The secret of her success

The film "Barbie" gained $ 337 million in the first weekend. The heroine herself this year turns 64 years old

The film "Barbie" with Margot Robbie in the title in the first weekend of the rental earned $ 337 million ($ 155 million in the USA and $ 182 million in other countries), the absolute record of 2023. And this is not a random success - Barbie went to him for many years and a difficult road.

At the beginning of the journey

Now it’s hard to believe in this, but a pretty doll in a modest black and white closed swimsuit, presented at the annual toy fair in New York on March 9, 1959, did not cause excitement. Barbie has no prospects, the buyers of toy stores claimed. And they gave an “iron” argument - “mothers will never buy a doll with such a bust!”. Professional experts in the children's soul were also dissatisfied - the doll seemed “obscene” to them.

Nevertheless, Ruth Handler, the co -owner of Mattel, the ideologist of the creation of Barbie, who named his creation in honor of her native daughter, did not doubt success. Her conviction of the victory of the Barbie Project was based on the belief that the child’s world has already outgrown the border of the parental house, girls dream of seeing themselves not only by mothers and housewives

Actually, the girls themselves decided the fate of Barbie: they wanted to get the world's first doll in the world, which allowed them to play “themselves in the future” - an attractive and spectacular woman, the owner of a beautiful figure. Advertising also played a role-Barbie turned out to be almost the first toy, advertising on television under the slogan "Someday I will become the same as you." The new toy became super popular, only in the first year 350,000 dolls were sold (at a price of $ 3 apiece), the production organized in Japan (due to cheapness!) Could not cope with demand, the stores limited the sale of Barbie-no more than one doll in his hands.

In the first years of life, the Mattel doll released only a few options for Barbie - “Ballerina”, “Fans”, “Bride” and “Tennis player”. Barbie took up professional career later.

"Pygmalions"

The legend of Pygmalion tells of the fate of the sculptor, who created the statue of a beautiful woman and fell in love with her. Something similar happened with the creators of Barbie.

To begin with, they “creatively rethought” the German doll Lilly, sold in post -war Germany, inventing a new image for it.

Having accidentally seen Lilly while traveling to Europe in 1956, Ruth Handler bought three pieces: she gave one to her daughter Barbara, and took the other two to her company. And she instructed her to "finalize."

The reason why the pretty, “adult” and sexy Lilly demanded a serious design intervention, Mattel did not like to advertise. The point was that the toy Lilly portrayed the same character of the comic book for adults published in the Bild Zeitung newspaper since 1952. When Lilly became a toy in 1955, men bought it in intimate goods stores (it was not sold anywhere else). Lilly had thin eyebrows and lips with a bow, “heavy makeup”, pink complexion and body, a long neck and a very, very narrow waist. Of course, Lily was deprived of the genitals, but she had nipples (of course, in fact, the tips of her plastic breasts were simply somewhat pointed.)

Ruth Handler asked her designers to "make Lilly Tineeger." Jack Ryan, a brilliant engineer, a graduate of the University of Yale, before coming to Mattel, designed winged missiles, got down to business.

The figure of the first Barbie remained in fact the figure of Lilly - she only removed her nipples. But the designers worked a lot with the face: the girl’s lips gained softer outlines and became harder, the eyebrows were painted wider, but an elongated head with a very high forehead was preserved.

A more natural shade acquired the body of a doll. The new, more restrained makeup doll was made by Bad Westmore the famous makeup of the Paramount Pictures film studio. Subsequently, spectacular images for Barbie were invented by the couturier Nolan Miller, Kalvin Klein, Zhivarshi, Brian Lars, Bob Mocki and other high fashion stars.

Barbie acquired the famous “blue eyes” only in 1961, and three years later the legs began to bend at the doll - thanks to the works of the same Jack Ryan. From that moment on, Barbie could sit, bend and take “natural poses”.

In 1971, Barbie began to “look forward” - before that she modestly looked away a little to the side. At the turn of the 1970s, dolls with a bending waist, elbows, knees and wrists appeared, but this turned out to be relatively expensive and widespread. In the future, Barbie changed her appearance many times, and she had especially “spectacular forms” from 1977 to 1998. If Barbie miraculously turned into a living woman then, then with a growth of 175 centimeters, the parameters of her figure would be 99-46-84. There is a chance to be born with such a figure - one one hundred thousand. But not a gram of excess weight - “The Libra for the Barbie House” was set up by 110 pounds (50 kg) and not a single ounces. However, in the future, Barbie acquired more realistic body forms. Now the brand offers more than 20 shades of skin, 94 hair colors, 13 eyes of the eyes and five types of physique.

The success of his own brainchild quarreled its creators. Heldowing "on Barbie", Jack Ryan healed in a wide foot. Only officially he married five times, preferring gorgeous blondes, and Ryan offered each wife Ryan to perform the figure correction so that they looked more like the ideal he created. At the same time, Jack Ryan started a loud trial, contesting the authorship of the doll at Rut Handler. The hero of the “Yellow Press” did not fit the role of the creator of the “most exemplary girl”, and in the end Handler simply bought off Ryan, paying him more than 10 million dollars. Even earlier, in 1964, Ruth Handler redeemed the rights to Lilly - to terminate its release in Europe, saving Barbie from possible comparisons.

Stars and professions

By Barbie’s clothes, you can study the half -century fashion history, according to her classes - the history of female emancipation.

