In 1945 a Los Angeles industrial designer who had gone into the picture-frame business found himself with a lot of extra frame slats and decided to make doll furniture with them. Thanks to the doll furniture, Elliot Handler and his wife Ruth cleared $30,000 on sales of $100,000 that year. The Handlers have never quite matched that profit margin, but in the 17 years since then their Mattel, Inc. has joined the front rank of U.S. toymakers. Last year Mattel earned $4,000,000 on sales of $49,400,000. And in the first half of...
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