Home > Ruth Handler

She was born Ruth Mosko in Denver, Colorado, the youngest daughter of Polish Jewish immigrants Jacob Joseph Mosko and his wife, née Ida Rubenstein. In 1938 she married Elliot Handler.

Handler and his business partner, Harold "Matt" Matson, formed a small company to manufacture picture frames, calling it "Mattel" by combining their names ("Matt" + "El"liot). Later, they began using scraps from the manufacturing process to make dollhouse furniture. The furniture was more profitable than the picture frames and it was decided to concentrate on toy manufacturing. The company's first big-seller was the "Uka-a-doodle", a toy ukulele.

Ruth Handler had noted that her daughter Barbara preferred playing with paper dolls that looked like adults rather than like children. When in Europe, she noticed a German doll named Lilli (which was not meant for children at all; rather a gag gift for men) and bought it for Barbara.

Ruth Handler says that when she bought Lilli for her daughter, she was ignorant of its adult nature. Mattel bought the rights to market Lilli: with a hair color change from blonde to brunette, and a name change to Barbie (after Ruth's daughter Barbara) she was sold in the United States starting in 1959.

Ruth Handler had stated that she thought it "was important to a girl's esteem that she play with a doll with breasts," and Barbie was certainly qualified to be that doll. If the doll originally marketed were human-sized, her measurements would have been 39"-18"-33". These measurements were based on male fantasy rather than actual human metrics, and the unrealistic size of Barbie has been controversial, with many suggesting that playing with Barbie decreases rather than enhances a girl's self-esteem. In response to criticism, Mattel adjusted the chest measurement down, and the waist measurement up, though the proportions are still uncharacteristic of most women.

Barbie became a big seller, and Ken (named for the Handler's son Kenneth) was introduced as her boyfriend in 1960.

Mattel continued to diversify its toy line, which grew to include Chatty Cathy , See 'n' Say , Hot Wheels, Creepy Crawlers and Incredible Edibles.

Ruth Handler became president of Mattel in 1967. She developed breast cancer and had a mastectomy in the 1970sMillennia: 1st millennium 2nd millennium 3rd millennium Centuries: 19th century 20th century 21st century Decades: 1920s 1930s 1940s 1950s 1960s 1970s 1980s 1990s 2000s 2010s 2020s Years: 1970 1971 1972 1973 1974 1975 1976 1977 1978 1979 Events and trends, and irregularities in reporting to the Securities and Exchange CommissionSEC redirects here. For other uses, see SEC (disambiguation The Securities and Exchange Commission commonly referred to as the SEC is the United States governing body which has primary responsibility for overseeing the regulation of the securities industr during her illness led to her resignation at Mattel.

On her passing in 2002, she was interred in the Hillside Memorial Park CemeteryThe Hillside Memorial Park Cemetery is located at 6001 W. Centinela Avenue, in Culver City, California. A number of prominent individuals of the Jewish faith, including several from the entertainment industry, are buried or entombed here, such as: Milton in Culver City, CaliforniaCulver City is a city located in western Los Angeles County, California. As of the 2000 census, the city had a total population of 38,816. Since the 1920s, Culver City has been a major center for motion picture and later television production, in part bec.