Barbie for President!

Summary

HISTORY This Week - Episode: Barbie for President! Release Date: July 28, 2025

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Introduction: Barbie Enters the Political Arena

In this captivating episode, HISTORY This Week explores the surprising emergence of Barbie as a presidential candidate in 1992, delving into the cultural and historical significance of dolls in shaping societal norms and politics.

Sally Helm introduces the episode with a dramatic recount of Barbie's candidacy:

“A candidate who drives a sports car and lives in a cool pink house. That candidate is Barbie, or as the toy company Mattel calls her, President Barbie.”
[02:31]

This unconventional entry sparks a broader discussion on the role of dolls as influential public figures.

---

Historical Rivalry: German vs. French Dollmakers

The narrative begins with the Franco-Prussian War of 1870, setting the stage for a fierce competition between German and French doll manufacturers striving for dominance in the international market.

Florence Theriault, doll expert, provides historical context:

“Germany and France were constantly in conflict with each other.”
[05:23]

This rivalry extended beyond military tensions, infiltrating the cultural and commercial aspects of doll production.

---

The Jumeau Legacy: Innovation and Tradition

Pierre Jumeau, a pivotal figure in French doll-making since 1841, symbolizes the blend of tradition and innovation. His porcelain poupees, elegant dolls adorned with lace bonnets, initially relied on German-made lifelike heads.

“Pierre was this very serious Frenchman... The faces come from Germany, the doll making capital of Europe.”
[07:07]
Florence Theriault: “He didn't ever like to take a wild gamble... and that was the way they did business.”
[07:58]

Upon Pierre's retirement in 1878, his son Emile Jumeau revolutionizes the company by introducing the Bebe doll, shifting focus from sophisticated adult figures to child-like companions.

“Emile thinks the new thing is babies... He calls it the Bebe doll or the baby doll.”
[08:49]

This strategic pivot aligns with societal changes recognizing childhood as a distinct and valued phase of life.

---

The Rise of Bebe Dolls: A Cultural Milestone

Under Emile's dynamic leadership, the Bebe doll becomes a monumental success, not only in France but internationally.

“Kids all over France are opening up boxes to find the Bebe.”
[09:36]

Florence Theriault emphasizes the Bebe's impact:

“You're presented with a doll who was a companion... someone that might be your age.”
[09:36]

The Bebe doll's popularity endures for about 15 years, marking a golden age in doll history before German manufacturers regain market dominance with more affordable alternatives.

---

Rose O'Neill and the Kewpie Revolution

Transitioning to the early 20th century, the episode spotlights Rose O'Neill, the creative force behind the Kewpie dolls.

Pat Waller, author of Rose of Washington Square, narrates Rose's journey from a talented illustrator to a prominent doll creator and suffrage advocate:

“She started to copy figures from her father's mini books... By the time she's 19, it is clear that Rose has real artistic talent.”
[16:29]

The Kewpie dolls, characterized by their chubby babies and mischievous grins, became cultural icons, symbolizing innocence and benevolence. Rose ingeniously leveraged her creations to support the women's suffrage movement, integrating Kewpies into pro-suffrage campaigns.

“Kewpies were licensed to appear on virtually anything... they help combat the stereotype that suffragettes were humorless and cantankerous.”
[23:23]

This intersection of commerce and activism highlights the profound influence dolls can exert beyond mere playthings.

---

Mattel's Vision: Ruth and Elliot Handler

The episode then shifts focus to Ruth and Elliot Handler, the entrepreneurial duo behind Mattel, who envisioned creating a groundbreaking doll that would resonate with modern girls.

Robin Gerber, author of Barbie and the Story of the World's Most Famous Doll, sheds light on Ruth's relentless ambition:

“She was very, very focused. She wanted to be the biggest toy company in the world.”
[26:07]

Ruth's innovative approach, combining Elliot's creative designs with her business acumen, set the foundation for Mattel's future successes.

---

The Birth of Barbie: Challenges and Triumphs

Ruth Handler's inspiration for Barbie stems from observing her daughter Barbara's dissatisfaction with traditional baby dolls. Discontent with their limitations, Ruth envisioned a doll that embodied a fashionable and aspirational young woman.

