Who launched in the United States of America the fabulously selling Barbie Doll ?
The first BARBIE DOLL was launched in the USA dressed in a zebra-style swimsuit by toy-makers Mattel Inc. of Hawthorne, California. on 13 February 1959. Barbie was designed by Jack Ryan, five times married, lastly to nine-times-married Zsa Zsa Gabor, and was based on a German adult novelty doll called Lilli to which Mattel had acquired the American rights. Ryan later designed the Sparrow and Hawk missiles (the real ones, not the toy versions).
The Americanized Lilli was renamed Barbie after Barbara Hondler, the 17-year-old daughter of Mattel’s founder, and boyfriends Ken was named after Ms Hondler’s brother. Neither feel much warmth towards their plastic alter egos. As a divorced mother of two, Barbara Hondler Segal told the Los Angeles Times in 1989. I am tired of being a Barbie Doll’ and Ken, a successful realtor, declared ‘I really don’t like her—she’s a bimbo’. Small girls the world over do not agree, with sales running at 20,000,000 a year. Nor do collectors, who will pay up to $ 2,000 for one of the original 1959 Barbies retailed at 02.50. One mystery of Barbie and Ken’s relationship has never been satisfactorily explained. The wardrobe for successive incarnations of Barbie has included a wedding dress, but after 35 years she has yet to walk down the aisle with Ken.
