Barbie Turns 50

Creator
Ruth Handler (with her husband and Mattel co-founder Eliot Handler, above) says she got the idea for Barbie after watching her daughter play adult and teenage make-believe with paper-dolls. She saw an empty niche — no U.S. company had ever made a three-dimensional, adult-proportioned doll before — and a few years later, Barbie was born.

• Video: Turning 50 With Barbie
• Photos: Paris Couture