“She thought, what if Mattel could invent a grown-up doll with a sweet, fun-loving persona?”
[28:04]

Despite initial skepticism and rejection from her design team, Ruth persisted, leading to the creation of Barbie. The introduction faced setbacks, including a failed initial toy show debut and criticism over Barbie's mature appearance.

“The big buyer from Sears walked out without placing an order.”
[34:02]

However, strategic television advertising transformed Barbie's fortunes, positioning her as a role model and igniting widespread popularity.

“By the end of that year, they'd sold 300,000 dolls.”
[35:40]

The subsequent lawsuit from the Lilli doll creators underscored Barbie's significant market impact, solidifying her place in cultural history.

---

Conclusion: Dolls as Reflections of Society

Barbie for President! masterfully intertwines the evolution of dolls with broader societal changes, illustrating how these seemingly simple toys mirror and influence cultural values, gender roles, and even political movements.

Florence Theriault encapsulates the essence of doll history:

“You don't own that doll. It's a piece of history... it tells us about who we were, what we were.”
[13:31]

The episode underscores that dolls like Barbie are not just playthings but powerful symbols shaping and reflecting the world we inhabit.

---

Notable Quotes with Timestamps

• Sally Helm: “A candidate who drives a sports car and lives in a cool pink house. That candidate is Barbie...”
  [02:31]

• Florence Theriault: “Germany and France were constantly in conflict with each other.”
  [05:23]

• Pat Waller: “She kept bringing it up. She kept getting swatted down.”
  [29:40]

• Robin Gerber: “Their whole emphasis was how many ways and how much of the child's imagination will this choice stimulate.”
  [36:17]

---

Acknowledgments

Special thanks to our guests:

• Florence Theriault, Doll Expert and Founder of Theriault's Antique Auction Firm
• Pat Waller, Author of Rose of Washington Square, A Novel of Rose O'Neill, Creator of the Kewpie Doll
• Robin Gerber, Author of Barbie and the Story of the World's Most Famous Doll

Production Team:

• Produced by Corinne Wallace
• Sound Design by Dan Rosado
• Story Edited by Jim O'Grady
• Fact-Checked by Katherine Newhon
• Senior Professional Producer: Ben Dickstein
• Additional Production by Julia Press, Chloe Weiner, and Sally Helm
• Associate Producers: Hazel May and Jonah Buchanan
• Supervising Producer: McKamey Lynn
• Executive Producer: Jesse Katz

---

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Thank you for listening to HISTORY This Week. Don't forget to subscribe, rate, and review our podcast wherever you get your podcasts. See you next week!

Transcript

[Brian]

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[Sally Helm]

Buying a car in Carvana was so easy. I was able to finance it through them.

[Florence Theriault]

I just.

[Sally Helm]

Whoa, wait, you mean finance? Yeah, finance. Got pre qualified for a Carvana auto loan, entered my terms and shot from thousands of great car options all within my budget. That's cool. But financing through Carvana was so easy. Financed done. And I get to pick up my car from their Carvana vending machine tomorrow. Financed, right? That's what they said.

[Pat Waller]

You can spend time trying to pronounce financing, or you can actually finance and.

[Sally Helm]

Buy your car today on Carvana financing, subject to credit approval. Additional terms and conditions may apply. History this week is now in its sixth season, which is kind of crazy. But we're continuing to grow and to bring you stories from the past that you've never heard before. There are more ways than ever to follow our show. So yes, you can listen on your podcast app, but now you can also subscribe to History this Week plus on Apple Podcasts for an ad free experience on all new episodes. Also, if you're more of a Spotify person, Spotify now lets you comment directly on individual episodes, so let us know what you think. You can also get email reminders each time an episode comes out. Sign up for [e-mail] and be sure to follow us on our new Instagram page too. There's some fun stuff going on over there. As always, share History this week with your friends. Give us a five star review if you want. And if you want to reach out, shoot us an [e-mail]. five years in, we have a ton of episodes that you can always go back and listen to. And we're also really excited about everything that's coming up. We hope you are, too. For now, enjoy the latest episode, the.

