Barbie and Ruth

December 1, 2008
Just in time for the 50th anniversary of Barbie is this behind-the-scenes look at her eccentric, determined inventor. Ruth Handler (1916–2002)was the ambitious and entrepreneurial 10th child of poor Polish immigrants. Disappointed with the unsophisticated dolls of the time, Ruth envisioned a doll that would allow young girls to act out their fantasies of the stylish young women they wanted to become. She modeled her creation on the Swiss doll “Bild-Lilli,” a curvaceous plastic bombshell originally sold as a sex toy/gag gift and named her after her daughter Barbara. Handler fought indefatigably to establish herself in a male-dominated field, and history was made: 50 years later, Mattel is the biggest toy company in the world, and Barbie is sold at a rate of three dolls per second, worldwide. But Handler's rising star was short-lived; battered by breast cancer and convicted of shady business dealings in 1978, she wrenched her attentions away from Mattel and devoted herself to creating realistic, affordable prosthetic breasts for women who had lost one to a mastectomy. This stirring biography is a fine study of success and resilience.

February 1, 2009
The impact of Barbie on U.S. popular culture rivals even that of Mickey Mouse, so it is particularly surprising that this is the first full-length biography of the indomitable woman who brought Barbie to life. Born to Polish-Jewish immigrants in 1916, Ruthie Mosko faced appalling anti-Semitism and sexism in her climb to the pinnacle of corporate power. With her husband, Elliot Handler, she cofounded and built Mattel into a multimillion dollar corporation, introducing Barbie (named after their daughter) in 1959. Ruth and her husband were later forced out of Mattel by charges of fraud (accounting irregularities) to which Ruth pleaded no contest. Breast cancer and a radical mastectomy led to her next career: she founded Ruthton, a company devoted to manufacturing breast prosthetics. In addition to her already extensive charity work, Ruth devoted countless hours to assisting her fellow "mastectomees" and to fighting the shame and stigma then associated with the surgery. Using interviews and primary-source materials, Gerber ("Katharine Graham") presents a long-overdue study of a complex woman whose career covered a spectrum from alleged criminal behavior to humanitarian work. Recommended for all libraries.Tessa L.H. Minchew, Georgia Perimeter Coll., Clarkston

Copyright 2009 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

January 1, 2009
Cofounder of the Mattel Company, Ruth Handler and herhusband, Elliot, turned the toy industry upside down, not only with the 1959 creation of Barbie and the subsequent introduction of boyfriend Ken but also with Hot Wheels and prescient advertising tie-ins to the Mickey Mouse Club. Yet the behind-the-scenes journey is just as fascinating as the public persona: born the tenth child of Polish-Jewish immigrants, Ruth was raised by her sisterand, early on, recognized the talent of her husband as a designer. Motherhood was not her natural state of being, though she named both dolls after her children. After being forced out of Mattel in the 1970s, Ruth then founded a second company, Nearly Me, producing prosthetics designed for women who had undergone mastectomiesjust like her. Tragedy, unfortunately, continued to strike the family; son Ken died of AIDS in 1994, and Ruth herself lost her battle with cancer in 2002.Despite the research, Handler seems to have a two-dimensional luster, rather than the pioneering and dynamic businesswoman seen in other articles and books. Nonetheless, a fascinating account of entrepreneurial ups and downs.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2009, American Library Association.)