Right off the proverbial bat, you will identify with this look into the past. Toy manufacturing and marketing past. I often, and sometimes less than fondly, remember the doll craze of, you guessed it, Cabbage Patch dolls. My daughter was just the right age for that craziness time. Not until the Barbie Movie phenomenon did I start having visions of making my husband certifiably nuts to find and buy that elusive toy. My now mid-forty-year-old daughter gently reminded me that we had just handed down her Barbie Townhouse to a friend with grandchildren. Blasphemy. It was probably worth millions. Well, not actually since it had been thoroughly played with by said daughter and two granddaughters. But you get the picture.
LET’S CALL HER BARBIE brings us back in time, pre-Barbie to television ending its night with a blank screen - actually a test pattern - after the national anthem. And now Mattel has genius folk, engineers, proffered from companies like Raytheon who previously worked on aerodynamic products. Yep, it’s all there in black and white, much like our TVs were, in LETS CALL HER BARBIE by Renee Rosen.
I absolutely fell into lockstep with where this story was going. Lots of joyous memories of my own collection, vast I must admit, of all sorts of Barbie. I was about twelve when I got my first. Evening gowns were my thing. A big step from my first Tiny Tears. And that was part of the genius of Ruth Handler who envisioned a need for something other than a baby doll. Girls need to think of themselves as something more than a mommy. And thus the concept of Barbie was born.
Every page makes you smile - it’s inevitable. From concept to shaping, to colors, to sizing. Barbie was a work of collaborative genius. This doll that girls and adult women remember as their dress-up fantasy doll. Huge wardrobe. Multiple variations of the theme which was Barbie herself. Memories of the 1950’s. LET'S CALL HER BARBIE is a trip down memory lane. And enlightening for those too young to remember those times. The creation of Barbie sets the stage for an interesting and mostly candid look at corporate challenges. Individuals with different skill sets merge with those at the top of the company. Renee Rosen includes some insight into the lead folk working on Barbie and includes some other noteworthy Mattel products as well. Historically corporate board seats were filled with men. In LET’S CALL HER BARBIE we get a bird’s eye view of what it took for Ruth Handler to fill that position. It was indeed her own personal history that set her on the path that she ultimately took with Mattel and of course with Barbie. Ruth Handler had a burgeoning need to belong to someone or something. Mattel providing the vehicle. Barbie was the path to success and great wealth. Sort of a substitute for the family she was denied as a child.
LET’S CALL HER BARBIE, historical fiction is at its best. Nothing is perfect. Perfection is overrated. But the goal is to achieve and make a name for yourself. Barbie was the legacy of Ruth Handler. Truly her baby. As the story progresses you learn, through the discoveries by Renee Rosen, how many challenges each of these producers faced. How some alliances weren’t meant to be forever. And how important honesty and trust truly are, in life and in business. LET’S CALL HER BARBIE by Renee Rosen is sure to be the hot read of this season.
She was only eleven-and-a-half inches tall, but she would change the world. Barbie is born in this bold new novel by USA Today bestselling author Renée Rosen.
When Ruth Handler walks into the boardroom of the toy company she co-founded and pitches her idea for a doll unlike any other, she knows what she’s setting in motion. It might just take the world a moment to catch up.
In 1956, the only dolls on the market for little girls let them pretend to be mothers. Ruth’s vision for a doll shaped like a grown woman and outfitted in an enviable wardrobe will let them dream they can be anything.
As Ruth assembles her team of creative rebels—head engineer Jack Ryan who hides his deepest secrets behind his genius and designers Charlotte Johnson and Stevie Klein, whose hopes and dreams rest on the success of Barbie’s fashion—she knows they’re working against a ticking clock to get this wild idea off the ground.
In the decades to come—through soaring heights and devastating personal lows, public scandals and private tensions— each of them will have to decide how tightly to hold on to their creation. Because Barbie has never been just a doll—she’s a legacy.
Includes a Readers Guide and Exclusive Vintage Barbie Photos!
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