Barbie Doll Revolutionized Toy Industry
Barbie Doll Revolutionized Toy Industry
By Belem Ramos
From left, Cherity and Amanda Pierce display their Barbie collection.
Photo by Sandra Pierce.
Flashy clothes, the perfect boyfriend, a Corvette, Ferrari, full size apartment with beautiful furniture and a boat. She's the woman who has everything and every year receives more. Since her introduction in 1959, the Barbie doll may be the most influential icon of American culture in the late twentieth century.
Barbie's success may be attributed to the focus on children as consumers for the first time. She attracted little girls because of her adult-like features. Before this, children looked at toys like Yogi Bear, Howdy Doody, and baby dolls for inspiration. With the creation of Barbie, girls now had a new toy to stimulate their imaginations.
In the 1950s most women stayed at home, cooking, cleaning and caring for their children; they didn't parade around in tight little skirts and high heels. The Barbie doll represented independence and glamour: she could sing solos in the spotlight one minute and pilot an airplane the next. She was exciting and completely different from the clinging Betsy Westsys and Chatty Cathys that little girls were used to.
In Forever Barbie: The Unauthorized Biography of a Real Doll, M. G. Lord tells the story of Barbie's creators. Ruth Handler, the youngest of ten siblings, worked as a stenographer for Paramount Pictures as a young woman. Her husband Elliott designed light fixtures and studied art.
In 1937, they had moved from Colorado to California where they gambled their life savings on a plan to build Plexiglas furniture. The Handlers began the factory in their garage but quickly expanded until they had hired a hundred workers who made jewelry and decorative items. World War II shortages of labor soon put them out of business.
Despite their first failure, the Handlers didn't give up and, in 1945, they joined with Harold Matson, a former worker, and together the
By Belem Ramos
From left, Cherity and Amanda Pierce display their Barbie collection.
Photo by Sandra Pierce.
Flashy clothes, the perfect boyfriend, a Corvette, Ferrari, full size apartment with beautiful furniture and a boat. She's the woman who has everything and every year receives more. Since her introduction in 1959, the Barbie doll may be the most influential icon of American culture in the late twentieth century.
Barbie's success may be attributed to the focus on children as consumers for the first time. She attracted little girls because of her adult-like features. Before this, children looked at toys like Yogi Bear, Howdy Doody, and baby dolls for inspiration. With the creation of Barbie, girls now had a new toy to stimulate their imaginations.
In the 1950s most women stayed at home, cooking, cleaning and caring for their children; they didn't parade around in tight little skirts and high heels. The Barbie doll represented independence and glamour: she could sing solos in the spotlight one minute and pilot an airplane the next. She was exciting and completely different from the clinging Betsy Westsys and Chatty Cathys that little girls were used to.
In Forever Barbie: The Unauthorized Biography of a Real Doll, M. G. Lord tells the story of Barbie's creators. Ruth Handler, the youngest of ten siblings, worked as a stenographer for Paramount Pictures as a young woman. Her husband Elliott designed light fixtures and studied art.
In 1937, they had moved from Colorado to California where they gambled their life savings on a plan to build Plexiglas furniture. The Handlers began the factory in their garage but quickly expanded until they had hired a hundred workers who made jewelry and decorative items. World War II shortages of labor soon put them out of business.
Despite their first failure, the Handlers didn't give up and, in 1945, they joined with Harold Matson, a former worker, and together the