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Gerber, Robin. Barbie and Ruth: The Story of the World's Most Famous Doll and the Woman Who Created Her. Harper, 2010.

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The quote discusses Judaism being a big part of the side Elliot grew up on.

"Nicholas I started the draft of Jews in 1827 in a scheme to force assimilation and stamp out Judaism, a campaign augmented in the next century by vicious attacks on Jewish communities" (Pg. 21).

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Ruth received a Ford coupe for her 16th birthday.

"Her great rendezvous with love happened on Welton Street in 1932 during an unusually warm November. Just turned sixteen, Ruth was cruising downtown Denver behind the wheel of her birthday present from Sarah and Louie: a brand-new three-window Ford coupe" (Pg. 29).

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Ruth enrolled at the University of Denver. Unconventionally planned to work as a lawyer. She left Sarah and Louie and worked in the chancellor's office as a stenographer.

"After her high school graduation in 1934, Ruth enrolled at the University of Denver, announcing her unconventional plan to become a lawyer. She continued to work for Sarah and Louie, but when President Franklin Roosevelt signed the National Youth Administration Act in 1935, providing money to employ young people, she got a job in the chancellor's office as a stenographer" (Pg. 35).

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Ruth and Elliot got married in 1938. Elliot was Ruth's high school boyfriend.

"The young man who had caught Ruth's eye was Isadore Elliot Handler, though friends called him Izzy. He came from the Jewish neighborhood on the west side of town, an area less affluent and considered rougher than the east side, where Ruth lived. Elliot belonged to a gang of sorts called the Gigolos, mostly Jewish friends and a few Italians" (Pg 31).

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https://ourcommunitynow.com/local-culture/our-coloradans-then-elliot-and-ruth-handler-the-creators-of-your-childhood

Photo of Elliot and Ruth Handler

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"We didn't know how to run a business, but we had dreams and talent." - Ruth Handler

Think about your younger self. You know them. They're sitting down on the floor either making "vroom" sounds across the floor, imagining they're the fastest car driver in the world, or they're whispering dreams and secrets to a favorite doll. This is what the Handlers did for our childhood. They made our dreams come alive.

Where They Met

Both Elliot Handler and Ruth Handler (née Mosko) were born to Jewish families. Elliot was born on April 9, 1916, in Chicago; his family would move to Denver soon after. Ruth was born a couple of months later on November 4, 1916, in Denver. The pair would eventually meet at a high school dance in Denver. Then, after they were married, they moved to L.A. together where they would take their first steps as a mom-and-pop garage business.

The Creation of Mattel

The business didn't look like much inside the Handlers' garage. It had three pieces of shop equipment, scraps of picture frames, and a lot of love. Elliot would start making furniture but found real success with his side business of making dollhouse furniture from scraps. Together, with business partner Harold "Matt" Matson, they would smash their names together to make Mattel. "Matt" from Matson, "El" from Elliot.

In the early day of Mattel, courtesy of Mattel

While Elliot loved making things, Ruth had an amazing talent for marketing them. The Uke-a-Doodle was a child-sized ukulele that would give them their first profits in 1947. After the first major sign of success, Mattel turned its main attention to toys. By 1955, Mattel was on its way to becoming the number one toy brand in the world.

The Birth of Barbie

The Handlers had two children together. Barbara and Kenneth would soon be immortalized in their parents' toy-making. Barbara was a normal pre-teen playing with paper dolls. Ruth noticed two things: one, paper clothing doesn't attach to paper dolls that well. Two, children would often act out future events rather than the present when playing. Ruth wanted to solve both of these problems with a new kind of doll.

She wanted to produce a grown-up, three-dimensional doll that girls like her daughter and her friends could use to act out their dreams, their futures, and their hopes. She would name this doll after her daughter, Barbara. Thus, Barbie was born.

Handler Family circa 1960s, courtesy of Mattel

Family and friends of the Handlers seem to be the inspiration to name and produce toys. They would give Barbie a boyfriend soon after her creation. He was named after their son, Kenneth. When Barbara married her husband, Allan, he would be named for Ken's friend, Allan who debuted in the 1960s.

Fast and Furiously Cool

The 1960s was a thriving time for the Handlers and Mattel. They had an incredible amount of success with Barbie and her friends. Mattel was thirsty to do the same for boys as Barbie did for girls. That's when Elliot had an idea. What if there was a miniature car that would incorporate speed and cool car designs? Thus, in 1968, Hot Wheels were born.

With numerous amounts of paint jobs, designs, and endless possibilities, Hot Wheels were the hottest toy on the market. Exactly what Mattel wanted to do. Because of their accomplishments together as a married couple, the Handlers were the first living inductees to the Toy Industry Hall of Fame in 1989.

Good People Make Incredible Toys

Mattel remembers the Handlers with as much love as the love they put into their toys.

"Employees also held the Handlers in high esteem, due to their thoughtfulness and ability to make every employee feel that his or her contribution to the organization was valuable. In fact, the Handlers insisted that all of their employees call them by their first names at a time when such informality was unprecedented," stated Mattel on its website.

Ruth Handler would pass away in 2002 because of colon cancer. Her husband, Elliot, passed away in 2011 from heart failure. Mattel still leads the toy industry with the Handlers' continued success.

What good memories do you have about your favorite toys? Let us know in the comments below.

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Our Coloradans Then: Elliot and Ruth Handler, the Creators of Your Childhood

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Think about your younger self. You know them. They're sitting down on the floor either making "vroom" sounds across the floor, imagining they're the fastest car driver in the world, or they're whispering dreams and secrets to a favorite doll. This is what the Handlers did for our childhood.