[Brian]

History Channel original podcast.

[Sally Helm]

History this week, July 29th, 1980 1992. I'm Sally Helm. The presidential campaign is in full swing. Democrats have nominated Arkansas Governor Bill Clinton in a raucous convention at New York's Madison Square Garden. And Republicans are heading to the Houston Astrodome to renominate President George H.W. bush. But now, between those two conventions, a surprise candidate has entered the race. Someone with national name recognition. Someone with a kind of unconventional resume experience in business, medicine, and even space exploration. A candidate who drives a sports car and lives in a cool pink house. That candidate is Barbie, or as the toy company Mattel calls her, president Barbie. The Baltimore sun runs a picture of the candidate waving from the White House lawn. And another glamorous shot of her in a ball gown patterned red, white and blue. The paper quotes a real political fundraiser wondering if Barbie is old enough to run for president. She's been around for 33 years and you have to be 35 to hold the highest office in the land. But then again, she came on the scene as a teenager, so maybe she's in her 40s. The Minneapolis star Tribune raises other questions. Why was she sent to flight attendant school twice? And what's going on with her and Ken? Are they married? Are they just friends? Also, what is her plan to pay off the $4 trillion national debt? Barbie, I hate to tell you, will not win in 1992, but she will go on to run again seven times and count. Which does tell us something about her place in our lives. We in the US Are living in a country where a doll is a public figure, one important enough to run repeatedly for president today. Maybe it's a doll's world and we're just living in it. How did toy makers, artists and inventors create game changing dolls that that revolutionized play and even politics? And what do these dolls have to tell us about ourselves? The backdrop for our first piece of doll history is the Franco Prussian War of 1870. France and the German states are competing to see who will dominate Europe. Their armies are on the march.

[Florence Theriault]

Germany and France were constantly in conflict with each other.

[Sally Helm]

That is doll expert Florence Theriault. She told us that France and Germany were not just fighting on the Belgian frontier, they were also clashing on the culture front.

[Florence Theriault]

That same kind of little tiny war was going on between the doll makers of Germany and the doll makers of France.

[Sally Helm]

At this time, the doll makers of Germany and France are locked in a fierce competition to capture the international doll market, which is a major market. Dolls are more than toys. They've become status symbols and little, tiny cultural ambassadors. Florence Theriault says, in the past, some countries would only let foreign dolls enter with a passport, as if they were people. France's best hope to win the doll war is a man named Pierre Jumeau. His company has been making dolls since 1841.

[Florence Theriault]

Pierre was this very serious Frenchman and.

[Sally Helm]

Very upright and proud, as are his glazed porcelain dolls.

[Florence Theriault]

They were mainly what were known as poupees, which would be a lady doll.

[Sally Helm]

Poupees are elegant. They wear lace bonnets or fur collars. Pierre Jumeau employs leather workers and hat trimmers to help dress the dolls. But the faces that sit above those fur collars or under those lace bonnets, those faces come from Germany, the doll making capital of Europe.

[Florence Theriault]

The heads mostly came from Germany, and he would put them on French bodies. He costumed them because his whole background was in fabric and textile and fashion.

[Sally Helm]

Everyone loves German doll heads, these lifelike expressions. But after a while, Pierre says, enough of this. I'm gonna open my own porcelain factory and make my own heads. French heads. And voila. In 1873, at the Vienna exhibition, his dolls are a hit. A reporter writes that the new French heads surpass in beauty the products we used to buy from Saxony, meaning Germany. So point for France and for Pierre, who feels that his dolls have been perfected, which means no more changes.

[Florence Theriault]

He didn't ever like to take a wild gamble on something. He always wanted to make sure that their bills were paid, and that was the way they did business.

[Sally Helm]

And that is how it stays until 1878, when Pierre retires and his son Emile inherits the business. Emile only gets the job because his hardworking older brother dies young. And suddenly, Florence Theriault says Emile is surprised to wake up one day and find himself at the head of a famous company.

[Florence Theriault]

He was the party boy of the brothers. He liked a good time. He was energetic. He was charming. Everybody liked him. He always wanted to start new projects, get things going.

