Mattel Matson sold his share to Handler due to poor health, and Handler's wife Ruth took Matson's role. In 1947, the company had its first hit toy, a ukulele called "Uke-A-Doodle". The company incorporated the next year in California. Mattel became the first year-round sponsor of the "Mickey Mouse Club" TV series in 1955. The Barbie doll debuted in 1959, becoming the company's best-selling toy in history. In 1960, Mattel introduced Chatty Cathy, a talking doll revolutionizing the toy industry, which led to pull-string talking dolls and toys flooding the market throughout the 1960s and 1970s. The company went public in
Performo Toy Company other toy companies and other luxury goods producers while the movie tie-in enabled Disney's nascent toys and novelties business to weather the hard times of the Great Depression. "The Simpsons" episode "The Day the Violence Died" bears a remarkable similar story line to the Grove–Disney debate. In the July 15, 1933 edition of the Middletown Press and Journal, the Performo Toy Company announced they were filing for bankruptcy. It is believed that the Great Depression forced them to padlock their doors. Performo Toy Company The Performo Toy Company was established in 1925 by Torrence Leroy Dietz, in Middletown, Dauphin County,