J.M.

April 27,2010

Period 1

Sound: Free Play Music, Big Top 30, May 7th, 2010,

www.freeplaymusic.com

Lemelson-MIT Program, Ruth Handler, May 10, 2010, http://web.mit.edu/invent/iow/handler.html

This is the inventor of the Barbie Doll, Ruth Handler, who invented it in 1959.

Invention: Barbie Doll

• The doll was invented in 1959

• A doll from Germany, the “Lilli” doll was where Ruth Handler got the idea for the look.

• It was introduced at the American Toy Fair in New York City.

• The doll had it’s first bendable legs in The year of 1965

• First year on the market, 351,00 dolls were sold at $3 each made Ruth Handler rich

Inventor: Ruth Handler• Ruth got the idea from watching her daughter and

her friends playing with paper or cardboard dolls

• Thought she should show girls what they could be when they were older

• Also, she invented Barbie’s boyfriend, Ken, and got the name from her son

• Her daughter’s name was Barbara and that’s where she got Barbie from.

• Ruth also had breast cancer while going through all this hard work of making the dolls and she still did it