'He is the FATHER OF BARBIE': Jack Ryan’s daughter Ann bashes Mattel for erasing dad’s legacy
The daughter of Mattel contract designer Jack Ryan has broken her silence over her late father's role in creating the world's most famous doll- Barbie. The 67-year-old Ann Ryan says, "My father is absolutely the father of Barbie,” as she claims that letters and emails she has sent to the company seeking access to internal records and archives would prove Jack’s role as the inventor of the doll. While the company Mattel, whom she has bashed for erasing her father’s legacy for his debauched way of living, still claims that Barbie was invented by company co-founder Ruth Handler.
Talking to DailyMail, Ann tells her sole purpose now is to "finally debunk Ruth's story as to who is responsible for inventing Barbie and for the doll's huge success." The website of Mattel makes no mention of Jack and honors Ruth," despite the fact that Ruth was convicted on charges of fraud and false reporting to the Securities and Exchange Commission leading to her resignation in 1974.
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She was later sentenced in federal court to five years probation, 2,500 hours of community service and fined $57K, reports DailyMail. Anna said, "It states that she was inspired by observing her daughter, Barbara, play with paper dolls for hours, and recognizes the opportunity to champion and inspire girls by introducing a three-dimensional doll that shows them they can be anything. What isn't mentioned in the corporate history is that my father's role in Barbie's development began way before he even came to Mattel. When he was growing up, he was obsessed with the female form, studying and tracing pinups by famous artists, and for years he had been promoting to Ruth the idea of a fully developed female doll."
Sharing that in February 2020, she sent a letter to Mattel chairman and chief executive Ynon Kreiz asking to "see what records Mattel has that you would be willing to share with me" said Ann and stressed that "there has been well-documented controversy regarding his relationship with Ruth Handler." She included a photo of one of her father's detailed drawings of Barbie, "hoping that that would get his attention. I never heard from him." However, Marissa Beck, of Mattel's Global Brand Communications replied to her saying, "We are not able to share any internal documents with people outside the company, but if you have specific factual inquiries we can look into seeing if we can answer them."
The making of Barbie
According to DailyMail, Ryan, who previously designed missiles when he worked at Raytheon, engineered and designed Barbie using Bild-Lilli as a model. However, his work was briefly mentioned in Ruth's 1994 memoir, 'Dream Doll.' She stated, "his development of the 'Twist 'n' Turn Barbie,' a major breakthrough that gave the doll natural movement by allowing little girls to bend her at the waist and legs, and twist her at the hips – with no visible joints. These technological innovations were among the few Barbie features we were able to patent." She also wrote, "Jack Ryan would later tell people that he was the inventor of the Barbie doll. You can imagine how annoying this was."
Following this, Mattel cut off Jack's huge royalties that he had been paid for the design and sale of Barbie and other toys. Responding to this, Jack sued the company for $24million for non-payment of royalties. Ann said, "They could afford to spend a million dollars-a-year on litigation just hoping that Jack would finally give up. But he wasn't going to give up because he knew he was right and that Mattel was wrong, and all he had to do was keep coming up with the cash to pay his lawyers. It was awful for him. His contributions to the company to make it more successful were enormous, and then without saying anything they started chipping away at his royalties and he was really, really upset. He really took it personally." A settlement was negotiated in Jack's lawsuit for $10.1 million.
Ann, who was aware of her father's sexual proclivities and lifestyle, said, "I loved my dad and I can completely understand why he committed suicide. He had that young wife, Maggie, and he essentially realized that she had become a caretaker for an old, and infirm man. Now I want Mattel to pony up and finally acknowledge all that my dad did for that company. That he was the father of Barbie, and much more."