Today I Learned (TIL)

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TIL Barbie dolls were originally inspired by a German comic character, "Bild Lilli" (imgur.com)

submitted 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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credit to u/hoopsnek for their informative imgur post

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[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Wikipedia says 1952 to 1961, not 1940s. Pretty important difference lol

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Links for the lazy.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lilli_(comic_strip) 1952-1961
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bild_Lilli_doll 1955-1964

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

Unbeknownst to most, Barbie actually started out life in the late 1940s as a German cartoon character created by artist Reinhard Beuthien for the Hamburg-based tabloid, Bild-Zeitung.

I just pulled the date from this description under one of the images on imgur, if it's inaccurate that's why.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago

You might get a kick out of Netflix's "The Toys That Made Us". It has a Barbie episode, and they do talk about Bild Lili a bit at the beginning.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

And CF the British comic strip "Jane" - which ran from the 1930s through to the end of the '50s.

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