[Sally Helm]

Unlike Pierre, Emile is ready to take a wild gamble.

[Florence Theriault]

He was a little more forceful in trying to push his father into the new wave of what dolls should be.

[Sally Helm]

Emile thinks the new thing is babies. He wants to make porcelain dolls that look not like fancy French ladies, but like children. He calls it the Bebe doll or the baby doll. His father, Pierre, Hates the idea. He's like, why would Emile mess with success? Kids love these sophisticated dolls with their custom trimmed hats.

[Florence Theriault]

So they had a lot of friction going on between them.

[Sally Helm]

But Emile is in charge. He can do what he wants. And so soon enough, kids all over France are opening up boxes to find the Bebe.

[Florence Theriault]

You're presented with a doll who was a companion, someone that might be your age in terms of the scale of their body and the type of costumes they would be wearing.

[Sally Helm]

I think today we're familiar with, like, seeing a little kid with a baby doll in their arms. Why was that in particular important or a big deal for the toy world?

[Robin Gerber]

Oh, it's a big deal.

[Florence Theriault]

It was actually a whole echo of what was happening in society, because particularly in France at this time, there was an awakening of recognizing the child as a child, not just a little person.

[Sally Helm]

The Jumeau Babet is like a caring sibling for that child, someone to accompany them through this new thing called childhood. She even comes with a note for her new owner, calling herself a friend who knows how to console you. You can count on me. Never repeating your words to anyone or gossiping about anything you may have done at the Paris World's Fair in 1878. Emile's bebes are a smashing success.

[Florence Theriault]

He walked away from that exhibition with.

[Sally Helm]

A gold medal, and he makes sure everyone knows about it.

[Florence Theriault]

Every one of his dolls would be stamped on their back of their torso, and jamaux medaille d', or, that would be the gold medal.

[Sally Helm]

Even Pierre has to admit that his son's gamble has paid off. And Emile is not finished. Pierre's dolls had been made by artisans. A wig maker sewing the wigs, a glassblower making the small glass eyes. They'd been spread out all over the place, sending their individual pieces to the factory to be assembled. But Emile sees a better way.

[Florence Theriault]

He came up with a concept. Let's put it all under one roof.

[Sally Helm]

He starts producing the dolls completely in house. But he is still a stickler for quality, like for their wigs.

[Florence Theriault]

One story that someone wrote at one point was, the finest of the mohair came from the underbelly of the mountain goats. And so I always kind of have this image of people looking for the mountain goats and trying to get that hair that grew on their underbelly, because that was the softest hair.

[Sally Helm]

Under Emile's watchful eye, the Bebe becomes the clear winner in the doll war.

[Florence Theriault]

It was immensely popular, not just in France. The majority of its sales were actually international. It became like Barbie might be known in our world today. People knew the name Jamaux. It was synonymous with Dahl.

[Sally Helm]

The golden age of the bebe lasts about 15 years.

[Florence Theriault]

The French were winning these awards, but guess who saw the French winning these awards? The German doll makers.

[Sally Helm]

And by the late 1890s, the visionary Emile. His head is just not in the game.

[Florence Theriault]

He was losing his concentration in the business and he lost his drive.

[Sally Helm]

And so the Germans swoop in and retake the doll market by selling a lookalike child doll at a cheaper price. Jumeau bands together with other French doll companies to cut production costs, and this consortium chugs along until 1958, when they cease operations. Today, the name is mostly known to collectors. Why do people still collect the Jumeau dolls?

[Florence Theriault]

We're constantly on the quest, looking for dolls that can trace its personal history back through time. The name of the little girl who owned it, the name of the family, the ownership of them can be traced.

[Sally Helm]

Florence Tharial has a name for the people who collect these pieces, the keepers of the dolls.

[Florence Theriault]

I like to say to collectors, you don't own that doll. It's a piece of history, and you have an obligation to preserve it like any other part of history, because it tells a story about who we were, what we were. Like it tells somebody's story.

