The world's most famous doll — that twentieth century icon, Barbie — didn't just appear full-blown from the mind of her creator, Ruth Handler. Barbie's inspiration, her immediate predecessor, is an overtly sexual hottie named Lilli.
Lilli started out as a cartoon character drawn by Reinhard Beuthien for the Hamburg tabloid newspaper Bild-Zeitung. This blonde, curvy bombshell who pursued rich men first appeared in ink in 1952. Three years later, she became a plastic doll in Germany. The definitive history Forever Barbie reveals: “The doll, sold principally in tobacco shops, was marketed as a sort of three-dimensional pinup. ... Lilli was never intended for children: She was a pornographic caricature, a gag gift for men...” Mattel engineer Jack Ryan once called Lilli a “hooker or an actress between performances.”
Ruth Handler — she and her husband were cofounders of Mattel — wanted to create a three-dimensional, plastic, grown-up doll for girls, but the company's all-male board nixed the idea. While in Europe, she happened upon the vixenish Lilli and knew that she had discovered the literal prototype for her unrealized doll. The original Barbies were deliberately based on the German mantrap (Barb's head, in fact, was cast from Lilli's with a few minor tweaks).
When the first Barbie appeared in 1959, it was as if Lilli had been cloned. They had the same puckered, fire-engine red lips, same arched eyebrows, same almond-shaped eyes glancing sidelong, same golden hair pulled into a ponytail, same height (11.5 inches), same pencil-thin legs, same wasp waist with pneumatic breasts above and child-bearing hips below.
Barbie's similarity to her slutty forerunner didn't go unnoticed. During pre-release market testing, mothers complained about Barbie's sex vibe, saying things like, “I don't like that influence on my little girl,” and, “They could be a cute decoration for a man's bar.” Sears — purveyors of the almighty Christmas “Wishbook” — refused to carry her at first. Nonetheless, Barbie instantly became a huge hit with girls, and Mattel spent the early years making her less of a tart. Now, every second of the day, two Barbies are sold. Lilli must be green with envy.