On April 28th, 2002, major newspapers and periodicals forwarded a surprising news one after another: Ruth Handler, the 85-year-old creator of Barbie, passed away. For half a century, Barbie created by Ruth has almost become the darling of little girls all over the world. With the popularity of this doll with big eyes and long hair, Barbie doll today is not only a toy, but also a symbol of American women and American culture, just like McDonald's and KFC all over the world. As the founder of this brand, Ruth has given dreams and hopes to women all over the world with her lifelong efforts.
Ruth Handler was born in Denver, the capital of Colorado. Her parents were originally Polish. In order to avoid military service, they took a hot and dirty steamboat to the other side of the ocean, just like countless immigrants who came to the United States to find their dreams.
Ruth's father is a blacksmith and supports Ruth and her nine sisters on a small income. Her mother worked hard for her family all day, but the hardships of life didn't seem to bring much harm to this big family. Mom and dad never lose their temper with their children. Later, Ruth Handler once recalled that as the youngest child, she never lacked love when growing up. It is because there is so much love from childhood that she will have childlike innocence and design a lovely Barbie doll.
/kloc-When she was 0/9 years old, Ruth was only a sophomore. She is not tall, but full of curiosity. Curious about movies, she came to Hollywood alone, but she came to this tempting place not to be a movie star, but to study industrial design. Luckily, she got a job in the famous Paramount photo studio. Here, she met the love of her life, Elliot Handler. They soon fell in love and got married.
1942, ambitious Handler and his wife started their company in a garage. The original product was a wooden frame, Elliot developed the sample and Ruth was responsible for the sales.
By chance, Handler tried to make small furniture from the waste left over from making picture frames and found that it sold well, so the company added another business to design and manufacture furniture for children's playrooms. A few years later, the company began to make money, and its main business turned to producing toys. 1945, Mr. and Mrs. Handler and their friend Manson started a company, which later became the most famous and successful doll production company. The name of the company is MATTEL, MATT is named after Manson, and EL is named after Elliot.
At that time, Ruth had a daughter. As a mother and a businessman who makes toys, she attaches great importance to children's ideas. One day, she suddenly saw her daughter Barbara and a little boy playing with paper-cut dolls. These paper-cut dolls were not common babies at that time, but teenagers with their own careers and identities, which made her very addicted. "Why not be a mature doll?" Inspiration came into Ruth's mind.
Although inspired, the journey to realize it is arduous. Before Barbie was born, little girls' toys in the American market were mostly cute little angels, round and chubby, similar to the screen image of the famous child star Shirley Temple. This is an adult's imagination of children's toys, but judging from the interest of older children, such toys are slightly "naive". They need playmates their own age, not a baby.
Ruth came to Germany, where she saw a doll named Lily. Lily is very beautiful. It was first produced in 1955, which was based on a famous cartoon image in the beard of the West German Times. Lily is made of hard plastic with a height of 18 ~ 30 cm. Her long hair was tied in a ponytail and dragged behind her head, wearing a gorgeous dress. The figure is impeccable, all kinds of signs are available, and the clothes are also "exposed".
So Ruth bought three "lilies" and brought them back to America. She told male colleagues in the company that she wanted to design a "mature" toy, but they thought that "Lily" clothes were too revealing, which was the product of satisfying male fantasies and not suitable for children.
Ruth was not discouraged. She thought, why can't I combine these two points? What a child needs is a doll that grows up but is not exposed. A little girl needs not only a doll of the same age, but also an ideal image when she grows up. As a result, Barbie's appearance became more and more mature in Ruth's mind. With the help of company technicians and engineers, Barbie was born!
Out of concern for women, Ruth then invited fashion designer Charlotte Johnson to design clothes for Barbie. 1958, they obtained the patent right to produce Barbie dolls. This kind of doll will change an era. She is different from the previous doll. She is an adult, with slender limbs, fresh and moving. Although he has a good figure, he is tightly wrapped in beautiful clothes, and his face is as mysterious as Marilyn Monroe's, although his height is only 1 1.5 inches. Finally, Ruth gave her daughter Barbara a nickname "Barbie" for this lovely doll. The first batch of Barbie dolls were made in Japan, and the name of the exhibition was "Barbie-a role model for girls". But to Ruth's surprise, "Barbie" was not snapped up, but was given a cold shoulder by toy dealers. After all, she is a brand-new thing and an adventure, and the dealers are reluctant to do so, but they just managed to get in a few.
But the market proved that Ruth's judgment was correct. Barbie doll in the corner of the dealer's shelf was warmly welcomed by the children. More and more people began to buy this fresh and gratifying toy, especially the little girl, who was very enthusiastic about it and sold 350,000 toys in the first year.
1960, the dealer completely changed his mind and the order flew to Mattel like a snowflake. It took the company several years to meet the demand for Barbie dolls. 10, the amount of Barbie dolls purchased by the public reached 500 million dollars.
