Like many other Americans, the “all-American” Barbie doll has German origins. Barbara “Barbie” Millicent Roberts was born – as a fully grown adult plastic doll – in New York City at the American International Toy Fair on 9 March 1959. Her accessory boyfriend, Ken, didn’t arrive until 1961.

Actually one could say that Barbie was “born” in Japan. As was common in the late 1950s, Barbie was “Made in Japan” to keep production costs low. Her clothes were hand-stitched in Japan as well. To this day, the Mattel company has never manufactured a Barbie doll in the USA, although it has manufactured other toys in the United States. These days Barbie, Ken, and friends come off of production lines in China (since 1986), Indonesia, and India (for the Indian market).

The first Mattel Barbie doll in 1959 wore a bathing suit. She was the same height as her German ancestor, the large-sized Bild-Lilli doll: 11.5 inches tall. In 1971 Barbie’s sideward glancing eyes were changed to face directly forward. The original oblique glance also came from Lilli. See more below. PHOTO: Barbieologin, CC-BY-3.0 (levels adjusted by H. Flippo)

Mattel’s new Barbie “fashion doll” became a huge hit. A little over 350,000 vinyl Barbies were sold in that first year. Thanks to a masterful marketing and advertising strategy, well over a billion Barbie dolls have been sold worldwide in over 150 countries since 1959. Mattel has claimed that three Barbie dolls are sold every second – and she is now even featured in a groundbreaking new Barbie movie starring Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling (US release date: Friday, 21 July 2023), and directed by Greta Gerwig.

Mattel considers the 9 March date to be Barbie’s official birthday. According to her Mattel biography, Barbie was born and raised in the fictional town of Willows, Wisconsin. Her parents were George and Margaret Roberts. In the Random House Barbie novels, she attended Willows High School, but in the Generation Girl books, published by Golden Books in 1999, she attended the fictional Manhattan International High School in New York City (based on the real-life Stuyvesant High School). She has an on-and-off romantic relationship with her boyfriend Ken (full name: Kenneth Sean Carson).

However, Barbie’s true background is far more interesting. Besides her German ancestry, Barbie could also be considered Jewish to some (limited) degree. Her creator, Ruth Handler (1916-2002), was born Ruth Marianna Mosko, the youngest of ten children, on 4 November 1916 in Denver, Colorado to Eastern European Yiddish-speaking Jewish immigrant parents (Jakob Joseph Mosko/Moskowitz and Ida Rubenstein). Because her mother fell ill after her birth, Ruth was actually raised by her older sister, Sarah, and her husband Louis Greenwald. Unlike her birth parents, the Greenwalds spoke mostly English rather than Yiddish at home, giving Ruth the advantage of a better command of English than most of her siblings.

Ruth Mosko later married Isadore “Izzy” Elliot Handler, a Jewish “starving art student” she had met at a B’nai B’rith youth dance in Denver. Following an on-and-off romance, the two got back together in Los Angeles, before returning to Denver. Sarah’s constant efforts to keep them apart had failed (Izzy was too poor), and in 1938 they had a fancy wedding graciously paid for by Sarah and Louis. Soon the newlyweds headed back to Los Angeles, where Ruth returned to her job as a secretary at Paramount Pictures, and Izzy found work as a lighting fixture designer.

On the way to California, Ruth, who had experienced antisemitism in Denver, asked her new husband to use his less Jewish-sounding middle name. Thus Izzy Handler became Elliot Handler (1916-2011). However, the couple never abandoned their Jewish faith, even later helping found Temple Isaiah in Los Angeles and becoming longtime contributors to the United Jewish Appeal.

Mattel
The Mattel company was founded as Mattel Creations in 1945 by the Handlers with a partner named Harold “Matt” Matson. The firm’s name was derived from a mix of the principal partners’ first names: Matt + Elliot = Mattel. Ruth became Mattel’s sales director. (She originally held no shares in the company, but took over Matson’s stake when he left the firm in 1946.) At first the company made picture frames and dollhouse furniture. In 1947 Mattel released the firm’s first hit toy, the Uke-A-Doodle, a child-sized ukulele. The company incorporated in 1948, with Mattel, Inc. headquartered in Hawthorne, California. (In 1990 El Segundo, California became the new Mattel base.) Next came the fortune-telling Magic 8 Ball (1950), a cap pistol named the “Burp Gun” (1955), and other toys.

The Burp Gun is a classic example of Ruth Handler’s innovative approach to marketing and advertising. In 1955, four years before Barbie’s debut, the Handlers were offered the opportunity to have Mattel sponsor a new ABC television show called “The Mickey Mouse Club.” It was a big gamble on an unknown show, costing $500,000, which at the time was equal to the company’s total value.

