Barbie fashion play show

Do you know what year it was? On television, we were wild about westerns. "Gunsmoke," "Wagon Train," "Have Gun, Will Travel," and "The Rifleman" were in the top ten. Our favorite songs were "Venus" by Frankie Avalon, "Come Softly to Me" by The Fleetwoods, and "Mack The Knife" by Bobby Darin. At the box office everyone wanted to be in A Summer Place with Sandra Dee and Troy Donahue. If you said 1959. you would be correct.

Also that year the Barbie" doll debuted at Toy Fair to a lukewarm reception from the toy buyers, but with an enthusiastic welcome by the real "buyers," the children. Many times we look at our vintage Barbie collections and we see just the dolls and the fashions. Of course that is a big part of collecting. But, the rich historical past of the Barbie doll is filled with much more. She represents our changing culture. Love it or hate it, it's a fact. Mattel was on the cutting edge of history, music, films, and theater, as well as high fashion. Most of the articles about Barbie doll revolve around the changing fashion scene and how Barbie doll and her family and friends mirrored those fast-paced changes in style.

To really appreciate the significance of the 40T" anniversary of Barbie, one has to dig a little deeper, and understand our history. Mattel has always had an uncanny way of understanding what was really going on in America and thus a collection of vintage Barbie dolls is really like a time capsule to the educated viewer.

Many Barbie collectors think that Barbies history begins in the 1960s, but the truth is that the doll was steeped in the post World War II mores of the late 1950s.

After the war the focus was on a nice little tract house with a white picket fence in suburbia, having two children (a boy and a girl), and for women, more spare time due to the "miracle" fibers of the day, such as Dacron and Nylon. It was a decade that promised change, but it happened slowly. Many would be surprised to learn that the transistor radio and the credit card (Diners Club) would be the first of their kind in the 1950s.

For women, short white gloves and fancy hats were a must, yet the "elite" had ball gowns for black tie affairs that often seem daringly cut even by today's standards. Daytime dresses rustled with crinolines as mother seamlessly ran a home better than most factories. In this environment Barbie gained her fame.

Perhaps Barbie's greatest claim to fame is opening doors for little girls, who could have a peek through play at a wide variety of careers. In the first few years, Barbie's exciting wardrobe-ballerina, nurse, fashion designer, and fashion model-gave little girls the opportunity to have many aspirations. Some of these seem tame by today's standards, but for the 1950s, a career outside the home was not often encouraged. The time was right for a change.

The early I 960s brought big changes to society. For the first time a Roman Catholic President was elected. His charming wife, Jacqueline, would be the closest thing to a Queen that this country ever had. The country was divided by segregation versus integration, and a burgeoning war in Vietnam was about to divide the nation.

Barbie mirrored the look of the times, not ony in fashion, but in social roles. White gloves, demure dresses, and rustling crinolines made Barbie seem the helpless ingenue. As the new decade of the 1960s dawned, her makeup had been softened, the severe ponytail cut into even more severe "teased" layers and called a Bubble Cut.

Teen idols, who were safely unreachable, were the new heroes of the day. From South Philadelphia they came marching, with names like Fabian, Frankie Avalon, and Bobby Rydell. Television stars, who grew up before our eyes, like Ricky Nelson, Paul Petersen, and Tony Dow, caused many a teen girl to swoon! Even a now grown up Mousketeer, Annette Funicello, was allegedly swooning over teen idol Paul Anka. It was all innocent fun, but the rules had changed drastically in a very short time. By 1963, the teenage girl had become an American phenomenon. "The Donna Reed Show" featuring Shelly Fabares was among the top ten for the year, as was "The Patty Duke Show" with the genetically inspired cousins Patty and Cathy Lane. The "lingo" of the teenager was one of the enduring traits of the show. Based on 1950s "Beat Knick" talk, terms such as "Pop-o," "far out," and "lose control" were the new passwords of the day. Times were changing quickly, much more quickly than they had in the 1950s. In 1964, the four mop top lads from Great Britain took the country by storm. They were The Beatles and nothing before them, nor anything since, has made such an impact on our culture. Overnight the high bastions of WASP culture with Shetland sweaters, polo ponies, and well-mannered good taste gave way to a youth movement never before seen in this country.

