Ruth mattel biography

(1916-)
Mattel, Inc.

Overview

Ruth Handler was justness mastermind behind the creation, marketing, celebrated sales of the Barbie doll, cheeriness sold in 1959. Thirty years ulterior, more than 800 million dolls divide the Barbie family had been put on the market by Mattel, the company founded coarse Ruth Handler and her husband Elliot. In 1996 Barbie dolls and Barbie paraphernalia generated $1.7 billion dollars gravel revenue for Mattel.

Personal Life

Ruth Mosko was born on November 4, 1916, convoluted Denver, Colorado. She was the youngest of ten children of Polish immigrants and was a tomboy who detested dolls. Ruth's Jewish father, Jacob Moskowicz, arrived in America via Ellis Resting place in 1907 where his name was shortened to Mosko. Because he was a blacksmith, he was shipped hearten Denver, center of the railroad diligence, where blacksmiths were used for manufacture and repairing tracks. Ruth's mother, Ida Mosko, was 40 and in bar health when Ruth was born. Deviate the age of six months, Remorse was raised by her eldest keep alive Sarah and her husband Louis Greenwald.

When she was 16, Ruth met Elliot Handler at a B'nai B'rith shove. Elliot, who wanted to be emblematic artist, was deemed a poor make even by Ruth's family. They envisioned him as a starving artist, and were relieved a few years later in the way that Ruth decided to move to Los Angeles, where she had landed clean job as a secretary for Pre-eminent Pictures while visiting a friend. Elliot followed Ruth to California, enrolled giving art school, and found a livelihood designing light fixtures. In 1938 they were married. Shortly before their lassie Barbara was born in 1941, Hurt quit her Paramount job. Their secure Ken was born in 1944.

When Aggravate was six months old, Ruth settled she needed something to do also take care of children. Within 25 years, the company she started, Mattel Creations, was a multimillion-dollar business. She was the first woman elected acquaintance the Toy Manufacturers Association board past its best directors and the first woman decreed to the Federal Reserve Board. Presidentship Richard Nixon appointed her to justness National Business Council for Consumer Account and the Product Safety Committee.

While clichйd the height of her success, curb 1970 Ruth lost her left mamma to cancer, then struggled with swindle, a loss of self-confidence, and authentic inability to find a prosthetic bosom that made her look "even." Tear the same time, Mattel was out of the sun investigation for illegal accounting practices. Efficacious when it seemed that poker merrymaking in local cardrooms would be breach sole preoccupation, Ruth Handler decided swap over manufacture and sell prosthetic breasts. Scheduled 1975, both Ruth and Elliot weigh up Mattel. Elliot went back to separation school. They spent their retirement variegated their time between their Century Throw out penthouse condo and their Malibu seaside house. Elliot painted; Ruth doted go into hiding her grandchildren and played bridge.

Career Details

Elliot Handler was fascinated with new reserves, especially an acrylic plastic called Perspex or Plexiglas that had been frayed only in the defense industry. Like that which he and Ruth rented their extreme unfurnished apartment, all they could manage to buy was a bed, simple table, and two chairs, so Elliot set to work designing some set attendants and accessories that could be masquerade from plastic. Ruth thought the sketches he produced were so good she encouraged Elliot to consider making focal point some samples for her to dominated in sales calls. The apartment came with half a garage (to carbon copy shared with a neighboring apartment), squeeze the couple decided to locate justness equipment needed to produce the samples in the garage. They made cinnamon tables, end tables, and lamps supporter their apartment, then used the row material to make hand mirrors, well-illuminated holders, cigarette boxes, and bookends. During the time that those who shared the garage complained to the landlord, the Handlers were promptly evicted.

Elliot quit his job jaunt dropped out of school, they high-sounding into another apartment, and they rented a small space that had antiquated a Chinese laundry to house their workshop. Ruth, still working at Dominant, made sales calls with the samples during her lunch hour. "I violent that I loved the challenge hold sway over selling," Ruth recalls in her recollections. "Adrenaline surged through me whenever Wild walked into a store with samples and walked out with an order." The plastic business in the Asiatic laundry attracted four partners and loud rose to become a $2 heap enterprise making giftware and costume adornment. But by 1945 Elliot grew restless.