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[Brian]

It's Brian from the commercial break the mediocre comedy podcast where my best friend Chrissy and I attempt to make sense of the world. We talk about the obsession, absurd, the ridiculous, and the stuff no one asked for, like Internet weirdos, pickup artists, and why everyone is obsessed with crystals and colonics. It's all gotta stop. The show is free, it's frequent, and it's probably not for everyone. You can go to tcbpodcast.com, [e-mail] thecommercial break, or check out the show wherever you listen to podcasts. We'll see you on the next commercial break.

[Sally Helm]

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[Pat Waller]

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[Sally Helm]

So far, we have seen dolls change from fancy women into innocent children. In our next story, those baby dolls get some personality. We move from the Seine to the banks of the Missouri river in 1885, where a young girl named Rose O' Neill is growing up. Writer Pat Waller says, you probably don't recognize Rose's name, which to her is kind of strange.

[Pat Waller]

This is a woman who wants everyone in the whole world new. And now if I bring her name up in a group, people don't know who she is.

[Sally Helm]

Rose is the formerly world famous creator of the Kewpie doll. In the early 20th century, her creation seemed to be everywhere. But before any of that, she was a young girl from a poor family in a small town called Walnut Shade.

[Pat Waller]

She started to copy figures from her father's mini books, which were all over the house, and taught herself how to draw.

[Sally Helm]

By the time she's 19, it is clear that Rose has real artistic talent and that to develop it, she'll need to leave her small Missouri town. So she makes a big move.

[Pat Waller]

In 1893, her family helped her scrape together enough funds to send her to New York City, where they felt like she could really make her career.

[Sally Helm]

New York is home to the magazine industry, which is booming. Photography isn't yet easy and cheap, so all those magazines need illustrators for their advertisements, article, art, comics, covers. It is a good time to be a skilled artist. Rose arrives at the place she is staying in the big, exciting city, a convent in Manhattan. The lodging was arranged by her father. By day, she makes the rounds looking.

[Pat Waller]

For a job she would go and personally visit publisher after publisher and meet with the art editors to show her work. And she would be accompanied by two nuns in their full, flowing garb.

[Sally Helm]

That alone is probably enough to get people's attention. But her talent also speaks for itself.

[Pat Waller]

She did begin to sell pieces, and her work was starting to be noticed.

[Sally Helm]

She illustrates everything from Jell O ads to Christmas stories drawing children gathered at Santa's knee. She works for major magazines like Harper's and Life. And after a little while, in the background of some of her more romantic drawings, Rose starts to slip in these distinctive little cupids. They catch the eye of an editor at the Ladies Home Journal who asks Rose to make those cute little cupids the basis of a new comic strip. Rose agrees on one condition. That she gets to not only draw it, but also write it.

[Pat Waller]

She was very adamant on that point and set to work right away to develop these characters and the stories and the verses that would go along with them.

[Sally Helm]

What did it look like?

[Pat Waller]

It looked a lot like you would picture a Cupid being. Cupid was Cupid, but kind of the opposite of Cupid, because where Cupid got people into trouble, Cupie got them out of trouble.

[Sally Helm]

It was a benevolent little creature.

[Pat Waller]

Exactly. A benevolent, happy creature that was created to do good things and make people smile and make them happy.

[Sally Helm]

Kewpies look like chubby babies with mischievous little grins. Their faces are almost as big as their bodies, and they have this sassy swirl of hair on their heads. Their motto is doing good deeds in a funny way. Pat Waller says that pretty much describes Rose herself, too.

[Pat Waller]

She was very vivacious. She was someone who was able to draw out the good in other people and generous to a fault.

[Sally Helm]

Rose's comic strip, the kewpies, debuts in 1909.

[Pat Waller]

It was almost an immediate sensation. People loved it.

[Sally Helm]

The Kewpies live in a place called Kewpieville. They travel around in happy little packs, having adventures like they teach grumpy grown ups to dance around a maypole. They're adorable. And soon companies are like, I want to put a cute little kewpie on my product.

[Pat Waller]

Kewpies were licensed to appear on virtually anything. Ash trays, dishes, radiator caps, cameras, anything you can imagine. I've even seen a roll of toilet paper that the exterior wrapping had a kewpie on it.

