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She’s 50 next week, you know. I feel like she’s probably had some work done – she looks way too good for being five decades old. If plastic surgery (plastic surgery, haha) is one of her secrets, though, I’m not sharing that here… but I do have 10 other Barbie factoids for you.
1. Barbie’s birthday represents her public debut at the American International Toy Fair in New York in 1959. Despite the fact that she’s 50 years old, Barbie just got her first bellybutton in 2000.
2. She was created by an engineer who used to work for the Pentagon. Jack Ryan (yep, there’s a real Jack Ryan) not only helped design Barbie, he also worked with Mattel on Chatty Cathy. And in an unrelated fact, he was Zsa Zsa Gabor’s sixth husband. Rumor has it that when their marriage started going downhill (which was quick, since they were married for less that two years), he once disassembled her Rolls Royce, piece by piece, and refused to put it back together for her.
3. The lady behind the actual idea was Ruth Handler. She on a trip to Europe with her kids when she came across the Bild Lilli doll (that’s her in the picture. See a resemblance?). She had mentioned the idea of an adult doll to her Mattel-exec husband before, but he wasn’t interested. She bought three of the Bild Lilli dolls and brought them back to show him; he was sold. Mattel bought the rights to Bild Lilli and the rest is history.
4. Barbie is named after the Handlers’ daughter, Barbara. Ken is named after their son, Kenneth. Her parents are apparently George and Margaret Roberts from Willows, Wisconsin. Other family includes her siblings, Skipper, Tutti, Todd, Stacie, Kelly and Krissy. Tutti and Todd are twins… but so are Todd and Stacie. Tutti mysteriously disappeared in 1971, so we can only assume that Stacie (introduced in 1992) is Tutti reincarnated. She also has cousins named Francie and Jazzie. She also apparently has a cousin called LuluBelle, but LuluBelle has never been merchandised.
5. Barbie has obviously been at the center of body image controversies throughout the years due to her ridiculously svelte-yet-busty figure. Mattel makes Barbie at a 1/6 scale, which is standard scale for action figures. This would make Barbie’s measurements 38-18-28 (reports vary based on versions of dolls).
Slumber Party Barbie of 1965 came with your very own “How to Lose Weight” book – one of the tips included was “don’t eat.”
She also came with a bathroom scale that put the 5′9″ Barbie in at 110 pounds. Well, 5′9″ if you consider the 1/6 scale, which makes Barbie about 35 pounds underweight and probably unable to have a period. If you consider 11.5″ Barbie at 110 pounds, she’s a total fatty.
6. The first Barbie was $3. In mint condition, the same one is worth $27,450 today.
7. Celebrity Barbies have included Lucille Ball, Elizabeth Taylor, Twiggy (the first celebrity doll), LeAnn Rimes, Cher and Lindsay Lohan.
8. Barbie’s first career was a teen model. Since then she’s been (in order), a fashion editor, a stewardess, a ballerina, a tennis pro, an executive, a candy striper, an astronaut, a surgeon, Miss America, a gold medal gymnast, an actress, an aerobics instructor, a reporter, a rockstar, a UNICEF Ambassador (hey, I had that one!), an army officer, a rapper, a chef, a police officer, a Rockette, a baseball player, a SCUBA diver, a U.S. Air Force Thunderbird Squadron Leader, a paleontologist, a NASCAR driver, a pilot, a sign language teacher, a presidential candidate, an American Idol winner, a zoologist, a Space Camp instructor and a fashion magazine intern. And this list is by no means exhaustive – she’s had a total of 108 careers so far.
9. Barbie’s signature color, in case you haven’t noticed, is pink. Barbie Pink, which the Mattel website pointed out is Pantone color PMS 219. The immature side of me snickered a little bit at that.
10. Barbie and her friends come in seven different skin tones and seven different hair colors. She wears brown eyeshadow the most often and apparently has more than 300 shades of brown in her “beauty kit,” according to the Mattel site.
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Comments (23)
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ummm, how does barbie go about teaching sign language? her hands don’t move. i get how you can pretend shes a lawyer or austronaut (the gymnast had flexible joints, so i get that too), but how do you pretend she is teaching sign language if her hands don’t move??
posted by tiffany on 3-4-2009 at 3:34 pm
Man – I had one of the original Barbies (no, I’m not that old – it was given to me as a gift when I was 8 or 9 years old way back in the mid-1980s) and I destroyed it just like I did all of my other Barbies (cut her hair, makeup or marker on the face, etc.). To think that that doll could be worth $20K just makes me cringe!
posted by Keeker on 3-4-2009 at 3:49 pm
Barbie went from fashion editor to fashion magazine intern? Reminds me of Morty Seinfeld (Jerry’s TV father) becoming Elaine’s intern at J. Peterman.