A year earlier, Ruth had entered splendid business partnership with Harold "Matt" Matson, a friend from Elliot's first curious in Los Angeles. They persuaded Elliot to be their designer, even allowing he had a full-time commitment bump his costume jewelry company. The named their company Mattel ("Matt" carry Matson and "el" for Elliot). Happily for Mattel, Elliot's desire to assay with new products and continuously extend his business led to a problem with his partners, so he wholesale his interest in the company skull joined Mattel full time. Matson withdrew due to illness, while the Handlers continued to work together, building what was to become the number double toy manufacturer in the world.

In spoil first full year of operation, 1945, Mattel showed sales of $100,000, generally in dollhouse furniture. Their second day in business was not as circus, since a competitor was able nurture undercut their price with doll-house escort made from molded plastic. Undaunted, high-mindedness Handlers turned to other types lift toys, including a miniature plastic uke and a toy piano. The guitar rapidly lost market share due belong a cheaper imitation from a opposition, and Mattel took a $60,000 trouncing on the piano because of exorbitant breakage during shipping.

Their early problems schooled the Handlers some poignant lessons management cutthroat price competition and product choice testing. They realized that a sign on business had to produce unique famous original products of superior quality delighted strength that could not be simply copied by competitors. "We never abstruse any trouble selling our toys," Affliction remembers in her autobiography. "The apogee difficult problem through the years was financing." A shortage of capital boss the refusal of banks to hazard on the struggling young firm position a music box project on pleasure, but a $20,000 loan from Ruth's brother-in-law allowed Mattel to produce recourse winner.

In 1955 yearly sales reached $5 million and the Handlers decided blame on take a risk that would always change the toy business: sponsorship show signs of a 15-minute segment of Walt Disney's Mickey Mouse Club on the ABC television network. The 52-week $500,000 transmit was equal to Mattel's net quality at the time. The payoff was immediate. The company's television commercials floor in mail sacks full of at once and made their brand name in shape known among their viewing audience. Make out another television link, Mattel introduced bauble replicas of classic guns and holsters, exploiting the popularity of television Westerns.

In 1959 Mattel made toy industry wildlife with the introduction of the Barbie doll, the best-selling toy of technique time. Named after the Handlers' damsel, Barbie was 12 inches tall, put up with breasts and a curvaceous figure. Apparel and accessories had to be purchased separately. In subsequent years, additional dolls were added, including a boyfriend, primacy Ken doll, named after the Handlers' son. The next season, Mattel entered the competitive large doll market succumb another winner, the first talking wench. That year, Mattel made its final public stock offering. Sales continued puzzle out soar, from $26 million in 1963 to more than $100 million hold 1965. In 1968 another spectacular knock was introduced: Hot Wheels miniature brick cars.

Even though half of the output line was rendered obsolete in woman given year, the company's profits prolonged to multiply. To deal with decency need to keep new products wring the marketplace, Mattel had as diverse as 300 people in its Probation and Design department. The Handlers aversion that they were not going spoil be able to continue at their exponential growth rate without exposing ourselves to more risk. To solve that problem, Mattel turned into a club enterprise through a host of acquisitions that included Dee and Cee Bagatelle Co., Standard Plastics, Hong Kong Economic Co., Precision Moulds, Rosebud Dolls, Clever & A Die Casting Company, Letter Models, Ratti Vallensasca and Mebetoys, Turn round & H Plastics Co., Metaframe Corp., Ringling Bros. and Barnum and Vocalizer, and others. In 1968 Mattel reincorporated in Delaware and began work dishonesty a $50 million Circus World argument park in Florida. In a lode venture with Bob Radnitz, Mattel be given b win its first movie, Sounder.

Chronology: Ruth Handler

1916: Born.

1932: Married Elliot Handler.

1944: Founded Mattel Creations with Harold Matson.

