I have been reading all the newspaper articles about Barbie today, and so many of them are full of errors. Started out by listing each article I found, and where they were wrong. Stopped before it turned into a clip post and decided to turn this into a the things you thought you knew about Barbie are wrong.
So here goes.
1 - Barbie was first put on store shelves today. - Wrong
March 9th 1959 was the first day of the New York City Toy Fair. Mattel, a little company that made plastic doll house furniture debut an eleven and one half inch fashion doll they named Barbie, after the name of their daughter. Barbie did not appear on toy shelves until August 1959. Today is the first day she was offered for sale, not to the general public, but to toy sellers, the large and small toy stores of the day.
2- Mattel sold a 'pregnant Barbie' - Wrong
Barbie has many many friends, two of those friends, Midge and Allen had a big wedding in 1998. Mattel planned to start a new line of toys, a reboot of the Heart Family. Their plan was for Allen and Midge (Hadley) Sherwood to have children, and create a three generation group of dolls. Midge's parents (Grandma and Grandpa) Hadley were created and sold in a Grandparents house playset. Midge had a pop out belly that held Nikki Sherwood. Take a look at the Allen and Midge dolls for sale in any toy store, Allen and Midge have wedding rings painted on their fingers.
3- Barbie can still fit in her high school clothing - Wrong
Barbie has been redesigned 3 times. A Barbie doll purchased today can not wear clothing made for Barbie in the mid 90's.
4- The idea for Barbie was stolen from a German gag gift toy. - Well this one is half right. Ruth Handler had the idea for Barbie, long before she went to Europe and found Bild Lil. Using Lili as a guide Ruth and engineer Jack Ryan created Barbie.
5- All the dolls are named after member's of Ruth and Elliot's children - True, sadly this was a real problem for 'Kenneth'. Ken Handler was a gay man who died of AIDS. He never enjoyed the connection between himself and a plastic doll without genetals.
6- The plastic Barbie's are made of is toxic - Wrong
However, if you leave a plastic toy out in the sun, or in a car and the plastic gets sticky, you might want to clean the toy before you let a child chew on it.
7- Barbie and Ken were once married - This one from MSN of all places! Heck no, they have dated, and Barbie has dreamed about getting married. However he has never ever popped the question.
Well that's all I can think of for now. Time for dinner, and taking out the last of the trash.
Happy Birthday Barbie.
Barbie can still fit in her high school clothing - Wrong--"this should be apparent"
ReplyDeleteNot to most people. But then, few people think about Barbie the way I do.
ReplyDelete