But Ruth thought the idea of marketing Mattel’s toys, particularly the Burp Gun, directly to children, rather than their parents, was worth the risk. The Disney TV show became very popular, and the Handlers’ big bet paid off. But only after a brief scare caused by a delay of almost six weeks between when the first TV ads had aired and when orders began to pour in. Mattel saw a 25 percent increase in sales, and shipped out over a million Burp Guns in twelve months. However, real success only came in 1959, with a doll named Barbie – the one product that most helped turn Mattel into a major player.

Barbie dolls sold slowly at first. Barbie was not an instant hit product, but Ruth had learned from the Burp Gun experience. Wholesale toy buyers didn’t understand Barbie. Parents were not enthusiastic about a doll with breasts. But once young girls saw a Barbie doll with her costumes on TV, they wanted one. Or two! By marketing directly to the kids via television, Mattel soon saw a big increase in sales. By the end of Barbie’s first year, an amazing 350,000+ dolls had been sold. And the rest is history.

The Handler family in an undated photo from the 1950s. Seated on the couch are Ruth and Elliot Handler. In front of them are their children Kenneth (Ken, 1944-1994) and Barbara (1941- ). Barbara’s actual family nickname was “Babs” or “Bobby.” But Babs and Barbara were already copyrighted product names, so the doll’s name became Barbie. PHOTO: Mattel, Inc.

But part of that history includes a bookkeeping scandal that forced the Handlers out of the company they had created. On 11 December 1978, Ruth, then in her sixties, appeared in a Los Angeles federal courtroom for sentencing. Two months earlier she and financial officer Seymour Rosenberg had pleaded nolo contedere to felony fraud charges involving their roles in cooking the Mattel books – a federal crime for which they could have faced some 40 years in prison.

Judge Robert Takasugi sentenced Ruth Handler and Rosenberg to the maximum possible fine of $57,000, plus five years’ probation with 500 hours of community service per year, none of which, in Ruth’s case, could be spent working at her new Ruthton firm making breast protheses for cancer survivors who had undergone a mastectomy, just as Ruth had. She had already left Mattel to devote herself to helping women by designing and manufacturing a far better breast prothesis than she had first endured as a “mastectomee,” a word she herself had coined.

Bad Barbie, Black Barbie, and Other Controversies
Over the years, Barbie, her friends, and her wardrobe have been remodeled, reshaped, recolored, and adapted to better reflect the culture of the times. After all, even real adults living in the 1950s were not the same people in the 1960s, 1970s or 1980s. The first Barbie DreamHouse launched in 1962. Barbie Astronaut, complete with spacesuit, appeared in 1965, four years before Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin become the first MEN to land on the moon. Astronaut Major Matt Mason, whose name honored the firm’s co-founder, went on sale in 1967.

Although the dolls sold very well, there was also criticism and controversy that began with Barbie’s debut in 1959. Her bust line, which Ruth Handler had long fought for, was the first target of criticism. Some adults objected to the adult doll’s breasts, but for girls buying Barbie dolls it was no problem. Then came the doll’s thin figure, which other adults found too unrealistic. Over time, these and other objections came and went – to this day. Then came the cultural norms of the 1950s, 1960s, and later. For instance, attitudes about race and class.

Barbie’s friend Christie, the first truly Black figure in Barbie Land, debuted in 1968, the same year Hot Wheels launched (based on an idea by Elliot, a car fan). Christie replaced Mattel’s now extremely rare African American “colored Francie” doll, briefly marketed from 1967-1968. The Francie doll had weak sales, and was harshly criticized for being merely a dark-skinned doll based on the same caucasian mold used for white Barbie dolls. The first actual Black Barbie didn’t go on sale until 1980. There have been about 175 Barbie doll models and variations to date.

Bild-Lilli and the Path to Barbie’s Invention
Young Barbara Handler’s mother, Ruth, noticed that her daughter preferred playing aspirational adult roles with handmade paper dolls rather than plastic baby dolls. Barbara, who would later lend her name to the final product, preferred to imagine the future of her paper dolls, going to college or working, rather than play mom to infant dolls.

This inspired her observant mother to embark on a path that would eventually lead to the creation of a new fashion-conscious female adult doll. She would have clothing that could be changed and would reflect current fashion. But Ruth’s husband and business partner was skeptical about marketing an adult doll. He and other Mattel people felt that a doll with a bust line was a bit too much in the 1950s. And Ruth herself had no idea of how such a doll could be assembled, or what she would look like – until a family vacation to Europe in 1956.

While traveling with her family in Switzerland, Ruth Handler spotted an 11.5-inch (29 cm) tall plastic adult doll labeled “Bild-Lilli” in a Lucerne shop display window. (Lilli was also sold in a smaller 7.5 inch size. See the photo below.) She was dressed in a striking Alpine ski outfit. Mom bought one for her 15-year-old daughter, but businesswoman Ruth also bought more of the dolls for her Mattel company, intending to use them for developing the doll that would later become famous as Barbie. Later in their trip, they found more Lilli dolls in Vienna. The Bild-Lilli dolls in Austria were packaged in round clear-plastic cases, wearing different costumes than those they had seen in Switzerland.*

The Bild-Lilli doll had been marketed in West Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Sweden, and some other European countries since 1955. Named for the Hamburg-based tabloid Bild-Zeitung (literally “picture newspaper,” stylized as BILD), the Lilli doll was originally sold as a sexy gag doll, marketed to men. But Lilli was later also marketed as a children’s toy by the West German toymaker Greiner & Hausser (originally O&M Hausser).

