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
Brent Handler a partner in his entrepreneurial pursuits. Handler knew he wanted to be an entrepreneur from the age of 23 and experienced early business success at Colorado's ExecuTrain, a computer training company. As the company's second employee, he sold millions of dollars' worth of computer training classes, and performed so well the company's owner had difficulty paying his commission. He later became a co-owner of the company. After his initial success at ExecuTrain, and the sale of the company, Handler went on to launch two businesses before finding success in the destination club industry. In 2002, along with his brother Brad