I collect Barbies, so imagine my surprise when I found out that she wasn’t a dentist or a surgeon, an Olympian gymnast, a pet groomer or an ambassador for world peace. And she certainly wasn’t a toy for little girls.
It turns out Barbie’s original design was based on a German adult escort doll named Lilli.
Barbie actually started out life in the late 1940s as a German cartoon character known as “Bild Lilli,” a post-war gold-digging buxom broad who got by in life seducing wealthy male suitors.
She became so popular that in 1953, the newspaper decided to market a doll version which was sold as an adult novelty toy, available to buy from bars, tobacco kiosks and adult toy stores.
Parents considered the doll inappropriate for children and a German brochure from the 1950s described Lilli as “always discreet.” There were many clothes & accessories to buy for her and little girls started to want one.
They tried to market her outside Germany, but a journalist for The New Yorker magazine referred to Lilli as a “sex doll.”
Then one of the founders of Mattel, Ruth Handler, was travelling in Europe and bought a few Lilli dolls to take home. She re-worked the design of the doll and later debuted Barbie at the New York toy fair on March 9, 1959.
Mattel acquired the rights to Bild Lilli in 1964, and production of the German doll ceased.
And the rest is a history. Who knew?
So which version would you prefer? Barbie’s ballsy European precursor or Mattel’s squeaky clean lookalike? I’d trade my whole collection for a Lilli doll.
messynessy.com