Lilli began life as a single-panel cartoon series drawn by Reinhard Beuthien for BILD. The sassy, sexy Lilli figure appeared in BILD from 1952 until 1961. She became so popular that the BILD editors decided to turn her into a doll as an advertising gimmick. Each plastic Bild-Lilli doll was sold holding a miniature copy of the newspaper in her hand. The Lilli doll was designed by Max Weissbrodt, based on Beuthien’s cartoon drawings.

Lilli Becomes Barbie
Although the German Lilli doll helped Ruth and her team at Mattel develop the manufacturing specs for the doll that Ruth had envisioned, there were some changes. The Mattel Barbie designers, led by Jack Ryan and overseen by Ruth Handler, gave Lilli a makeover for American/Mattel tastes. In the transfer to Barbie, Lilli’s breasts were reduced in size, and her heavy makeup was toned down, with her facial expression made more neutral. Other alterations were made in the doll’s plastic material construction and the way her hair was attached. While Lilli’s feet were permanently clad in painted-on black high heels, Barbie would have bare feet and toes.

Pictured here are five German Bild-Lilli dolls. Barbie’s German ancestor was sold in two sizes. The first Lilli doll went on sale in 1955. She was based on a cartoon figure published in the West German tabloid newspaper BILD between 1952 and 1961. Unlike Barbie, the Lilli doll had no real feet. There were other differences as well. Mattel bought the rights to Lilli in 1964, ending her production. More below. PHOTO: Nicole Heineking – vintage-flaneur.de

The very first Barbie doll was clad in a black-and-white zebra striped one-piece swimsuit. Her hair (either blonde or brunette) was styled in Barbie’s signature ponytail. Her changeable wardrobe was created by Mattel fashion designer Charlotte Johnson.

In 1964, long after Barbie had made her US debut, and following an extended legal battle, Mattel finally bought all patents and copyrights to Bild-Lilli from her German toymaker. That spelled the end of the Lilli doll. In 1980, Mattel designer Jack Ryan also sued the firm, claiming that he alone had created Barbie and named her after his wife. However unlikely that may seem, he nevertheless won a $10 million settlement. Ryan died by suicide in 1991 following a stroke.

Lilli’s Legacy
Today original Barbie and Bild-Lilli dolls in good condition can command US dollar or euro prices in the hundreds or even thousands from collectors. The larger sized Lilli version is most popular. The Hong Kong and other Lilli knock-offs or clones were an interesting offshoot of the German original, some made with molds sold by the original German toymaker.

In 2016, Barbie got a major makeover and appeared on the cover of TIME, when the Barbie Fashionistas made their debut as a colorful assembly of dolls that came with various body types, skin tones, eye colors and hair textures, signaling a new era of Barbie dolls that more accurately reflected the population. PHOTO: Mattel Inc.n

The German Lilli doll is often described in articles about her history with terms such as “pornographic,” “lewd,” “sex doll,” or “call girl.” But Lilli was no such thing. Yes, she was a bit risqué for Europe in the 1950s (even more so for the US in those days), but she was far tamer than many writers attempt to portray her. Her original cartoon character was sexy, sassy, and willing to speak her mind. Yes, she was curvaceous, but she also had an independent mind and refused to play the typical prim and proper young woman of the day. She was even something of a feminist at a time before that was even a common term. Neither the Lilli dolls nor her cartoon originals were ever portrayed as anything more than a bit sexy and sassy. Before she was taken off the market by Mattel, Lilli was sold dressed as a hospital nurse, a skier, an ice skater, and other normal, everyday roles.

Thanks to Mattel’s lawyers, Barbie has lasted far longer than her German predecessor and has gone through various phases and controversies over the years. Lilli never had a chance to experience changing times, attitudes, and styles. Through highs and lows, Barbie has proved to be an enduring, pioneering element of popular culture for over six decades – from the 1950s into the 2020s! Not bad for an 64-year-old “fashion doll.”

– HF

Recommended Reading (from Amazon.com): Barbie and Ruth: The Story of the World’s Most Famous Doll and the Woman Who Created Her by Robin Gerber (Kindle, hardcover, paperback) – HarperCollins, 2009

*FOOTNOTE: “[Ruth Handler] and her daughter Barbara returned to California in 1956 with Lilli dolls in tow. Receipts at the Schlesinger Library at Harvard University show that Handler purchased 11 Lilli dolls in 1956 and later ordered another dozen via airmail. Barbara kept one doll in her room; Handler took the others to Mattel…” – from “Barbie’s ‘pornographic’ origin story” by Maham Javaid in The Washington Post, 25 May 2023