However, while Barbie is widely welcomed by the public, it has also been criticized from all sides. American women's organizations first said that Barbie was too sexy and perfect, and set unattainable goals for the little girl. The final result is to hurt their self-esteem and make them feel inferior to their appearance and figure, so she is not a symbol of women's liberation, but plays the role of "persecuting women". Ruth doesn't think so. Barbie is a girl's idol. Idols are naturally perfect, and little girls will not feel inferior because of idols.
To prove that Barbie is not a vase with an empty heart, but a professional woman. Ruth designed more kinds of Barbie dolls. She has more identities, such as a doctor, an astronaut, a businesswoman, a policeman, an athlete and even a UNICEF volunteer. So far, she has engaged in more than 80 occupations. She can be China, Indian or black, and she represents 45 nationalities. She has more than 40 kinds of pets. The first pet was a horse named Dancer. She has a boyfriend "Ken", named after Ruth's son. She has three sisters herself, namely Qiao Bi listed on 1964, Stacy listed on 1992, and Little Kelly who appeared on 1995.
This is an ordinary toy, but it is so real. On the one hand, she is incredibly beautiful and a "thousand-faced girl". On the other hand, she is so close to us because she has her own preferences like any little girl.
Opposition will still ring, but as a market image, "Barbie" is so successful. According to Mattel's statistics, an American girl of 1 1 may have 10 Barbie dolls, while a French girl of the same age has five. Besides children, millions of adult women also buy Barbie. "To them, no matter how old they are, she is not just a doll," Ruth said. "She has become a part of them." Barbie collectors are even more gender-neutral: a Barbie doll with a price of $3 1959 may be worth $5,000 if it is well preserved.
The first batch of Barbie dolls were produced in Japan and made their debut at the American Toy Fair on 1959. The name of the competition is "Barbie-a role model for girls". The appearance of Barbie was warmly welcomed by children, and more and more people began to buy this kind of doll. In the first year, 350,000 dolls were sold. In the following 65,438+00 years, the amount of Barbie dolls purchased by the public reached 500 million dollars. Rose Handler found that her daughter Barbara likes to play with paper dolls, preferring to play with toys like adults, rather than Barbie or children. At that time, three-dimensional dolls mostly appeared in the image of babies or children. Ross knew the development space of adult dolls, so he put forward the idea of Barbie doll with her husband, Aria, one of the founders of Mattel. Unfortunately, Aria and other decision makers in the company are not interested in this plan. Ross Handler said: "Being able to play with a doll with breasts is very important for a little girl's self-image."
1956, when Rose, Barbara and Kenneth went to Switzerland, they found a German doll named Bild Lilli doll in the window of a shop in Lucerne. This adult doll coincides with Ruth Handler's doll, so she bought three Bild Lilli dolls, one for Barbara and the other two for Mattel. Lily doll is based on a popular cartoon character. She appeared in the cartoon column of Reinhard Biding in the newspaper. She is an independent professional woman. Lilli dolls were first sold in Germany, 1955. The initial target customers are adults, but they are also very popular with children, because they can dress up dolls with clothes sold separately.
After returning to the United States, Ross, with the help of engineer Jack Ryan, started to redesign the doll and named it Barbie after her daughter Barbara. On March 9th, 1959, Barbie made her first exposure at the American International Toy Fair in new york, which became Barbie's official birthday. After Mattel obtained the copyright of Bild Lilli doll on 1964, Bild Lilli doll was officially discontinued. The first Barbie wears a ponytail, a black-and-white zebra-patterned swimsuit, blonde hair and dark brown hair. In the early days, Barbie was a "young fashion model", and her clothes were designed by Mattel's fashion designer Charlotte Johnson. About 350,000 Barbie dolls were sold in the first year.
Rose thinks Barbie's adult appearance is very important. Preliminary market research shows that some parents don't like the obvious breasts of dolls. Barbie's appearance has been changed many times. The most obvious Barbie's eyes were adjusted to look forward at 197 1, instead of scanning one side at the beginning.
Barbie doll was one of the earliest toys promoted by TV, and this model was later widely used by other toys. According to statistics, Barbie dolls are sold in 150 countries, and more than 10 billion boxes have been sold. Mattel claims that it will sell three Barbie dolls every second.
The standard ratio of Barbie dolls and related products is about one to six, also known as playscale. Barbie's products are not limited to dolls and dolls' clothing, but also products under Barbie brand, such as books, fashion and video games. Barbie has appeared in a series of cartoons and made a guest appearance in Toy Story 2 from 65438 to 0999.
Another uniqueness of Barbie is that she has become a cultural symbol and won a rare honor in the toy industry. 1974, a part of Times Square in new york was named "Barbie Avenue" for a week. 1985, the postmodern artist andy warhol made the image of Barbie.