The Ken doll is introduced to the Barbie toy line - March 11th, 1961

On this day in 1961, Mattel introduced the Ken doll at the International Toy Fair in New York City. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
This Day in History Class is a production of iHeartRadio.
Hello and welcome to This Day in History Class, a
show for those interested in the big and small moments
of history. I'm Gay Bluesier, and in this episode, we're
looking at the history of what might be the second

(00:20):
most famous doll in the world, from his role as
Barbie's perpetual boyfriend to his recent star turn as the
poster boy of the Patriarchy. The day was March eleventh,
nineteen sixty one. Mattel introduced the Ken doll at the
International Toy Fair in New York City. Ken, short for

(00:44):
Kenneth Carson, was designed as the male counterpart to the
popular Barbie doll, which Mattel had released just two years earlier.
The twelve inch Ken doll was sculpted with an athletic
physique and was available in two styles, one with blonde
molded plastic hair and one with brown. Both styles of

(01:04):
Ken had the same tan Caucasian skin tone, and both
came dressed in a very short pair of red fabric
swim trunks with a yellow towel and sandals. Before we
go any further, I have to note that the exact
date of Ken's introduction is a matter of some debate
among collectors. The nineteen sixty one toy fair didn't officially

(01:26):
open until March thirteenth, but it's believe that Mattel first
showed off the Ken doll two days earlier at a
special press preview. For that reason, the company itself considers
March eleventh to be Ken's official birthday, but many die
hard fans regard March thirteenth as the one true Ken Day.

(01:47):
Regardless of where you fall on the matter, we can
all agree that Ken hits stores later that month for
the suggested retail price of three dollars and fifty cents.
He was created at the behest of consumers, humors who
frequently wrote to Mattel insisting that Barbie needed a boyfriend.
The creator of Barbie, Ruth Handler, happily obliged, and even

(02:09):
named the nowdall after her son, Kenneth Handler. It was
a somewhat bizarre tribute, though, considering that Barbie's namesake was
Ruth's daughter Barbara, which means the plastic couple was based
on real life siblings. Ruth worked with Mattel designers Jack
Ryan and Charlotte Johnson to perfect Ken's boy next door appearance.

(02:31):
They made him half an inch taller than a standard Barbie,
and though Ruth pushed to make him anatomically correct unlike Barbie,
Mattel shot down the idea, much to Ken's eternal embarrassment.
According to company lore, Ken and Barbie first met while
shooting their first commercial in nineteen sixty one. The black
and white TV spot shows the pair meeting at a

(02:54):
formal dance, presumably held in their canonical home town of Willows, Wisconsin.
The ad implies that Barbie and Ken were faded to
get together, and even ends with the suggestion that their
romance may lead all the way to the altar. Take
a listen.

Speaker 2 (03:11):
It all started at a dance. Barbie, the famous teenage
fashion model doll by Mattel, felt that this was to
be a special night, And then it happened she met Ken,
and somehow she knew that she and Ken would be
going together. So now Mattel brings you Ken Barbie's boyfriends

(03:31):
with a complete wardrobe of perfectly tailored clothes of unmatched quality.
Now can and Barbie meet for lunch at school, go
to fraternity parties and just relax together. Think of the
fun You'll have taking Barbie and Ken on dates, Dressing
each one just right, You'll find Ken wherever toys are sold.

Speaker 1 (03:52):
The commercial shows Ken modeling a wide variety of outfits,
all of which were sold separately, before cutting to him
and his standard beach look. Fans of Greta Gerwig's twenty
twenty three Barbie movie may remember that beach was the
defining characteristic and vaguely worded job description of Ryan Gosling's
version of Ken, and positioning beach Ken as the primary

(04:17):
Ken makes a lot of sense. The original doll sported
a beach look, and in the decades since, more than
a dozen different beach bum designs have been released, making
it the character's most repeated profession by far. Luckily for Ken,
his resume also includes a host of other jobs besides beach,

(04:38):
more than forty in fact, and just like Barbie, Ken's
dabbled in some pretty diverse careers, including stints as an astronaut, chef, firefighter,
country western singer, and more recently as a barista. Oh
and in nineteen seventy five he apparently won Olympic gold
medals in both swimming and skiing. Significantly, Ken also followed

(05:02):
Barbie's lead by becoming a more inclusive character. In nineteen
eighty two, the first African American Ken doll was introduced
Sunsational Malibu Ken. The toy featured a unique head sculpt
and an Afro hairstyle made from real rooted hair instead
of plastic. Other skin tones, eye colors, and body types

(05:23):
have been gradually added over the years, making Ken dolls
a better reflection of real world people rather than just
our clothes and careers. Still, no matter his appearance or occupation,
Ken has never been all that popular among Barbie fans
or collectors. Some kids and adults are exceptions, to be sure,

(05:44):
but for the most part, people don't play with just
a Ken doll. You buy Ken to go with your Barbie,
and for that reason, he's always been viewed as more
of an accessory than a standalone figure. That cultural perception
of Ken as inessential in subordinate to Barbie has even
played out in Mattel's marketing. In two thousand and four,

(06:05):
it was announced that Barbie and Ken had called it
quits after forty three years of dating. The breakup was
reportedly Barbie's decision, and while some fans were heartbroken, to
hear the news. Many others thought it was a healthy
acknowledgment that not every romance has to last forever. Furthering
that idea, Barbie was allowed to move on, and there

(06:27):
was even an official contest where fans got to choose
her next bow. The eventual winner was an Australian surfer
doll named Blaine. Ken, on the other hand, was shown
to still be pining for Barbie. In two thousand and six,
the doll was given a makeover, purportedly in an effort
to win her back. The plan apparently failed, though, because

(06:50):
in twenty eleven, billboards began appearing in New York and
Los Angeles bearing messages from Ken pleading for Barbie to
take him back. One of them read, Barbie, we may
be plastic, but our love is real. Although desperate and
a little bit creepy, Ken's groveling seemed to do the trick.
Later that same month, on Valentine's Day, Mattel announced that

(07:13):
Barbie and Ken were back together, conveniently just in time
for the couple's fiftieth anniversary. Ken's clinging nature has also
informed the character's big screen appearances in both the live
action Barbie movie and in Toy Story three, Ken is
defined almost entirely by his relationship, or lack thereof, to Barbie.

(07:36):
Of course, in Greta Gerwigg's Barbie, Ken also embarks on
a journey of self discovery, and by the end of
the film he's a much more content and independent character
than he was at the beginning. It's unclear if that
newfound agency will be carried forward in other incarnations of
the character, or if Ken will eventually go back to

(07:57):
just being Barbie's biable boyfriend. But at least for one
brief moment, Ken got to be seen as something more
than a mere accessory. No longer defined by his romantic
tie to Barbie, he was just Ken, and that was enough.
I'm Gabe Lucia, and hopefully you now know a little

(08:17):
more about history today than he did yesterday. Consider keeping
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you can get in touch directly by writing to this
day at iHeartMedia dot com. Thanks to kas b Bias

(08:39):
for producing the show, and thank you for listening. I'll
see you back here again tomorrow for another day in
history class.