Ruth Handler Quotes
101 Ruth Handler Quotes
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[In 1944 on not believing a woman’s place was in the home.] I’m a little lost at home, I’m just not efficient.
Ruth Handler
[On Mattel acquiring Ringling Brothers Barnum and Bailey Circus] Ringling Brothers fit into our plans for Mattel to diversify into supplying products and entertainment to the family unit and to the world of the young.
Ruth Handler
[On rejecting a merger in 1971 with Kinney Corporation where the Kinney Corporation head would become the CEO of the new conglomerate] Oh no that would never work. I would never go for that. I would never have that man telling me what to do.
Ruth Handler
[On a prolonged strike in 1968 curtailing deliveries and then a year later a fire in Mattel’s warehouse on the Mexican border weeks before the Christmas toy-shipping season that meant losses of millions of dollars] First there was the strike and then, just as we were gearing up for the Christmas rush, a fire in our Mexican assembly plant in Mexicali destroyed our chance to ship merchandise at our busiest time. It was a loss that badly affected our cashflow.
Ruth Handler
[In 1970 on buying a breast prosthesis in the year of her mastectomy and whispering her request to a department store saleswoman who then walked away in distain without saying a word] The clerk huddled with two other saleswomen and the loser of the three got me, got to wait on me. I got the loser because of my condition.
Ruth Handler
[More on buying a breast prosthesis in the year of her mastectomy in 1970] My God, the people in this business are men who don’t have to wear these things… I felt defeminized so I started wearing vests, jackets, sweaters, anything to hide the fact tht the two sides didn’t match.
Ruth Handler
[On putting together a new business called ‘Ruthton’ to manufacture artificial breasts for women with Peyton Massey in 1976 (Later selling ‘Nearly Me’ in 1991 to Kimberly Clark)] I felt flickerings of my old resolve and sense of purpose.
Ruth Handler
[On naming her new business ‘Ruthton’ after Ruth [Handler] and PeyTON] At this time, having my name in the company name was very important to me. I’d been cofounder of Mattel and never complained about my absence in the name of that company that I helped nurture and build But the times were different and so was I. Ruthton was my declaration that this was something that I was going to do my way.
Ruth Handler
[In the early formative years of Ruthton only hiring women who had had mastectomies, knowing that they would become spokeswomen for the product and the company] I trained a whole crew of women who had also had mastectomies and I went around with them all the time. [In 1980 the companies sales exceeded $1 million.]
Ruth Handler
[On when she had stood in a fitting room and in had walked a dejected and angry woman who had recently had a mastectomy] When this woman buttoned her blouse and saw that the two breast sides matched, she smiled and stuck her chest out. That was my ultimate satisfaction. That was the biggest charge I ever had.
Ruth Handler
[On manufacturing a Barbie doll] On a new item, we will run as many as a hundred cost sheets before we fix on a design. With our system we might just as well be turning out real airplanes or missiles.
Ruth Handler
[On turning flimsy paper dolls into a real grown-up doll] I knew that if only we could take this play pattern and three-dimensionalize it, we would have something very special.
Ruth Handler
[On existing fashion or glamour dolls before Barbie] They were so ugly and clumsy and had child bodies for grownup play situations, it just did not go.
Ruth Handler
We’ll sculpt our own face and body and design a line of clothes, but see if you can find a manufacturer.
Ruth Handler
[On saying later that the Barbie doll could have been made in the United States rather than initially in Japan] If someone had had the will and the motivation, but we did not have anyone that had that strong motivation during that period, and even I was not that secure.
Ruth Handler
[On asking Charlotte Buettonback Jonson to become the personal clothing designer for her Barbie doll] I want American clothes, and I want play situations which teenage girls would go through. I want things like prom dresses, wedding dresses, and career-office dresses. I want her to be able to dress up, and I want slacks.
Ruth Handler
I idolized my sister.
Ruth Handler
[On seeing herself as a tomboy who preferred the athletic games of the boys] Boys loved me, and I loved boys.
Ruth Handler
[On work it was] What made me grow up. What made me as I am.
Ruth Handler
[On her future husband Elliot Handler] It was an unbelievable experience to just touch him, and I guess he must have had the same reaction because we just couldn’t get enough of each other.
Ruth Handler
It was magic, I had gone with other guys… but I did not have that feeling. No one turned me on like that.
Ruth Handler
She has to work twice as hard, three times as hard, be available at all times to be a mother, wife, and to the business. It did not occur to me that work had to be divided more evenly.
Ruth Handler
[In 1952 on her and Elliot’s relationship with their seven hundred employees] We knew every single person. We knew their names and they knew us. We had a lot of group events and we had a lot of fun.
Ruth Handler
[On her husband Elliot on ‘His dream world’.] He can sit in a crowd with everyone talking and hear nothing, until all of a sudden he snaps out of it with an idea.
Ruth Handler
In true Handler fashion, we went for it.
Ruth Handler
Little girls dream of being curvaceous, dreamy, exciting. They want – some day – to have gorgeous clothes, be chic and look like movie stars.
Ruth Handler
I probably would have done it anyway.
Ruth Handler
[In 1968] No matter what we touched, it turned to gold.
Ruth Handler
We just thought we’d have big problems for five months or so… [Then the economic recession deepened in 1971]
Ruth Handler
[On not being away of the magnitude of the Bill-and-hold program that Mattel had] I never, ever heard of phony invoices. We did not set ‘must-have’ numbers or profit ‘targets’.
Ruth Handler
This whole thing is a farce.
Ruth Handler
Litton was the wonder company of Los Angeles. Rosenberg was immediately regarded as a savior. He had all the financial and Wall Street experience.
Ruth Handler
For us, the change was traumatic, but you can’t have your cake and eat it too.
Ruth Handler
[On her attorney Francis M Wheat] I don’t think Wheat believed I was innocent of many of the things I was accused of because his buddy Hufstedler had it all figured out that I was the guilty one. So I had a lawyer who did not believe in my innocence.
Ruth Handler
It was heartbreaking. By the time we left I was devastated. I couldn’t believe what was happening.
Ruth Handler
I cannot ignore these accusations any longer. It is now my turn to put the lie to those who prefer to blame me for Mattel’s problems. I am not guilty of any criminal conduct, and I intend to exert every ounce of strength I have to prove my innocence to the Court and to the public generally.
Ruth Handler
He [Elliot] tried in every way to help me get back on track, and he was concerned and supportive during my terrible flashes of despair. But the fact is, I felt very much alone – facing the specter of a prison sentence…
Ruth Handler
I steadfastly deny that I am guilty of any criminal wrongdoing.
Ruth Handler
[On being told ‘You people have no right owning art like this. It belongs in a museum. I hope you’ll at least put them in your will for some museum. (With respect to their Monet, Renoir, Pissarro, Picasso collection in their penthouse)] Who is she, telling me what I can can’t own?
Ruth Handler
[She thrived on] The adrenaline rush that came with closing a tough sale and delivering a gigantic order on time.
Ruth Handler
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