Ruth Handler of plastics, Lucite and Plexiglas. Ruth Handler suggested that he start doing this commercially and they began a furniture business. Ruth Handler worked as the sales force for the new business, landing contracts with Douglas Aircraft Company and others. Her husband Elliot Handler and his business partner Harold "Matt" Matson formed a small company to manufacture picture frames, calling it "Mattel" by combining part of their names ("Matt" and "Elliot"). Later, they began using scraps from the manufacturing process to make dollhouse furniture. The furniture was more profitable than the picture frames and it was decided to concentrate on toy
Elliot Philipp Elliot Philipp Elliot Philipp (July 20, 1915 – September 27, 2010) was a British gynaecologist and obstetrician who worked with Patrick Steptoe and Robert Edwards in developing in-vitro fertilisation and authored "The Technique of Sex" (1939) with the assistance of Sigmund Freud. Phillip was born to a Jewish family in Stoke Newington, the son of Clarisse (née Weil) and Oscar Philipp. His father - who was a cousin to Martha Bernays, the wife of Sigmund Freud - immigrated in 1908 to London from Hamburg to set up the metal trading firm Philipp Brothers. In 1939, he married Lucie Ruth Hackenbroch;