Barbie play with paper dolls, and noticed that she often enjoyed giving them adult roles. At the time, most children's toy dolls were representations of infants. Realizing that there could be a gap in the market, Handler suggested the idea of an adult-bodied doll to her husband Elliot, a co-founder of the Mattel toy company. He was unenthusiastic about the idea, as were Mattel's directors. During a trip to Europe in 1956 with her children Barbara and Kenneth, Ruth Handler came across a German toy doll called Bild Lilli. The adult-figured doll was exactly what Handler had in mind, so she
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.