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
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;