler just knew it.
Only she wasn’t.
A New York Times article previewing the Toy Fair said Mattel’s hottest item for the coming year was “a yard-long, two-stage plastic rocket which soars to about 200 feet.” The article also cited Mattel’s new toy guns. Only a couple of paragraphs were dedicated to the new Barbie doll.
Toy buyers were also unimpressed. About half of the buyers who saw her wanted nothing to do with the doll. Never before had they seen a doll so completely unlike the baby and toddler dolls popular at the time. Many were put off by the doll’s womanly figure. To say the least, they didn’t share Handler’s enthusiasm.
“Ruth, little girls want baby dolls,” one buyer said in a story recounted by Handler in her autobiography. “They want to pretend to be mothers.”
Handler was shaken. Her baby, as she described Barbie, had been rejected. But Handler was far from defeated.
“One of my strengths is that I do have the courage of my convictions and the guts to take a position, stand up for it, push for it, and make it happen,” Handler wrote in her autobiography. “I can be very persuasive in getting others to see the light.”
Despite the cynics, Handler persisted. By sheer force of conviction, Barbie debuted. Mattel sold 300,000 dolls that first year. Outfits and accessories were sold separately. By the time Ken, Barbie’s boyfriend, made the scene in 1961, there was no stopping the teenage fashion model doll from becoming queen of the Toy World.
Although challenged by some for unrealistic beauty and her well-endowed physique, Barbie often opened little girls’ eyes to the potential of what might be. She was a college graduate in 1963 when few women attended college; she was a surgeon in 1973; a business executive in 1986; a summit diplomat and airline pilot in 1990; and a presidential candidate multiple times. Barbie was an astronaut in 1965, nearly 20 years before Sally Ride became America’s first woman in space aboard the shuttle Challenger in 1983.
Sixty years after her debut, it’s estimated that more than a billion Barbie dolls have been sold in more than 150 countries. Her appeal is worldwide.
“Ruth had a vision and when Ruth had a vision she was unstoppable,” Holder said. “Ruth didn’t pay any mind to a field dominated by men. In my opinion, Ruth dominated the field, not men.”
Handler helped run Mattel for 30 years, until she and her husband, then co-chair of the company, resigned in 1975. She survived breast cancer and embarked on a second career, starting a company that made prosthetic breasts for cancer survivors. She died in 2002.
Many of the big-bang explosions in politics, culture and technology of the 1960s were rooted in little bangs from the previous decade. In 1959, a confident and determined Ruth Handler, the woman behind Barbie, made a noise that still resonates today.