Ruth Handler

Born into a family of Russian Jewish immigrants in Denver, Colorado, in 1916, Ruth Moskowicz married her high school sweetheart Elliot Handler in 1938. They eventually moved to Los Angeles and had Amid Ken. In the midst of World War II, the Handlers founded Mattel. While vacationing in Europe in 1956, Ruth Handler's daughter Barbara, then 15 years old, brought her attention to a plastic doll with adult proportions and the ability to be dressed…