[Sally Helm]

They're popular not just in the US but also in Europe and Japan. And eventually some smart entrepreneur is like.

[Pat Waller]

Well, why not do a doll?

[Sally Helm]

Rose already knows there's a market for it.

[Pat Waller]

She had been getting Letters for years from kids who wanted a kewpie to call their own.

[Sally Helm]

So when the pitch comes in for a kewpie doll, Rose is ready.

[Pat Waller]

She was smart enough to copyright those kewpies and not accept a one time payment for the dolls. She wanted to have royalties on the dolls, and that's what made her a wealthy woman.

[Sally Helm]

Eventually. Rose has enough money to live pretty much anywhere, but she gravitates toward the bohemian scene in New York's Greenwich Village. She hangs out at artistic salons and she gets involved politically.

[Pat Waller]

She was pretty much at the height of her fame and popularity as she got involved with the suffrage movement. So she marched in parades, did everything.

[Sally Helm]

She could to support the cause, including enlisting the kewpies. How does a kewpie become an advocate for women getting the vote? What does that look like?

[Pat Waller]

She drew them in cartoons. She drew them in placards and leaflets.

[Sally Helm]

Kewpies show up on floats, at suffrage marches and in other unexpected places. In 1914, the crowd at a Nashville fair looks up at a plane flying overhead and at the curious sight trailing behind it. Hundreds of Kewpie dolls floating downwards on parachutes. The dolls have been dropped by a female pilot. They wear sashes that say votes for women. It's Rose o' Neill contribution to the cause.

[Pat Waller]

She did it in her clever little teasing, funny way.

[Sally Helm]

Was this helpful for women's suffrage?

[Pat Waller]

I personally think so, simply because they had become such an icon really of their time. And if the cupies were for it, well, maybe we should be for it too.

[Sally Helm]

Pat Waller says the cupies helped combat the stereotype that suffragettes were humorless and cantankerous. And the 19th Amendment, which gives women the vote, is finally ratified in 1920, just before the kewpie's popularity starts to fade and photography starts to replace magazine and newspaper illustration. Rose has been generous throughout her life. So much so that by the end, she has given away a large part of her fortune.

[Pat Waller]

She's supported her entire family. She supported many struggling artists because she had a heart for people who were trying to make it in the arts, because she knew how difficult it was. And I think she deserves to be remembered for what she accomplished.

[Sally Helm]

When we return, we will bring you one more piece of doll sized history. Accessories include. On WhatsApp, no one can see or hear your personal messages. Whether it's a voice call message or sending a password to WhatsApp, it's all just this. So whether you're sharing the streaming password in the family chat or trading those late night voice messages that could basically become a podcast. Your personal messages stay between you, your friends, and your family. No one else, not even us. WhatsApp message privately with everyone not all.

[Florence Theriault]

Meals are created equal.

[Sally Helm]

For instance, breakfast has the spicy egg McMuffin for a limited time, and lunch doesn't. McDonald's Breakfast.

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[Sally Helm]

Change Los Angeles, CA 1945 Ruth and Elliot Handler are a married couple selling wooden dollhouse furniture out of a small garage. Their toy company is called Mattel. It's just a little company, but Ruth is already thinking big. Really big.

[Robin Gerber]

She was very, very focused. She wanted to be the biggest toy company in the world.

[Sally Helm]

Author Robin Gerber says that Ruth has some skills to back up this dream.

[Robin Gerber]

She loves selling. When she made that very first sale, she said she felt like she'd taken drugs. She was so high on the experience.

[Sally Helm]

Her husband, Elliot, does not share his wife's passion for sales.

[Robin Gerber]

He was very shy. They always talk about how he couldn't even order food in a restaurant. She had to order for him. She was a complete dynamo, but he was a genius designer and artist.

[Sally Helm]

So Elliot handles the creative side while Ruth runs the business. And she is not afraid to take risks, like when she gambles most of the company's money on a novel ad strategy, commercials on televised children's shows. She is ahead of her time. Televised ads like this will transform her industry.

[Robin Gerber]

It really changed the whole landscape. Suddenly, children were in the driver's seat on the toys that they wanted.

