Barbie has enjoyed a recent renaissance with her eponymous movie, which is not bad for a teenager pushing 70. The idea for Barbie was brought to the United States by Ruth Handler, half of the married couple that owned Mattel. In the late 1950s, the Handlers were vacationing in Switzerland and they noticed an unusual doll that was the figure of an adult woman of most impressive proportions. Most dolls at the time were babies or little children. This intriguing Swiss doll was a sort of combination action figure and pinup girl; she came in two sizes, about 7 inches tall or about 12 inches tall and both were a couple of hotties.
The doll was the notorious Bild-Lilli. Bild was the name of a mass-circulation tabloid newspaper in Germany; the word Bild in German means “picture.” Lilli was the first name of a popular and very racy cartoon character featured in the paper. Lilli was a sexy and proportionally improbable young woman cartoon character created by Reinhard Beuthein who signed his work “Beuth.” Bild-Lilli appeared regularly in the 1950s in this major German-language newspaper. She wore skimpy outfits and was featured in sit-com-like situations with a little double-entendre humor.
In this cartoon above, Lilli is informed that she cannot enter the building with a two-piece swimsuit. Lilli’s quick retort, “So which part do you want me to take off?”
It was Ruth’s daughter Barbara who noticed the Bild-Lilli doll and was instantly attracted. Ruth noticed that her daughter wasn’t interested in playing with the doll, but rather dressing her up and using her to fuel her aspirations for her own adulthood. In other words, Lilli was the sort of doll that girls might want but no one was making! At the time, the popular Lilli dolls were sold mainly in bars or tobacco shops as gag gifts for men.
Ruth bought her daughter the Lilli doll and then went back home to create Lilli’s American little sister. The changes she made to Lilli were minimal. You need a pretty keen eye to see the differences between Swiss Lilli and her American sister Barbie. Barbie kept Lilli’s thick eye makeup, red lipstick, sidelong glance, and improbable proportions. The Handlers named the doll Barbie after their daughter Barbara (they also had a son named Ken). The biggest difference between hottie Lillie and wholesome Barbie was the feet—Barbie has bigger feet and shoes that can be removed. However, both Lilli and Barbie were built for high heels only.
Barbie hit the American toy market in 1959 and the Handlers began the legal battles that would eventually result in their owning all of the patents and copyrights by 1964. Some called it a hostile takeover, but over the years, Mattel sold more than a billion Barbie dolls. Over the years, American Barbie evolved and moved a bit further away from her German older sister. Barbie’s make-up became more subtle, she developed career interests (astronaut Barbie, nurse Barbie), and she soon had a posse of friends. Diverse Barbies emerged and over the years, but she kept her preposterous figure.
Bild-Lilli was cast into the shadows and all but forgotten, unless you visit that repository of American culture, Ebay. You can still find the original Bild-Lilli dolls there, but a mint-condition original is going to cost you over $2 grand. Of course, an original mint Barbie with the ponytail is going to cost even more than that. If you go shopping for Bild-Lilli, note that the original German dolls in their heyday were so popular, bootleg copies were made in Hong Kong. These Hong Kong knockoffs have also become collectors’ items.