Ruth Handler and Barbie

Ruth Handler and her daughter Barbara

Ruth Mosko was born in Denver, Colorado on November 4, 1916. She married Elliott Handler in 1938 becoming Ruth Handler. They lived the rest of their lives together in Southern California.  They had two children, Barbara and Kenneth Handler.

Ruth Handler’s husband and business partner formed a small company to manufacture picture frames.  They came up with the name Mattel from the first and last names of Harold Mattson and Elliott Handler. Ruth Handler had wanted to produce a plastic doll with an adult body but Elliott (her husband) and Mr. Mattson (her business partner) didn’t think it would sell.

Ruth Handler watched her daughter, Barbara, play with her paper dolls. She thought it was important to a girl’s self esteem that she played with a doll with breasts. Ruth Handler created this doll and named her Barbie which was her daughter’s nickname. Barbie was debuted at the New York toy fair in March of 1959.

Two years later in 1961 the Ken doll was introduced as Barbie’s boyfriend. He was named after Ruth Handler’s son Kenneth. Many more friends and family have been produced as well. Just to name a few there was Skipper, Midge, Christie, Francie, Steffi, Stacey and many others that were friends of the family.

Ruth Handler became Mattel’s president in 1967. But having a mastectomy in 1970 forced her to retire. This is when “Nearly Me” was created. Ruth had a hard time finding good breast prosthesis so she created her own.

After much admiration and stardom Ruth Handler passed away on April 27, 2002. She won’t get to see Mattel produce the Pink Ribbon Barbie for Breast Cancer but Mattel did a wonderful thing with this doll and their donations for breast cancer. Ruth fought and won with her breast cancer for many years. Difficulty from colon cancer was the cause of her death.

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