[Sally Helm]

It's now the 1950s. Mattel has become a modestly successful company. Ruth and Elliot are no longer running it out of the garage. But what they really want is to come up with a new kind of toy, something truly game changing.

[Robin Gerber]

One ethic they had for the company Ruth and Elliot shared was that they would not go into the market for any toy unless they had an innovation. So when it came to dolls, they had not made a doll because they would only make a doll that was different from the others.

[Sally Helm]

And then one day, Ruth sees her daughter Barbara playing with paper dolls, which Robin Gerber says are not a perfect toy.

[Robin Gerber]

I get frustrated thinking that I played with those. It was so miserable. The tabs would tear and they'd fall off. The paper doll all the time.

[Sally Helm]

The paper dolls are flimsy, disposable. But Ruth stops to watch how Barbara and her friends are playing with them. And she notices that these paper dolls are grown up and they offer something that babydolls little girls want to play.

[Robin Gerber]

At, being big girls. And this was the high concept idea.

[Sally Helm]

A doll that is not childlike, but rather a fashionable young woman. It bucks the trend. A trend that began in 1890s Paris with the Bebe and continued through to kewpie dolls and beyond. But the idea is also a throwback to the first version of Jumeau dolls, which looked like high society women. Ruth thinks, what if Mattel could invent a grown up doll with a sweet, fun loving Persona? And what if these dolls could be made not out of porcelain, but out of some cheaper, more modern material? She brings her concept to Elliot and the design team. She's sure they'll love it.

[Robin Gerber]

But the men said, don't be ridiculous. Mothers will never buy their daughters a doll with breasts. Go back to running the company, Ruth. You're doing a really good job.

[Sally Helm]

The designers also tell her it's impossible to make the doll she wants with current plastics. She accepts their verdict briefly.

[Robin Gerber]

She kept bringing it up. She kept getting swatted down. She's quite disappointed that Elliot didn't see it either.

[Sally Helm]

Finally, Ruth just files her idea away, where it waits until 1956. She is on vacation in Switzerland with Eliot and the kids when she spots something that stops her in her tracks.

[Robin Gerber]

They walk by a toy store and there in the window were dolls dressed very beautifully, each one differently.

[Sally Helm]

Ruth walks over to the window, mesmerized. These dolls are what she has been picturing in her mind. Grown up figures, 12 inches tall. They're German. They're called Lilli. And like the kewpies, Lilly began life.

[Robin Gerber]

As a cartoon, a famous cartoon in the Bild Zeitung newspaper in Germany.

[Sally Helm]

But she is not an adorable cherub.

[Robin Gerber]

The cartoon was of this woman, Lily, who was very sexy looking and all of the men who kept her in various ways. So she was essentially a prostitute.

[Sally Helm]

The raunchy comic is so popular that it gives the German cartoonists an idea.

[Robin Gerber]

You know, maybe I could make a gag sex toy for men and they could give it out at bachelor parties and hang it from their rearview mirror in their car.

[Sally Helm]

So Lilli dolls start appearing for sale in tobacco Shops and newsstands, places where adult male patrons are likely to see it. But surprisingly, it also attracts another demographic.

[Robin Gerber]

Little girls saw this toy and said, well, we want to play with that. And so eventually, it worked its way into toy stores, where Ruth sawed at a toy store.

[Sally Helm]

Ruth buys three Lilli dolls to take back to America, and she tries to buy additional clothing for them. But she's told that Lily's clothes are not sold separately. To get more outfits, you have to buy more dolls.

[Robin Gerber]

So she immediately thought, this is ridiculous. They are missing the boat here. We can sell a doll and then make clothes to go along with it.

[Sally Helm]

Ruth introduces the Lilli doll to the men of the Mattel design team. And this time, they get it. They buckle down to create a similar doll. But not before Ruth makes some stylistic improvements.

[Robin Gerber]

The Lily doll did look more sexual than she wanted. She was trying to tone that part down.

