Ruth Handler Club children's television show, Mattel invested heavily in television advertising. The TV commercials for the Barbie doll paid off and Barbie rocketed Mattel and the Handlers to fame and fortune. Subsequently, they would add a boyfriend for Barbie named Ken, after the Handlers' son, and many other "friends and family" to Barbie's world. Handler was diagnosed with breast cancer in 1970. She had a modified radical mastectomy, which was often used at the time to combat the disease, and because of difficulties in finding a good breast prosthesis, she decided to make her own. Handler went on to found a
Toy Biz its brands across all lines. Charan acquired Cooper hockey equipment brand in the mid-1980s. Charan took this brand and used in within Charan's children's wear division. This approach would move onto the operations of Toy Biz and a key to its success. In the late 1980s, Charan Industries sold the toy subsidiary as Zuckerman did not see the value of the strategies. Becoming an American-owned company, Charan Toys was renamed Toy Biz. In 1990, the company was purchased by Isaac Perlmutter, who became chairman with Joseph Ahern brought in as chief executive officers. Ahern was focused on cost control and