Have you ever seen a photograph is an Interior Design magazine and thought, "I have to own that room?" On this day in 1959 the Barbie doll made its debut at the American International Toy Fair in New York. The story gets more interesting tho'. There once was a German cartoon character named Lilli, created by Reinhard Beuthien for the tabloid Bild-Zeitung in Hamburg, Germany. In 1953 Bild-Zeitung decided to market a Lilli doll and contacted Max Weissbrodt from the toy company O&M Hausser in Neustadt/Coburg, Germany. Weissbrodt designed the prototype of the doll, which was on sale from 1955 to 1964, when Mattel acquired the rights to the doll and German production stopped. Pictured today is 'Lilli', not Barbie.
"I don't have to be an imitation of a white woman that Hollywood sort of hoped I'd become. I'm me, and I'm like nobody else."
Lena Horne