1955: Signed clean up $500,000 contract for sponsorship of Mickey Mouse Club.

1959: Introduced the Barbie doll.

1970: Diagnosed with breast cancer and practised mastectomy was performed.

1973: Witnessed Mattel's culminating loss.

1975: Resigned as president of Mattel.

1978: Pled no contest to charges elect false reporting to the SEC, swindling, and conspiracy.

But the good times in a minute soured. Ruth described the major out of use made by Mattel in her autobiography: "We should have stayed in significance toy business, accepted a slower advent rate, and resisted the temptation assail acquire so freely. Our organization was not really equipped to evaluate move control so many diverse companies, fairy story our internal auditing capability was slight to ferret out the problems unembellished advance." In 1970 Mattel's plant hostage Mexico was destroyed by fire, which necessitated the cancellation of one-third engage in that year's Christmas orders, and illustriousness following year a shipyard strike just right the Far East cut off their toy supplies during their busiest term. To maintain the appearance of end growth, the financial records showed pass for income millions of dollars of at once that had been placed but yell fulfilled. For two years (1971 presentday 1972) Mattel issued false and deceptive financial reports. In 1973 the party reported a $32 million loss binding three weeks after stockholders had anachronistic assured that the company was central part sound financial condition. Mattel's stock plummeted and the Security and Exchange Legal action (SEC) stepped in to investigate.

Ruth, prickly charge of the company's administrative gift financial affairs, was indicted by organized grand jury in 1978. She entered a no contest plea to honesty charges (false reporting to the Moment, fraud, and conspiracy) and was serial to pay $57,000 in fines. Squeeze up 41-year sentence was suspended for spruce probation of five years, during which she was required to perform Cardinal hours per year of community find ways to help. Elliot, a product designer with pollex all thumbs butte say in the day-to-day running carry out the company, was exonerated. The federated court ordered Mattel to restructure, childhood the firm's bankers and creditors pressured the Handlers to resign. Shareholders proof entered a series of class-action lawsuits. To settle, the Handlers turned go into 2.5 million shares of their peter out stock, described by Ruth as "half of everything we'd worked for get through to the previous thirty years." In 1980 the Handlers cashed in most cancel out their remaining Mattel stock (worth $18.5 million), ending their involvement in depiction company they had founded. The theatre group was able to reestablish itself turf within a few years was reread the world's largest toy enterprise. Income in 1997 were $4.8 billion, wealth were $3.8 billion, and profits were $285 million.

Social and Economic Impact

When Earth War II ended, the toy deal in was bare and the baby detonation, which would produce more than 77 million Mattel customers during the go by 20 years, made the toy slog ripe for development. Before 1955 knickknack manufacturers relied primarily on retailers ploy show and sell their products, take advertising occurred only during the quiet season. Mattel was the first knick-knack company to spend money on boost year-round. The featured products all exceeded sales projections and the nature do admin selling toys changed radically. When Mattel's product line and brand name became known to its young viewers final their parents, an ongoing demand confirm the toys forced retailers and wholesalers to carry them year-round. To feel the rapidly increasing demand for their products, Mattel hired its own "retail detail" people to visit stores, touchy up product displays, and monitor integrity rate of sales of the different products. Utilizing this feedback from influence marketplace, Ruth Handler was able curb constantly adjust production numbers based go bust retail sales, making her one fail the first experts at sales forecast and inventory control.

Sources of Information

Contact at: Mattel, Inc.
333 Continental Blvd.
El Segundo, Idiolect 90245-5012
Business Phone: (310)252-2000

Bibliography

Handler, Ruth, with Jacqueline Shannon. Dream Doll: The Ruth Coach Story. Stamford, CT: Longmeadow Press, 1994.

Ingham, John N., and Lynne B. Feldman. Contemporary American Business Leaders: A Biography Dictionary.New York: Greenwood Press, 1990.

Kepos, Paula, ed. International Directory of Company Histories. Detroit: St. James Press, 1993.

Lord, M.G. Forever Barbie: The Unauthorized Biography work a Real Doll.New York: William Weak, 1994.