Bild Lilli doll
Lilli was a comic by Reinhard Beuthien, which appeared from 1952 to 1961 in the IMAGE. He was so popular that the BILD editorial in 1953 decided to let produce a doll as a promotional tool modeled after the title character. The Lilli became the model for Barbie, the most famous doll in the world, and is therefore still a concept.
History
The Modeller Max Weißbrodt the toy factory Hausser in Neustadt bei Coburg made after drawings Beuthiens a prototype of the doll, which was produced from 1955 to 1964. During this time there were also clothes and accessories to buy. The entire production period, around 130,000 of these dolls were produced.
Ruth Handler, co-founder of Mattel, the doll in 1958 discovered at a European vacation in a shop window and created by their role model Barbie, which was presented on 9 March 1959 at the American Toy Fair. Mattel bought the rights in 1964 to the doll. Then the production in Germany had to be stopped. As the early Barbies - - Today Lilli is a collector's item and scored, depending on the original packaging, accessories and maintenance, prices of several thousand euros.
The comic
The cartoonist Reinhard Beuthien was commissioned to produce a black and white drawing as a stopgap for the first edition of IMAGE 24 June 1952. He drew a cute baby, but the editor did not like the picture. So he added the face pouty lips, eyelashes, ponytail and a lush curved woman's body and called the character Lilli. She sat at a fortune teller and asked: "Can you not say the name and address of this rich and handsome man to me " The drawing was an immediate success and Beuthien made from now on every day a new one.
Lilli was a typical representative of the postwar generation at the time of the economic miracle. She was smart and saucy and spoke with her girlfriends openly about her various lovers. She earned her own money as a secretary, but had no hesitation to let us invite of rich men ( "I could get along without old bald heads, but my holiday budget not !"). The comic always consisted of a drawing of Lila with her girlfriends and friends or her long-suffering Chief ( " Since you were so angry when I came morning too late now, I'm going tonight punctually at five clock !") Entertained. She was often shown it in situations that made a sparse clothing plausible, for example, in her bedroom in front of the mirror ( " What a pity that this disappears in winter under thick ski clothes !") Or at the beach ( to a policeman " Two-piece swimsuits are prohibited well, what part should I take off? "). She was by no means insensitive to the beauties of nature ( " The sunrise here is so beautiful that I always long in the night club stay to see him! "), But was more interested in fashion and film stars. The last comic with Lilli appeared on 5 January 1961.
Two attempts by the IMAGE to introduce a modern version of Lilli, failed after a short time - once in 1989 ( drawn by John M. Burns) and most recently in 2007 as " Lilly" ( drawn from the studio ully Arndt ).
The doll
The Lilli there were in sizes 30 cm and 19 cm. For them, three patents have been granted, as head, hair and legs completely new way had been designed:
- At the top of the neck was not modeled, but the section between the head and body was obliquely from below upwards from the chin to the neck. This she could lay her head coquettishly wrong when you turned him aside.
- The hair was neither a wig nor was fed one. It was draped around the edge of a plastic hemisphere that was bolted to the head. The hair was then summarized in a ponytail, a single curl falling over his forehead.
- When she sat down, she spread her legs do not ( this would have been perceived as vulgar at a doll that represents a grown woman ), but held her ladylike parallel. This has been achieved by their hip joints not oblique, but straight to the body ansetzten.
The doll was made of hard plastic and had modeled eyelashes, earrings and Pumps ( all painted black ). Her face was painted and had a bright red mouth, black eyes and high brows. Her fingernails were red. The limbs were held by rubber bands on the body. Lilli was always drawn blond, but there were also red-haired and brunette dolls - probably due to delivery problems with the dolls hair. Each doll was doing a full-scale IMAGE and was sold in a clear plastic tube that says Lilli.
In its first year (1955 ) cost the large dolls around 12,00 DM; the small about 7.50 DM At this time office workers earned an average of 200 to 300 DM per month; it can be seen that the doll was by no means a cheap toy. The advertising praised as an original gift for adults. In a display from the 60's young men was proposed to give her friend instead of flowers a Lilli ( Lilli commented in a comic over her boyfriend: "I found it so apt that you have recently given me a Lilli doll, now I have also a suitable gift for you " - so they handed him a jumping jack ).
The Lilli was in several European countries and also sold overseas ( in this case, was the printing on the packaging easy Lilli, as BILD in these countries, no concept was apparently ). Many parents saw the doll than for children not suitable - yet they became popular as a three-dimensional dress-up doll. This she owed the fact that you could buy many clothes for them.
The Wardrobe
The Lilli was sold dressed, and there were numerous items of clothing for them. These reflect the zeitgeist of the 50s - Lilli had to put something suitable for all occasions. She had cocktail dresses, suits and beach tennis skirt in addition to numerous pieces for everyday wear as cotton dresses, pajamas and Popelinekostüme. In recent years, her wardrobe consisted mostly of costume skirts and dirndls. Lillis dresses can from those of other fashion dolls are distinguished from the time of the tamper-proof, fitted with a special hand tool or press, press-studs, derived from the German haberdashery manufacturer Prym.
Copies
Like all successful products that Lilli was soon copied. Several toy manufacturers (mostly in Hong Kong ) presented fashion dolls of the same size here, who saw her very similar, but are easily distinguished from her because of their cheap plastic.
But Lilli also inspired the production of another high-quality fashion doll that they should outshine soon: Barbie, produced by Mattel. Ruth Handler, one of the founders of the company, bought some image Lillis, 1958 when she and her family went on a trip to Europe. Back in California, she gave them to their designers and was then allowed to create a new fashion doll that was launched under the name Barbie on 9 March 1959 at the Toy Fair in New York. Barbie had drawn hair and her shoes and earrings were not modeled - apart from the fact she was outside the Lilli as the spitting.