Mattel must have been in a quandary. Should they let this youth rebellion pass, or give in to the new order of things? Taking a safe road, Mattel tested the waters with a new doll in 1966, Barbie's modern cousin, Francie, who, at I5, had "swingin"' long straight hair and "fringe" (bangs, for those not acquainted with the lingo of the day), and wore the "grooviest of gear" (i.e. cutting edge fashions). Francie was an overnight success and proved, perhaps painfully so, that Barbie needed an update badly and quickly. Her role in the Barbie doll saga is often overlooked by historians, but not by the savvy collector. Camelot had been replaced by Carnaby Street. It was time to move on.

Historically the mid 1960s were unparalleled for social and political unrest. What started out with Chubby Checker doing "The Twist" suddenly took a devastating turn with the assassination of President John F. Kennedy on November 22, 1963. It was the death of Camelot and what might have been, even if it was only an illusion.

Women's (and Barbie's) roles changed with release of Betty Friedan's The Feminine Mystique. Women were making strides and Barbie was always there as a beacon of choice in a now suddenly turbulent world.

Clearly the social and racial unrest in our own country created a window of opportunity for the disillusioned youth, who now looked to England and the Mod movement for stability. The trend included the new mini-skirt, created by Mary Quant in 1965, and long straight hair, often ironed on low to achieve the affect.

The Mod movement culminated in a "face lift" for Barbie in 1967. Mattel offered, through a trade-in program, the new Twist 'N Turn Barbie doll in exchange for $1.50 and an old Barbie. The spokesperson for this campaign was then child actress Maureen McCormick, who would become Marsha Brady on "The Brady Bunch."

Television was awash with programs that focused on fashion. "Bewitched," "I Dream of Jeannie," and "That Girl" presented three strong, but vulnerable girls who did it all with high fashion and pop culture. It is amazing how Barbie captured the essence of these characters with fashions, sculpting, and facial painting. The emphasis was no longer on a "blank" face as it had been in the early Barbie years. Rooted eyelashes and intense makeup made Barbie a walking scrapbook of the times.

The early 1970s would reinforce the "hippie" movement in our culture. Fringe in suede or other fabrics made a political statement on the runway. As the mid 1970s churned along, it was painfully evident that both Barbie and our culture needed a makeover.

By the late 1970s, America seemed back on track. Disco fever swept the globe in 1978, and the newly sculpted Superstar Barbie was the saving grace for Mattel after a few years of internal struggles and cultural ambiguity. The doll looked amazingly like Farrah Fawcett-Majors of "Charlie's Angels." Being young, glamorous, and beautiful was back in style. Hippie was now out, glamour was now in, This trend continued into the I980s.

Much can be said about the 1980s. It began with a fitness craze that still is evident today. The big name department stores were the "in" places to shop. New to pop culture was the nighttime soap. Perhaps the most lavish of all was "Dynasty," which featured the wealthy Carringtons and the Colbys dressed to the nines by Nolan Miller and doling out loads of mischief.

In the late 1980s, Barbie was into careers and fashions that would take her from her day job to a night on the town. Movies like Flashdance with Jennifer Beales and Footloose starring Kevin Bacon were hot at the box office.

The early 1990s surprisingly brought back glamour in a big way. The "supermodel" as portrayed by Linda Evangelista, Christy Turlington, and Naomi Campell, among many others, made a statement. Allegedly commanding salaries of up to $10,000 a day, these icons of fashions were always in demand. On the other hand, many celebrities such as Jaclyn Smith, Cheryl Tiegs, and Martha Stewart joined hands with mass-market chain stores and changed the way Americans shopped in the 1990s.