posted by Lindseydl on 3-4-2009 at 3:51 pm
Stacy, you’re an inspiration. You’re 100% The Queen of Un-Needed Knowledge (not Un-Useful, just not exactly on the need-to-know-immediately list). You should go on Jeopardy or Who Wants to be a Millionaire.
posted by Kate on 3-4-2009 at 4:37 pm
It’s a running gag at work for my coworkers to get me McDonald’s toys to get “artistic” with, and today someone handed me a ballerina barbie. She’s now a “My Little Zombie”.
posted by Mandragora on 3-4-2009 at 4:56 pm
I remember seeing a “pet doctor” Barbie back in the day. I have to say I cringed and wondered why she couldn’t be called a “vet”, that’s even shorter than pet doctor.
posted by Les on 3-4-2009 at 7:13 pm
I want the “Divorce Barbie.” She comes with all of Ken’s stuff, too.
posted by Copperhead on 3-4-2009 at 7:44 pm
And soon to be outlawed in West Virginia by a (D) State Rep because she portrays a bad image for girls.
I think he has to much time on his hand and be memories from his childhood.
posted by Kev in GA on 3-4-2009 at 8:12 pm
Is it completely un-PC of me to say I heart Barbie with a fervor that’s probably unhealthy for an adult?
I paid nearly 3,000 baht for a Mulder/Scully Barbie giftset. And I love it and would do that again.
Something about that little plastic doll makes me so happy…
posted by Anna on 3-4-2009 at 9:24 pm
OMFG there is a Paleontologist Barbie? How did I not know of this?
posted by Leah on 3-5-2009 at 12:43 am
There’s a Mouseketeer Barbie and a Dallas Cowboys Cheerleader Barbie.
posted by KJ on 3-5-2009 at 8:33 am
there used to be a “barbie” named PJ. She was totally cool – had sunglasses sewn to the top of her head and beads around her ponytails. I think she was the hippie sister or friend of Barbie.
posted by Karen on 3-5-2009 at 9:38 am
karen, i had pj, too. she was my favorite. her big round glasses were so groovy!
posted by Shelly on 3-5-2009 at 9:48 am
I still have the VHS “Barbie’s Birthday Party” that I got in the early 90s as a present (you got it for one cent if you bought a Barbie doll, too — funny how I remember these things) that celebrated Barbie’s birthday in Epcot. Anyone else have this tape?
posted by Rebecca W. on 3-5-2009 at 11:13 am
I read that Ruth noticed that her daughter didn’t care for baby dolls and THAT’S what got her interested in “3 dimensonial fashion dolls”.
posted by Sara on 3-5-2009 at 12:32 pm
@ Kev in GA–you beat me to the punch! Link at my name on the Barbie ban.
posted by Orange on 3-5-2009 at 1:46 pm
Don’t knock the tall and thin! I’m 5′11 and weigh just over 115 lbs. I’m totally healthy and I bet Barbie is too!
posted by mac on 3-5-2009 at 2:06 pm
I seem to have a lot of the flying barbies. The Air Force pilot, the flight attendant, the Thunderbirds leader. I also have a marine corp barbie. She could seriously kick your ass if she wanted to.
The military barbies are the only one with short hair. It’s a unique look.
posted by Jenny on 3-5-2009 at 4:27 pm
Mac,
Just going out on a limb here, but I’m guessing your breasts aren’t 32F or whatever ungodly size hers are supposed to be. If you take say 15-20 pounds of her weight and put it into boobage, that leaves, what, 90 pounds? That’s not healthy by anyone’s standards.
posted by Julie on 3-5-2009 at 10:31 pm
After 50 years Barbie is still in great shape; how does she do it?
posted by coffee on 3-21-2009 at 2:52 am
I read in one of the many, many Barbie books that I’ve read that Tutti and Todd disappeared in the 70’s because they no longer met safety standards. They were fully posable with a bendable wire in their arms and legs, which after a few rounds with a kid, could poke through their vinyl. Fun!
posted by Wendy on 3-29-2009 at 12:25 am
the first barbie i remember getting was astronaut barbie.
she had poofy pink pants, silver puffy shoulder pads, and no gloves.
at three, i remember thinking that barbie probably needed gloves to work in space.
i saw one on ebay once, maybe i’ll go buy her again.
posted by em on 3-29-2009 at 2:43 am
My first barbie was a Ponytail Burnett in 1960, I had her and Ken with the felt type hair. I gave them to my niece when she turned 10 and she gave them to her cousin then they returned to me in 1988. My daughter turned five and my husband gave it to because she begged. She cut the hair, hands and feet. I cried. We, my daughter and I have over over 50 barbies. We love them. Hard to display but try to give them all a turn.
posted by Gail on 11-5-2009 at 5:02 pm