BARBIE HISTORY
Barbie was born in 1959, when her mass-production officially began. Her birthday is on the 9th of march, as she was introduced to the buyers on the 1959 Toy Fair on that day.
But of course, she didn't just come out of the blue. This is her story:
1945- Mattel was founded by Harold Mattson (Matt) and Ruth and Elliot (El)
Handler. They started with producing gift items and via costume jewelry they ended
up at gift items and dollhouse furniture. The toy company was born, producing mainly toy guns
and musical toys.
Ruth saw her daughter playing with paper fashion dolls and came up with the idea to produce a 3D version of this wonderful toy.
1956- Switzerland- Ruth finds Lilli in Lucerne. Lilli was created by the German Greiner & Hausser company after a comic strip from Reinhard Beuthin in the German newspaper 'Bild Zeitung'. This cartoon featured a blonde bombshell who was always after wealthy men. She was offered in an 11 1/2" and a 7" size.
For more information: www.bild-lilli.de
After Mattel bought the rights to produce such a fashiondoll in the U.S., they went into business with the Kokusai Boeki company with as subcontracter Pony ltd. in Japan.
Now it was time to dress the famous fashion model and give her a decent wardrobe, Charlotte Johnson was the first ever designer for Barbie doll.
Ruth and Elliot Handler had a daughter named Barbara (Barbie, Babs were her nicknames) and a son named Kenneth (Ken). Barbie was named after Barbara, because she was the inspiration for creating the doll. Ken was of course named after Kenneth.
For more information go to:
Identification of Barbie dolls
Important feedback:
Dream Doll - the Ruth Handler Story
The Story of Barbie - Kitturah B. Westenhouser
Patents
All patents below have been filed by John W. Ryan, assignor to Mattel Inc.
The figures show what is meant in the textual part of these patents and the numbers refer to parts of the inventions that are also described in the text.
'Patent # 3,009,284 on Nov.21, 1961, filed July 24, 1959
This invention relates to a doll construction and more particularly to a construction by which a doll may be supported in a balanced, realistic position when not in use or when on display.'
This patent is for the Ponytail #1 and shows all the particular properties that made this doll stand out in the '60s.
Interesting is that in this patent it is described that 'the doll may take any form, human or animal, and is illustrated herein as a female figure having a body, a head and plurality of limbs secured to the body in articulated relationship, such as pairs of arms and legs.'
Basically, the patent refers to the doll body construction, with it's particular movement and placement on the stand, the stand and the shoe.
For the first Barbie doll, holes were drilled in her legs, they were then filled with a copper tube, which would in it's turn slide over the metal prongs of the stand, allowing Barbie doll to be displayed. Unfortunately, this was a very expensive and precise procedure. As a result, the #2 Ponytail was born, this time without the holes in her feet. She was held in place on her stand by a rack type of construction, over which her arms would hang.
'Patent # 3,234,689 on Feb.15, 1966, filed June 8, 1962
The present invention refers to a novel doll construction adapted to attain numerous natural movements and positions. More particularly [ ...] to reproduce closely the movement and positions of the human body.'
This patent was never put to use in this form, I believe. This invention allowed the dolls legs to move more naturally, by adjusting the way the legs were attached to the torso. They were held in place by a pin with knobs, as seen in the third image. They could move sideways and the doll could stand on a basy with multiple prongs, allowing her to be displayed in different positions. My guess is, they didn't go ahead with it, because of the strange look the waist and pelvis would get.
Also this patent is for a head that could move about 40 degrees due to a neck knob that was attached to a bar, which was in it's turn attached to the pelvis bar. For this, the neck would be rounded at the top, allowing the head to swivel smoothly over it.
'Patent # 3,277,601 on Oct.11, 1966, filed Jan. 23, 1964
In general, the present invention relates to a doll limb, such as a leg or arm, and a doll having such a limb. More particularly, the present invention relates to a simply formed, life-like doll limb which is adapted to reproduce the natural movements and contours of a human limb and yet maintain a selected position.'
In these pictures you can clearly see how the leg is constructed. The actual doll had a hard plastic inner leg, held together on the joint with a piece of metal. This construction was used for many years, causing some dolls to have discoloration on the leg where the metal is.
In the image on the right the ladylike way in which Barbie could sit with her legs crossed, thanks to this new invention, is shown.
This wonderful patent was first put to use on Miss Barbie from 1964, she could sit and stand like an elegant lady. She was sold with a lawn swing on which she could rest herself down. In the image below you can see how she was marketed back in 1964. The sales pitches were: 'Her knees really bend', 'Her lifelike and natural looking legs actually bend at the knee...and the joints that allow this movement are completely invisible! she can pose like she's running, cheerleading, modeling...and even cross her legs when she sits down!'
Beside this, she had a second novelty, her eyes really opened and closed. I would really like to see a patent of that!
Although already used on Miss Barbie, it wasn't until the American Girl hit the shelves that Mattel officially introduced this new feature. She was marketed as 'Barbie with lifelike bendable legs'. After that, Ken, Allan, Midge, Skipper, Francie and many more friends got bendable legs as well. Poor Ricky never did, though...