[Sally Helm]

Once the doll is made more wholesome, Ruth gives her a name. Barbie, after her daughter. Then she starts working on what will turn out to be a key part of Barbie's appeal. Accessories. Mattel hires a clothing designer to start putting together a vast wardrobe for Barbie. Customers will soon be able to buy not just Barbie in her famous striped bathing suit, but also her party clothes and her command neuter outfit, even her wedding dress, all sold separately. Ruth believes she has a winner in the making. But she also knows that the market can be fickle. So she brings a Barbie prototype to focus groups who tell her something crucial.

[Robin Gerber]

The mothers were concerned. They definitely immediately talked about this doll is too sexual. But the girls love the doll. From the first set, they were really in love with this doll.

[Sally Helm]

So Ruth and the marketing team start making ads to reassure parents about Barbie's maturity market.

[Robin Gerber]

The doll is a teenage fashion model and emphasized this part, that the doll could help their daughters learn how to dress and do their hair and be the kind of women they want them to be.

[Sally Helm]

Finally, In March of 1959, Mattel debuts Barbie at her first toy show. Ruth and Eliot lay everything out on a table. The dolls, the clothes, the accessories. Then they sit back and wait for the major orders to roll in. Only they don't.

[Robin Gerber]

The big buyer from Sears walked out without placing an order.

[Sally Helm]

Ruth is crushed. She rushes back to her hotel room.

[Robin Gerber]

Elliott said it was the only time he saw her cry. And she called and said, stop production. So it was a very miserable time.

[Sally Helm]

Ruth is sure she's made a mistake. A doll descended from a German prostitute. What was I thinking? But a few months later, school lets out. Kids are spending more time at home in front of their TVs, where they start seeing some catchy new ads. They're from Mattel, and the lyrics present Barbie as someone who girls can aspire to be. Someday I'm gonna be exactly like you. Till then I know just what I'll do. Barbie, beautiful Barbie, I'll make believe that I am you.

[Brian]

You can tell it's Mattel.

[Sally Helm]

It's swell. Girls all over the country take in this commercial, and they are enraptured. Robin Gerber still remembers how she felt playing with Barbies instead of playing mother to her baby dolls, which, personally, I.

[Robin Gerber]

Found the most boring thing in the world. Suddenly, I could be anything.

[Sally Helm]

Later, critics will say that Barbie's looks and sculpted body set an impossible standard and that that's harmful to little girls. But for now, Barbie's fortunes are about to move in only one direction up.

[Robin Gerber]

By the end of that year, they'd sold 300,000 dolls.

[Sally Helm]

By this point, the creators of the Lilli doll have gotten wind of Barbie and her suspicious resemblance to her German cousin. So they sue. The case settles. Mattel agrees to pay a little over $20,000 for the patent, a fraction of the millions that Barbie will earn in her first decade. Robin Gerber says that Barbie, like the Jumeau and Kewpie dolls that came before, turns out to be perfect for her time. Thanks to the innovations of Ruth and Elliot Handler.

[Robin Gerber]

Their whole emphasis was how many ways and how much of the child's imagination will this choice stimulate. And in that way, Barbie was completely genius.

[Sally Helm]

Thanks for listening to History this week. For moments throughout history that are also worth watching, check your local TV listings to find out what's on the History Channel today. If you want to get in touch, please shoot us an email at our email address historythisweekhistory.com or you can leave us a voicemail 212-351-0410. We love to hear from you. Please reach out. Special thanks to our guests Florence Theriault, doll expert and founder of Thariault's Antique auction firm Pat Waller, author of the Rose of Washington Square, a novel of Rose o', Neill, creator of the Kewpie doll and Robin Gerber, author of Barbie and the Story of the World's Most Famous Doll and the woman who created her. This episode was produced by Corinne Wallace. It was sound designed by Dan Rosado, story edited by Jim o' Grady and fact checked by Katherine Newhon. Our senior professional producer is Ben Dickstein. History this week is also produced by Julia Press, Chloe Weiner and me, Sally Helm. Our associate producers are Hazel May and Jonah Buchanan. Our supervising producer is McKamey Lynn, and our executive producer is Jesse Katz. Don't forget to subscribe, rate and review history this week, wherever you get your podcasts, and we'll see you next week. Copyright 2023 A&E Television Networks, LLC. All rights reserved.