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Most mistakes in philosophy and logic occur because the human mind is apt to take the symbol for reality. Albert Einstein |
Ruth Handler (November 4, 1916 – April 27, 2002) was an American businesswoman, born to Jewish-Polish immigrants Jacob and Ida Moskowicz, the president of the toy manufacturer Mattel Inc., and is remembered primarily for her role in marketing the Barbie doll.
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Her husband, Elliot Handler and his business partner, Harold "Matt" Matson, formed a small company to manufacture picture frames, calling it "Mattel" by combining part of their names ("Matt" and "Elliot"). 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 "Uke-a-doodle", a toy ukulele.
Ruth Handler had noted that her daughter Barbara, who was becoming a pre-teen, preferred playing with her infant paper dolls and giving them adult roles. 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 a 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 brought it home.
Once home, she reworked the design of the doll and re-named her Barbie after her daughter. Barbie debuted at the New York toy fair on March 9, 1959. Barbie became an instant success, rocketing the Handlers and their toy company toward fame and fortune. Subsequently they would add a boyfriend for Barbie named Ken, after Handler's son, and many other "friends and family" to Barbie's world.
Ruth Handler says that when she bought "Bild Lilli" she was ignorant of its adult nature. Handler said that she thought it "was important to a girl's esteem that she plays 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 the measurements were based on male fantasy rather than actual human metrics, and the so-called unrealistic proportions of Barbie has continued to be controversial, with many suggesting that playing with Barbie decreases rather than enhances a girl's self-esteem. In response to criticism, Mattel has adjusted the chest measurement down and the waist measurement up, though the proportions are still uncharacteristic of "typical" women. Conversely, the undersized waist also accommodated the bulk of fabric at waistline seams in garments such as full-skirted dresses, a staple of the Barbie doll's early wardrobe.
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 1968
Handler was diagnosed with breast cancer in 1970. She had a modified radical mastectomy, which was often used at the time to combat the disease, and because of difficulties in finding a good breast prosthesis, she decided to make her own. Handler went on to found a company, Ruthton Corp., formed by her and Peyton Massey, which manufactured a more realistic version of a woman's breast, called "Nearly Me".
Though the Handlers took a more hands-off approach to their company's business practice after resigning, they still kept creating more ideas. One project Handler took on in the 1980s was Barbie and the Rockers. She was credited as a writer of the 1987 film Barbie and the Rockers: Out of this World. Handler was inducted into the Junior Achievement U.S. Business Hall of Fame in 1997.
She died in California from complications of colon cancer surgery on April 27, 2002, aged 85.
Ruth Handler
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