A Short History of Teddy Bear and Barbie - By: Tauqeer Hassan

Teddy Bear is a stuffed toy bear and the US president Theodore Roosevelt is the person behind the toy bear while Barbie is a toy doll created by Ruth Handler. Both toys have their own origin and are famous in the world.

The history of teddy bear goes back to an event in 1902 when Roosevelt was helping Mississippi and Louisiana to settle their border disputes. While on a hunt during his spare time, he came across an injured young bear and ordered its mercy killing. This later led to the creation of a stuffed toy bear toy called teddy bear because “Teddy” was Roosevelt’s nickname.

Barbie Doll was created in 1959 by Ruth Handler who was the co-founder of Mattel Fashion. The doll was named Barbie in honor of her daughter - Barbara. While watching her daughter play with paper dolls, Ruth noticed the child’s loves to give then adult roles. At that time most dolls looked like babies and few looked like an adult.

Ruth was inspired to create a three-dimensional toy based on adult paper dolls that have changeable clothes but her husband was not happy with the idea. A vacation in Germany changed their minds however Ruth saw a German doll called Lilli who was based on a comic strip, she bought three of them, gave one to Barbara and took the other two to Mattel. Ruth had reworked the doll’s body and gave it a new name – Barbie, and its first introduction to the world was at the American Toy Fair in New York City in March 1959.

There are several stories which tell who was behind the making of the teddy bear toy. The most popular story was that the first official toy bear called teddy bear was made by Morris Michtom. He had a small candy store in Brooklyn in New York. Rose, his wife was making toy bear to be sold in the store. Michtom sent a toy bear to Roosevelt and sought permission to use the name of teddy bear and he got a positive reply from Roosevelt. There are also stories that he along with another company called Butler Brothers started mass production of teddy bears but still no one is sure who made the first teddy bear.

Both toys are famous from their beginning and are the favorite toys of kids. Teddy bear continues to be sold now and there was a sale of around 350,000 Barbie dolls during the first year of production.

About the Author

Learn in details the history of Teddy Bear and also the history of Barbie. These could be best bed time stories for your kids.

Article Directory Source: http://www.articlerich.com/profile/Tauqeer-Hassan/71074

Additional Articles From - Home | Reference & education | Adult