Barbie and Ken Handler, children of Mattel, Inc., founders Elliot and Ruth Handler, weren't named after two Famous dolls. Rather, the dolls were named after the children. Ruth Handler thought of the idea of the glamorous Barbie fashion doll and also named it for her young daughter. Later, Ken, Barbie's boyfriend doll, was named after Handler's son.

        Ruth was born in Denver, Colorado, and married her high school sweetheart in 1938. Ruth later moved to Los Angles on an impulse where she turned her summer vacation into a job at Paramount Studios. A friend told her that it was virtually impossible to get a job there and defying all odds she applied and got the job the same day. She later told her friend "I do not take no for an answer."

        Elliot Handler attended art school and designed lighting fixtures, building furniture for their new home in his spare time, while Ruth worked as a secretary at Paramount Studios. Elliot Handler recalled in 1967 "My bright young wife stated if I could make this furniture for the house, why not make some for sale?" And so the Handler furniture business started. Their business was grossing $2 million a year and that was only the beginning.

        At his wife's suggestion, Elliot Handler started making dollhouse furniture using scarps of wood and metal from the shop. And that began the startup of Mattel Creations (named for then-partner Harold Matson and Elliot Handler). Mattel expanded by 1946 into a toy firm making miniature wood and plastic tables and chairs. Elliot's toy ukulele and later his toy piano brought the firm into the mainstream of national manufactures. Elliot soon patented an inexpensive music box mechanism, the first American-made competition to costly Swiss imports. Mattel also became the first toy company to use television advertising on the brand-new Mickey Mouse Club program. But it was only in 1959 that the Mattel company reached international fame and quadrupled its sales, with an invention by Ruth Handler.

    "Through years of observing our daughter's play patterns with dolls," remembered Elliot Handler, "my wife noted that she invariably passed by dolls of her own age group, favoring instead teenage dolls with fashion accessories. At the time, the only such teenage dolls were paper cutouts."

        A grown-up doll, a model for authentic clothing and accessories, a surrogate for a little girl's fantasies of her future was Ruth's idea. The reception the Barbie at the 1959 New York Toy Show was cool. "You're out of your mind; it won't sell," was the response Ruth Handler had to hear.

        But then again defying all odds Ruth made it happen. Barbie sold $500 million worth in her first eight years. But for Barbie to have this success mass plastic and vinyl had to be invented. The Barbie name was copyrighted and some mechanical features of the dolls were patented, but Ruth's name does not appear on a patent that says "Barbie Doll." That is because Ruth never really sculpted the doll, she only laid out the specifications required and left the sculpting to an expert team of engineers and technicians. She only managed the process of creating the design. The patents end up in their names, assigned to the company.

        Ruth Handler became vice-president of Mattel, Inc., from 1948 to 1967 and later president from 1967 to 1973. She was also founding member of the Los Angles Music Center, a member of the National Business Council for Consumer Affairs, a director of the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, a member of the Presidential Advisory Committee on the economic Role of Women, and a guest professor at UCLA and USC. But it was not always easy to be accepted as a woman in these prestigious roles.

        They idea of a woman company president was a little easier to accept in the early 1970s. But by then Ruth Handler was a cochairman of the board. But Ruth also suffered a life-shattering tragedy. She was diagnosed with breast cancer. This tragedy came at a time when Mattel, Inc., was suffering financial reversals. Ruth underwent radical mastectomy of the left breast. Unnerved, disfigured and "unwomanized," as she put it, Ruth retired from Mattel.

        Ruth was unable to find breast prosthesis that was natural and comfortable, she worked with prosthetic designer Peyton Massey and some retired Mattel technicians to develop the Nearly Me line of breast prostheses for mastectomies. Ruthton, Inc., owned and operated by Ruth Handler, now manufactures and distributes her designs of breast replacements and specially designed swimwear to cancer victims around the country. And Ruth Handler found a second career, a second career as an inventor, which brought her a satisfaction she never expected.

        Barbara "Barbie" Handler Segal and Kenneth "Ken" Handler have given Ruth and Elliot Handler five grandchildren--but this grandma sees no retirement in sight. At age 69, Ruth is still running the Ruthton Corporation and maintaining a nationwide business itinerary.
 
 

Bibliography
"Barbie." January 12, 1999. http://www.acgilbert.org/fame/barbie.html  (April 25, 2000) (Barbie Picture)

"Ambassadors of Dreams: Ruth Handler." February 15, 1999. http://www.barbie.com/girls/beanything/handler.asp (April 25, 2000) (Ruth Handler picture)

Mingasson, Gilles. "Barbie Doll." Microsoft Encarta 99 Encyclopedia. CD-Rom. Redmond: Microsoft, 1999

Links

http://www.gurlpages.com/me/h.kristie/info.html

http://www.fortune.com/fortune/magazine/1996/960304/mattel.html
 

 http://www.dolls4play.com/barbiehistory.html