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The toy fair is like a competition between all the toy-producing companies. All producers want to grab attention to their product and outsell all other items. The Barbie doll has doubts.

"After the success of 1945, a company that had more detailed furniture at a cheaper price had overtaken Mattel. Shifting from dollhouse furniture, Mattel rushed a Birdy Bank and a Make-Believe Makeup Set to market. Working 1946 with a profit" (Pg. 43)

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Ruth took samples of the Uke-A-Doodle to Butler Brothers'. Butler Brothers' franchised the chain of many Ben Franklin retail variety stores.

"Three months before the March 1947 Toy Fair, without consulting her new distributors, Ruth took samples of the Uke-A-Doodle to Butler Brothers' Los Angeles office. The wholesale giant, based in Chicago, franchised the chain of nearly three thousand Ben Franklin retail variety stores. They also acted as jobbers, or middlemen, buying in large quantities of toys and then supplying different stores around the country" (Pg. 73)

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Butler Brothers' department store in LA. Ruth took samples of the Uke-A-Doodle to one of the Butler Brothers' establishments.
https://tessa.lapl.org/cdm/ref/collection/photos/id/43471

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To link to this object, paste this link in email, IM or document

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Barbie's launch failed in the spring of 1950. Ruth named the Barbie doll after her daughter, Barbara. Barbara announced she would marry Allen M. Segal after she graduated from high school.

"For Ruth, the spring of 1950 was grim. The Barbie doll had failed to catch on the way Ruth had hoped, and the doll's names-sake, her daughter, Barbara, was determined to leave home prematurely Only eighteen years old, Barbara announced her plans to marry Allen M. Segal after she graduated from high school" (Pg. 109).

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Competitors make it hard to advertise and bring Barbie forward. Ruth announced $125,000 would be devoted to Barbie's launch.

"At every Toy Fair since 1955, when the Burp Gun launched, Mattel built on its successful entry into television. 'Remember the Burp Gun' was the rallying cry in 1956. By 1959 Mattel had announced a million dollar annual budget for advertising. In the weeks leading up to the Toy Fair, Ruth announced that an extra $125,000 would be devoted to Barbie's launch" (Pg. 108).

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Ruth Handler arrived in New York in 1959. She has been told for 7 years that the doll she created (Barbie) was a terrible idea. Before the toy fair started, the media ignored Ruth's doll. Handler used her daughter as an idea for the doll. She made barbie an adult woman doll. Handler used her kids names, Barbara (barbie) and Ken, for her dolls.

"Ruth Handler could sell anything. in 1959 she arrived in New York for the nation's Toy Fair, confident that she would sell a new doll she had created" (Pg. 1).

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Untapped New York, et al. “The Barbie Doll Was Released at a Toy Fair in New York 62 Years Ago.” Untapped New York, 7 May 2021, https://untappedcities.com/2021/03/08/barbie-doll-toy-fair-new-york-city-1959/.

The Barbie doll was released in 1959 and is still in production.

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The doll was taken to Japan. Manufacturers said the doll looked mean and had sharp eyebrows. In the 1950's, Goodrich discovered a form of powered PVC which worked well in rotation molding. PVC = Polyvinyl Chloride. Japanese and American standards were quite different, especially with the dolls.

"'We were so pumped by Ruth's enthusiasm, we became believers,' said one of the sales representatives who was at the 1959 Toy Fair" (Pg. 17).

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Boyd Browne describes what working at Mattel was like. The higher you went, the better the conditions and working environment were.

"Ruth was willing to let her team try new thing. Boyd Browne, who started in 1959 as a manager for safety and security, had ten jobs in sixteen years at Mattel. 'I came from RCA, where everything was by the book. At one level you had one pen, one desk. At another level you got a shared office, then an office with a half wall. At the top you got an enclosed room. Mattel was the opposite. Whatever had to be done, you did it' " (Pg. 125).

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Another competitor Ruth had to look out for was were the Hassenfeld brothers.

"Just before the 1964 Toy Fair, Mattel executives squeezed into a small company conference room to look over the toy a rival company hoped would compete with the Barbie doll. The Hassenfeld brothers, whose toy company would later be renamed Hasbro was riding on the muscular physique of an eleven-and a half-inch toy that executives swore never to call a doll" (Pg. 119).

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Prices/advertisement for the 1964 Toy Fair. 'Barbie Dream House' was the lowest-priced toy on the list. Hosted in Delaware Plaza, Delmar USA.

https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.flickr.com%2Fphotos%2Falbanygroup%2F13315597555&psig=AOvVaw3oUcDYzHPLkLeOhJVyYMzP&ust=1648941545375000&source=images&cd=vfe&ved=0CAsQjRxqFwoTCLif0IuA9PYCFQAAAAAdAAAAABAD (Website blocked)

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In New York City in 1968, a large ballroom in a hotel was prepared for Mattel's marketing department. They hosted a private show for toy dealers, wholesalers, jobbers and retailers. 50% of the sales for toy companies came from toys that didn't exist the year before. Every company struggled to make their toys stand out in the market.

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Ruth became the president of Mattel in 1967. Though she was still injured, she was eager to work and expand Mattel.

"In the early months of 1970, Ruth was expansive about her role as president. She toured factories around the world, hobbling on crutches from a minor accident but still thrilled at Mattel's worldwide reach" (Pg. 161)

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Ruth considered growing Mattel. Ruth announced a new TV program for kids.

"Ruth began expanding Mattel in new directions. She announced new educational television programming for CBS, called In the News, consisting of mini-documentaries for school-age children, and a show on NBC called Hot Dog, which would explain the 'who, what, when, where and why of things'" (Pg. 162).

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The video is an episode from the show "Hot Dog" which was created by Ruth/Mattel.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=onhhZIPplIY