Ruth Marianna Handler, an American businesswoman, is best known for her creation of the Barbie doll in 1959, and she is the co-founder of Mattel, the toy industry, with her husband, Eliot. She is also the company’s first female president, a position she held from 1945 until 1975. Handler was forced to resign in 1975, after an investigation by the Securities and Exchange Commission, which led to the company’s falsification of its financial documents.
Handler was born on November 4, 1916, in Denver, Colorado, USA. She married Elliot Handler, and the couple moved to Los Angeles in 1939, where they found work at Paramount.
Elliott loved manual work, and decided to enter the field of furniture manufacturing with two new types of plastic, namely “plexiglass” and “lucite”. His wife suggested that he set up a company to make and sell furniture, and they started marketing for the company, until they agreed to large contracts, including a contract with Douglas Airlines.
The Handler couple partnered with Harold Mattson to found Mattel. During World War II, furniture sales declined, so the company entered the toy and doll furniture industry. The company’s success in this field led to its complete transformation into the toy industry.
Conflicting accounts
There are conflicting accounts of how Handler came to create the Barbie doll. In one version, Handler encountered a doll during a trip to Europe, which resembled an adult woman, unlike the baby dolls common at the time. In another, Handler was watching her daughter, Barbara, playing with paper dolls, which prompted her to create a more three-dimensional game. A realistic representation of what “girls want”.
The Barbie doll was shown for the first time at the American Toy Fair in New York City, in March 1959, and was an immediate success, as Mattel sold 351,000 dolls within a year, so that Handler negotiated a deal to advertise the dolls as sponsor The only Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, Barbie was the first direct-to-children’s shopping mall toy. Later, Mattel added other characters to the world of Barbie, including Ken and a number of other characters in the company’s brand assortment.
After several investigations regarding the company’s involvement in financial fraud, Handler resigned from Mattel in 1974, and the investigations continued after her resignation. In 1978, Handler was accused of fraud and forgery of financial documents, and was fined $57,000. 2500 hours.
Handler died in California, after complications from surgery, on April 27, 2002, at the age of 85. Her husband, Elliott, died nine years later at the age of 95.
