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The makers of Barbie — Ruth and Elliot Handler — were the children of immigrants from Poland and Ukraine who met at a high school nickel-a-dance in Denver in 1932. A few years later, when Ruth went to Los Angeles for summer vacation, Elliot followed her and enrolled in a prestigious art and design school in California. They eventually got married and Elliot used his craftsmanship and vision to build things like lamps and picture frames out of their half of a shared two-car apartment garage. They named their growing business Elliot Handler Plastics. In 1944, the couple joined forces with craftsman Harold "Matt" Matson to form Mattel (Matt + El). Mattel's first products were picture frames, but Elliot later began building dollhouse furniture from the picture frame scraps. In 1959, Ruth invented Barbie, named after their daughter Barbara.
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The makers of Barbie — Ruth and Elliot Handler — were the children of immigrants from Poland and Ukraine who met at a high school nickel-a-dance in Denver in 1932. A few years later, when Ruth went to Los Angeles for summer vacation, Elliot followed her and enrolled in a prestigious art and design school in California. They eventually got married and Elliot used his craftsmanship and vision to build things like lamps and picture frames out of their half of a shared two-car apartment garage. They named their growing business Elliot Handler Plastics. In 1944, the couple joined forces with craftsman Harold “Matt” Matson to form Mattel (Matt + El). Mattel’s first products were picture frames, but Elliot later began building dollhouse furniture from the picture frame scraps. In 1959, Ruth invented Barbie, named after their daughter Barbara.

The humble beginnings of the world’s biggest businesses

AuthorPortrait of reporter Zareen Syed in Chicago on Wednesday, Aug. 31, 2022. (Terrence Antonio James/Chicago Tribune)
By and | zsyed@chicagotribune.com | Chicago Tribune
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From starting in a garage to having only a few bucks to spare, some of the biggest companies in the world had some very humble beginnings. (Zareen Syed, The Active Times)

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