BILD-Lilli doll [ ], ( );
Type: Dolls/Action Figures
Inventor: Max Weisbrodt
Company: Greiner & Hausser Gmbh
Country: Germany [ ]
Availability: August 12, 1955–1964
The Bild Lilli doll was a German fashion doll
launched on August 12, 1955 and produced
until 1964. Its design was
based on the comic-strip
character Lilli, created by Reinhard Beuthien
for the German tabloid newspaper Bild.
The doll made of polystyrene came in two sizes,
and had an available wardrobe of 1950s fashion.
The Lilli doll was the direct inspiration for Mattel
co-founder Ruth Handler's creation of the Barbie doll.
Production of the Bild Lilli doll ceased
after Mattel bought the copyright -
Lilli was a German cartoon character
created by Reinhard Beuthien for the
German tabloid Bild. In 1953 the newspaper
decided to market a Lilli doll and contacted
Max Weissbrodt of the toy company O&M
Hausser in Neustadt bei Coburg. Weissbrot
designed a prototype doll based on Beuthien's
cartoons, which was sold from 1955 to 1964;
that year Mattel acquired the rights
to the doll and German production stopped.
Approximately 130,000 were produced. [Barbie has German roots]
Today Lilli is a collector's piece and commands
prices up to several thousand euros,
depending on condition, packaging, and clothes.
Ordered to draw a "filler" cartoon for the June 24, 1952,
inaugural issue of Bild, Reinhard Beuthien
drew an unruly baby; his editor disliked it,
so he adapted the drawing into a ****
pony-tailed blonde sitting in a fortune-teller's tent.
She was asking, "Can't you give me the name
and address of this tall, handsome, rich man?"
The cartoon was an immediate ( ) success and
became a daily feature;
Lilli was post-war, sassy and ambitious,
"a golddigger, exhibitionist & ******".
The cartoon always consisted of a picture of [Lilli talking],
while dressed or undressed in a provocative manner
that showed off her figure, usually to girlfriends,
boyfriends, or her boss. To a policeman
who told her that two-piece swimsuits
are banned in the street: "Oh, and in your opinion,
what part should I take off?"
The last Lilli cartoon appeared on January 5, 1961.
Several toy companies (mainly in Hong Kong)
produced dolls resembling Bild Lilli,
[Marilyn Monroe, Brigitte Bardot & Sophia Loren were the popular image of the Modern
Bombshell replacing the more chaste Sandra Dee
& Doris Day & even
Audrey & Kate Hepburn
(****** ideals o f the Depression-Era generation)]
some from purchased original molds.
Also in Spain, Muñecas FEJ (Guillen y Vicedo)
copied the molds and made a very similar doll,
but with darker skin, larger *******, white hoop earrings, articulated waist & painted on snooch hair. However, Spanish society
was extremely conservative at the time & not ready
for such "****" dolls. Mothers
would not buy them
for their daughters and the manufacturer
had
to take them
from the market.
Mattel's Barbie doll, which ( ) appeared in March 1959
[the last year Bettie Page posed for photographs],
******* magazine codified
the quasi-teenage 'girl-next'door'; white-gloved
**** giving handjobs in the backs of Buicks]
thrice told tales of irrationality: Bell-Jars &
young mothers aborting Catholic Children - if they're Irish - the
[the year a 16 year old girl
was crowned Miss Beatnik in ( ) Greenwich Village]
was based on Bild Lilli [prototype
for all future fembots; programmed
w/ ****** functions & a washable
assortment of ****** parts]
dolls that co-founder Ruth Handler
had acquired in Hamburg. Barbie
was made of softer plastic, |
wore less makeup, had paler skin, & the doll had rooted hair, several stylish ( ) pairs of shoes & [hard plastic snooch] | earrings— apart from that she was a dead ringer for Lilli.
