The Barbie Tapes: When Girls--and Barbie--Could Do Anything
Imperfect Paradise
LAist Studios
4.5 • 535 Ratings
🗓️ 20 July 2023
⏱️ 35 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
In this episode, Ruth and Elliot Handler are gone, and the new Mattel team, led by a man who feared the volatility of the toy business, diversified the company and made a big gamble on electronics. It didn’t work. Fortunately, Barbie ends up in the sure hands of some trailblazing women executives, who could see that the culture was moving in a direction very compatible with Barbie’s persona. From the workforce to the workout, Barbie was a doll of her times.
This podcast is supported by Gordon and Dona Crawford, who believe quality journalism makes Los Angeles a better place to live.
Transcript
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| 0:32.3 | Oh, damn it. |
| 0:33.7 | She has these like over-the-kneed dominatrix boots and I lost one somehow in the car. |
| 0:40.1 | Who is that? |
| 0:40.9 | And what is that? |
| 0:42.1 | This is Blazing Fire Guardian Goddess, part of a test line that Mattel released in the late 70s. |
| 0:49.8 | The Guardian Goddesses were not technically, you know, part of the Barbie line, but they were using Barbie bodies. |
| 0:56.1 | I brought a couple of them. |
| 0:58.1 | You've seen this where to activate her mechanism, you squeeze her thighs together until they click. |
| 1:04.9 | And then to release it, you spread her legs. |
| 1:10.6 | She throws off her clothes. |
| 1:14.5 | It's so demonic. I don't know what they were like. |
| 1:18.4 | I really love this thing. I mean, I think it's kind of cool. |
| 1:21.8 | No, and I do. You know, there is something kind of entrancing about the mechanical dolls. |
| 1:27.2 | In the late 70s, |
... |
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