Antiques: Barbie still has the ability to inspire children’s imagination

We collected at A, drove to B, dropped off and then returned to A empty. I did say at the time that we should have advertised our return trip just incase anybody else’s grandchildren needed to get from B to A. I felt a little bit like a lorry returning home empty.

On the A to B portion of our trip one of the children fell asleep, flopped over and dribbled all over the car seat. My wife was worried about her getting a stiff neck. I was worried about my car seat. Her sister, however, talked for them both and we went through endless car games, all of which I won.

With the games done, the conversation turned to Christmas and what Santa was going to bring. Enter Barbie.

Barbie was developed by the toy company Mattel, run by Harold Mattson and Elliot Handler. Elliot’s wife Ruth created the idea and made Barbie a success.

By the 1950s Mattel was enjoying great success. Ruth’s idea to produce a plastic doll which would aid imaginary play, having watched her daughter playing make believe with paper dolls, did not go down well with her male colleagues. The costs and scepticism at producing a doll with explicit adult features also met with resistance, despite Ruth observing her daughter recreating adult like situations with her paper dolls.

It was in Switzerland that Ruth noticed in a shop window a doll similar to her idea but it was targeting a purely adult market. Mattel acquired the patent for this doll and after an analysis of every technical detail of the body design, the doll we know today was born, named after Ruth’s daughter Barbara, arriving on the American toy market in 1959.

The first Barbie ever produced measured 11.5” and was available in both blonde and brunette. She wore a black and white swim suit, black high heeled shoes, white sunglasses and gold earrings.

Barbie’s initial success and prevailing popularity is not in her adult features, but in her wardrobe, her ability to be transformed simply with a change of outfit. There are endless accessories on sale and Barbie still has the ability to inspire children’s imagination, the essence of Ruth’s vision.