EntertainmentBarbie's Secret Story
Mon, Dec 17 2006
But in a tiny village in Bavaria there was no celebration, only bitterness and regret. In the Hausser home, Rolf and Lily ignored the global celebrations and instead complained bitterly, as they have done so many times over the past four decades, about how badly they have been treated by history, or, to be more accurate, by Barbie’s secret history. Like many stars, Barbie is not what she seems. Not only is she older than her official age, but Barbie is not her real name, and what’s more, she isn’t even American, she is German.
Barbie’s real name is in fact, Lili. She is 45, not 40, and was born in a small town near Nuremberg. The secret story of the Barbie doll is about small-town naivety against big business determination. Above all, it’s a story of the tragedy of a bitter old man, a man who has been erased from Barbie’s history so completely that only a few people in the world know that he was the true creator of the Barbie doll. But, instead of making a fortune when she became a worldwide success, Rolf Hausser lost everything he owned.
It was in 1952 that Lili was born, in her first incarnation-as a cartoon character for the daily German newspaper Bild Zeitung. Their cartoonist Beuthin had the idea of a girl who was sexy, but essentially innocent, with a snub nose and a face like an angel. She was named Lili, and by 1955 she was so popular that Beuthin suggested that a doll should be made as a present for visitors to the newspaper. After many attempts to find the right toymaker, he finally found Rolf Hausser, the son of a famous toy manufacturer, who together with his brother Kurt had set up a very successful toy company called O&M Hausser. Rolf was fascinated by the idea of making a doll with the shape and curves of a mature woman, and he agreed to try.
Lili, the doll went on the market on August 12 1955, and became an overnight success. Unlike any other dolls of her time, she was not a baby, but a fully grown modern young woman, with flexible limbs. She had all sorts of clothes, ski-wear and formal dresses, all made by Martha Maar, Rolf’s mother-in-law. She even had miniskirts years before they came into fashion. Lili became popular all over Western Europe, and was sold in America and Britain, although in much smaller quantities. Within weeks there were so many orders that O&M Hausser could not keep up with the demand.
In 1956 a woman called Ruth Handler went to Lucerne, in Switzerland, for a holiday wit her husband Elliot, daughter Barbara, and son Ken. Ruth and Elliot Handler were the co-founders of Mattel, a big toy manufacturer in the USA. When Barbara, then 15, pointed out the Lili doll in a shop window, Ruth was intrigued. She had never before seen a doll that was a mature adult figure, and at once saw the potential for the American market. She bought a doll and took it home in her suitcase. Back in the States she sent two of her employees to Japan to find a manufacturer who could make a similar doll. By 1959 the doll had been perfected and was being sold in America, having been renamed Barbie, after Ruth’s daughter.
Mon, Dec 17 2006
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