Mattel started in a garage making picture frames before Barbie arrived
Mattel's name glues together two founders, Harold Matson and Elliot Handler, who started out with Ruth Handler in a Los Angeles garage in January 1945. They made picture frames, then doll furniture from the offcuts. Their first hit was a toy ukulele. Fourteen years later came Barbie, the best-selling toy they ever made.
Matson sold out to the Handlers in 1946 because of poor health. Mattel became the first sponsor of the Mickey Mouse Club, which put it on television early. Barbie arrived in 1959, the talking Chatty Cathy in 1960, and Ken in 1961; within a few years Barbie had a cardboard Dreamhouse and an astronaut outfit. Hot Wheels followed in May 1968, dreamed up partly by an automotive stylist and a rocket engineer, and that year also brought Christie, the company's first African-American doll.
The 1970s were rocky. Mattel bought the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus in 1971 for $40 million and sold it after a financial squeeze the next year. In 1974 an investigation found it had issued false and misleading financial reports, and both Handlers were forced out. An electronics venture that began with a handheld game ballooned into game consoles and cost the company a $394 million loss in 1983, pushing it close to bankruptcy. Refocusing on core brands under John W. Amerman helped Barbie sales rise from $430 million to nearly $1 billion between 1987 and 1992.
Growth then came by purchase: Uno's maker in 1992, Fisher-Price in 1993, Matchbox's owner in 1997, and American Girl and Polly Pocket in 1998. Buying The Learning Company for $3.5 billion in 1999 was a costly mistake, sold at a loss the next year. Mattel also sued the band Aqua over the song Barbie Girl and lost.
In 2007 it recalled more than 18 million products, some with lead paint above the legal limit and others with detachable magnets, including 7.1 million Polly Pocket toys, and later paid a $2.3 million fine. Headquartered in El Segundo, it is now the world's second-largest toy company by revenue after Lego.
Source: Mattel