Barbie really became a primadon show business. At first, she mastered the skill of the ballerina, and the top of her stage success was the Party of the White Lebed in the legendary ballet of Tchaikovsky - this luxurious collectible doll appeared on sale in 1991. The triumph was waiting for Barbie on the stage, behind the keys of the piano and with a guitar in his hands. Before the fans of Willyam Shakespeare Barbie, she performed, of course, like Juliet. Her cinematographic career was also rapid - she “starred” as Clara in full -length computer animation “Nutcracker”, after which she “played” in the full -length cartoon “Barbie -Rapunzel”. In any case, Barbie’s merits before the world culture turned out to be enough for her wax figure to be exhibited in the London Museum of Madame Tussaus on a par with the greatest film actresses. Deservedly in the early 90s, unique collectible “Barbie dolls” appeared, the faces of which were reproduced by individual features and features of the appearance of Elizabeth Taylor and Audrey Hepburn. Barbie appeared in the image of the heroines of the films "Cleopatra" and "Breakfast at Tiffany."

Subsequently, getting into the list of “women stars in the image of Barbie” began to mean a global recognition of professional merits and a significant contribution to the development of society.

Barbie did not limit her world to a catwalk and scene and always proved that there was nothing impossible for women.

If at the beginning of his career Barbie was a “nurse”, then already in 1973 he became a “doctor”. In the nineties of the twentieth century, Barbie mastered the specialization of the pediatrician and dentist, and in addition, she learned to treat the brothers of our smaller ones-the Barbie-Veterinar doll went on sale in 1994. Well, in 2022, a whole series of Barbie dolls appeared, dedicated to women who made a great contribution to the fight against the Covid-19 epidemic. These were Dr. Audrey Sue Cruz from Las Vegas, Dr. Jacquel Geez de Hesus, the first sequenced by the SARS-COV-2 genome, Australian doctor Kirby White, who developed a new type of medical bathrobe, professor Sarah Gilbert, the head of the oxford university vaccine from the University of Toronto, The nurse Amy O'Sullivan, who treated the first patient with the COVID-19 in Brooklyn, at the same time representing different races and continents. As Dr. Gilbert said then: “... Children who see my Barbie will understand how vital a career is in science ... I want my doll to show children those professions that they might not know about ...”

But in fact, Barbie was not afraid of risky professions. In 1965, Barbie first tried on an astronaut's spacesuit (20 years before the flight into space of the first American). In the "nineties" to put things in order on the streets, "Barbie-Police" went, and to fight the fire of the "firefighter" began.

If in 1961 Barbie was a “stewardess”, then in 1999 she received evidence of the Boeing pilot. But even earlier than lifting a transcontinental liner into the sky, Barbie mastered a combat aircraft. At that time-in the early 1990s-Barbie began a real romance with the US armed forces: Barbie was parachuted, landed on bridgeheads and served on a combat ship.

Of course, the civil career worried Barbie no less, and if in the 60s she was a free model of a model, then in the 90s she already led the corporation. And of course, she was engaged in politics, ran for the presidency and even won the election - the Barbie President doll appeared in 1991. Barbie did not shy and tedious work in the service sector, standing behind the cash register at the McDonalds restaurant.

Barbie's obstacles helped to overcome sports. Starting with tennis and aerobics, Barbie began to take part in competitions and eventually “won” the Golden Olympic medal. And at the Paralympic Games, including, the company released several dolls that required a “special care” and wheelchair.

Towards the new

Barbie has always been a fashionista, a dreamer and a fan of good things. The first house of Barbie was made of cardboard - hello with flat paper dolls of the fifties, which could be dressed in paper dresses. Over time, Barbie managed to “create” his own original style in the appearance and interior decoration of his houses.

Just a few years after the creation of the doll, Mattel began to offer customers a lot of various goods related to Barbie. To the accessories necessary for the game - furniture, outfits, jewelry, dishes, and so on - soon the goods for the girls themselves were added.

In 1989, Barbie spoke and immediately hit criticism. In her vocabulary there were 270 phrases, while each doll knew how to pronounce four phrases. Thus, there were no two “equally talking dolls”.

In my misfortune, in the Barbie dictionary there was a statement “Mathematics is difficult!”. The last words caused such a fury of the American Association of Universities that Barbie “fell silent” in 1992, although only 1.5% of the dolls sold could pronounce a seditious phrase. But this case was rather an exception to the rules. “Dream House” Barbie was the home of an independent intellectual - in addition to the TV and the musical center in it there was a place for the library.

At the same time, the ranks of Barbie opponents grew almost as quickly as its sales. The fundamentalists of all stripes criticized Barbie for her frank femininity and feminist successes, doctors were indignant at her unnatural proportions, and psychologists argued that the game with Barbie makes girls suffer from the imperfection of their own body. And even activists of female movements, with whom God himself ordered Barbie as a banner, criticized Barbie for excessive care for the wardrobe

At the same time, no matter how chic Barbie dresses, and no matter what she was doing, the parents who bought their daughters doll could be sure: Barbie will always be a model of decency, and her interests will earn praise.

In numerous stories about the life of Barbie and her friends and friends invented by Mattel, there have never been “dubious stories”.

By the beginning of the new century, a billion Barbie dolls were sold in the world. But ... Then everything became more difficult - the girls began to learn about such problems that could not be in the “ideal world of Barbie”, which was walking from success to success in the company of ideal friends.

Researchers of the Barbie phenomenon predicted that the doll would not survive the half -century anniversary, however, Barbie proved to the world that she could change with him, remaining energetic, open, empathic and striving for freedom.