Elliot Handler daughter, Barbara, who was the namesake of Barbie dolls; and a son, Kenneth (who died of a brain tumor in 1994) who was the namesake of Ken dolls. While a struggling art student and designer of light fixtures, Handler partnered with Harold Matson to design a realistic-looking miniature piano that received roughly 300,000 orders; however, they mispriced the product and lost a dime on each one produced. Mattel received its name from business partners Harold Matt Matson and Elliot Handler in 1945. Elliot's wife, Ruth, took Matson's role when the Handlers bought his share in the late 1940's. Ruth Handler
Milton Handler he represented corporations such as Xerox, Pepsico, the American Tobacco Company and Texaco. Handler married Marion Winter Kahn in 1931, who died in 1953. He married second wife Miriam Adler in 1955 (she predeceased him in 1997). He is survived by his daughter Carole E. Handler and two granddaughters, Alisa Marion Schoenbach and Ilana Abigail Schoenbach. Milton Handler Milton Handler (1903 - November 10, 1998), an American lawyer and professor of law, was considered a "leading antitrust expert and drafter of some of the nation's best-known laws." Born in the Bronx in 1903, he was the youngest of seven children.