IMAGE: Bild tabloid Kiosk in Germany, 2008. Photo via R/DV/RS on flickr. Some rights reserved.
In the Miss Mizzou book I mention that in the summer of 1958 there were two Miss Mizzou dolls that went to a prototype phase that never went into mass production. One was a paper doll, and the other was a doll similar to a Barbie. The prototype Miss Mizzou doll actually preceded the Barbie doll by a year though; Barbie appeared for the first time in 1959. What you might not know is that Barbie herself had her origins in newspaper comics, just like the Miss Mizzou doll. Let me explain further.
Back in 1952, artist Reinhard Beuthien created a single panel cartoon called Lilli for the tabloid “Bild-Zeitung” in Hamburg, Germany. The cartoon reportedly started out as a fill in cartoon on June 24, 1952, the first issue of the paper. The Lilli character was an independent blonde woman who was employed as a secretary at a newspaper. The cartoon presented humorous takes on various subjects, but the primary appeal of strip was the suggestive visuals and dialogue aimed at a men’s audience.
In 1953 the “Bild-Zeitung” tabloid decided to create a doll based on the character and enlisted Max Weissbrodt from the toy company O&M Hausser to bring the drawings to life. The Bild Lilli doll went on sale in 1955 and was initially marketed to adults as a sexy novelty toy, but eventually she became popular with children.
Ruth Handler of the Mattel toy company had wanted to create doll with adult features that she suspected might fill a consumer interest for children. Handler came across the Bild Lilli doll while on vacation in Switzerland & Austria during 1956. She returned to America and reworked the doll, which debuted in March of 1959 under the Mattel brand as Barbie. The doll became popular and Mattel bought out the rights to the Bild Lilli doll in 1964.
Cartoonist Reinhard Beuthien stopped doing the Lili series January 5, 1961, supposedly because the tabloid asked him to marry off the Lilli character. He created two similar characters afterward: Schwabinchen for “Abendzeitung” (which inspired it’s own doll) and Gigi for “Revue.” The Lilli character was revived for a while by the “Bild” tabloid (formerly “Bild-Zeitung”) back in in the late 1980s by cartoonist John M. Burns, and in 2007 by the cartoonist studio of Ully Arndt. Both revivals kept the suggestive undertones of the original, but they both changed the name to Lilly; this was probably done in an effort to avoid rights hassles with Mattel.
The story of Bild Lilli is somewhat similar to Miss Mizzou: Both women were blonde cartoon characters introduced into newspapers in 1952 who eventually inspired dolls to be created. One has to wonder: What would have happened if a Miss Mizzou doll would have got out of the prototype phase? Would the doll have rivaled the sales of Barbie?
Author note: I’m not sure if I got all the facts right on this post or not, but I cobbled it together the best I could. It’s hard to find credible information about the Bild Lilli doll and comic since Mattel controls the rights to the character and little to nothing has been officially published about the doll. You can read more about the rights issues in doll maker Rolf Hausser’s interview or in the book “Barbie and Ruth.”