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Barbie's Secret Past: A Doll's Unauthorized History
22 Dec
Summary
- A new book claims Barbie is an unauthorized 'knockoff' of a German doll.
- Mattel is accused of obscuring Barbie's origins and engaging in corporate espionage.
- Barbie's creation involved allegedly copying a German comic strip character named Lilli.
A new book, "Barbieland: The Unauthorized History," by Tarpley Hitt, challenges the established narrative of Barbie's creation. The publication asserts that Mattel deliberately obscured Barbie's true origins, which are allegedly tied to a German doll named Bild Lilli. This German character, originally from a comic strip, became a doll in 1955 and was sold throughout Europe before Barbie's 1959 debut.
Hitt claims that Mattel engineer Jack Ryan was asked to copy a Lilli doll, obtained by Ruth Handler, while visiting factories. By 1960, when Lilli's patent was approved in the U.S., Mattel had already sold nearly $1.5 million worth of Barbie dolls. Mattel later purchased Lilli's rights, with Hitt suggesting records of her development became obscure afterward.
