She has extremely long legs, a tiny waist, and a flawless face. At almost 60 years old, she’s still looking good, and her clothes and make-up are always the height of fashion. Barbie is the most famous doll in the world. She was modelled on a doll based on a drawing by Reinhard Beuthien. In 1952, the publisher Axel Springer commissioned the cartoonist to provide a few drawings for its recently launched Bild newspaper. He set to work and, after a few failed attempts, finally put the over-the-top picture of a young woman down on paper. Her name: Lilli. Axel Springer was satisfied. “Sex sells” – apparently the industry already realized this in post-war Germany. And any debates about sexism? They were far from the order of the day back then. Lilli sold well on the pages of Bild, so well that the publisher decided to launch a doll of her.
This is where the modeler Max Weißbrodt from the toy factory O&M Hausser in Neustadt near Coburg came in. The sculptor by trade made a prototype of the doll from hard plastic based on Reinhard Beuthien’s drawings. But he faced some challenges: How to connect the arms to the torso? What was the best way to attach the head? Weißbrodt tried different things out and tinkered with his prototype. Finally, Lilli was given a completely different shape to the previous figures the company produced at the time – mostly cowboys and Indians – and was awarded a total of three patents: The seam between her head and body ran diagonally from bottom to top, from her chin to her neck. This allowed Lilli to tilt her head coyly. Lilli’s hair was attached around the edge of a plastic hemisphere that was screwed to her head. Her hip joints were not set at an angle, but straight alongside her body. This way, when she sat down, her legs stayed parallel, in a ladylike way.
Lilli becomes Barbie
Around 130,000 Lilli dolls were produced from 1955 to 1964. You could also buy clothing and accessories. Soon, several other toy manufacturers became aware of the fashionable doll and launched imitations on the market, with varying degrees of success. American manufacturer Mattel eventually eclipsed all of them: Ruth Handler, one of the company’s founders, discovered Lilli on a trip to Europe in 1958. Back in California, she commissioned a doll modelled on Lilli, which was unveiled under the name “Barbie” at the New York Toy Fair on March 9, 1959. Barbie looked amazingly like the Lilli in Bild. Barbie can still be found in almost every child’s room today.
(Image: pixarno – AdobeStock.com)
