Bild Lilli, the real Barbie #1

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 Bild Lilli doll was a German fashion doll launched on August 12, 1955 and produced until 1964. Its design was based on the comic-strip character Lilli, created by Reinhard Beuthien for the German tabloid newspaper Bild.  The doll was made of palystyrene, came in two sizes, and had an available wardrobe of 1950s fashion. The Lilli doll was copied, and altered to some degree by Mattel upon the direction of that company's co-founder Mattel. Mattel acquired the rights to Bild Lilli in 1964 after paying a court settlement of about $25,000 and production of the German doll ceased.

Lilli was a German cartoon character created by Reinhard Beuthien for the German tabloid Bild. In 1953, the newspaper decided to market a Lilli doll. Approximately 130,000 were produced. Today Lilli is a collector's piece and commands prices up to several ten thousand euros, depending on condition, packaging and clothes.

Ordered to draw a "filler" cartoon for the June 24, 1952, inaugural issue of Bild, Reinhard Beuthien drew an unruly baby; his editor disliked it, so he adapted the drawing into a sexy pony-tailed blonde sitting in a fortune-teller's tent. She was asking, "Can't you give me the name and address of this tall, handsome, rich man?" The cartoon was an immediate success and became a daily feature.

Lilli was post-war, sassy, and ambitious, "a golddigger, exhibitionist, and floozy". The cartoon always consisted of a picture of Lilli talking, while dressed or undressed in a manner that showed her figure, usually to girlfriends, boyfriends, or her boss. To a policeman who told her that two-piece swimsuits are banned in the street: "Oh, and in your opinion, what part should I take off?" The last Lilli cartoon appeared on January 5, 1961.

Lilli held three patents new in doll-making: The head and neck were not one form connected with a seam at the shoulders, but rather the seam was mid-neck, behind the chin; the hair was not rooted, but a cut-out scalp that was attached by a hidden metal screw; the legs did not sprawl open when she was sitting.  Her limbs were attached inside by coated rubber bands. 

The cartoon Lilli was blonde, but a few of the dolls had other hair colours. Each Lilli doll carried a miniature copy of Bild and was sold in a clear plastic tube, with the doll's feet fitted into the base of a stand labelled "Bild-Lilli" that formed the bottom of the tube.

Originally the tall dolls cost DM 12, the small DM 7.50 at a time when average monthly take-home pay was DM 200 to DM 400.  As this price suggests, the dolls were marketed to adults, mainly men, as a joke or gag gift at tobacconists, kiosks and newsagents that normally sold flowers, chocolates and other small giftware. A German brochure from the 1950s states that Lilli was "always discreet", and that her wardrobe made her "the star of every bar," and an advertisement from the 1960s encouraged young men to give their girlfriends a Lilli doll as a gift, rather than flowers. This latter advert was then referenced by a Lilli newspaper cartoon, where Lilli says to her boyfriend: "I found it so apt that you gave me a Lilli doll as a present - now, I've a similarly suitable present for you" while presenting him with a puppet.

The doll eventually became popular with children, too.  Dollhouses, room settings, furniture, and other toy accessories to scale with the small Lilli were produced by German toy factories to cash in on her popularity amongst children and parents.

Lilli came as a dressed doll—additional fashions were sold separately. Her fashions mirror the lifestyle of the 1950s. She had outfits for parties, the beach and tennis, as well as cotton dresses, pajamas and poplin suits. In her last years, her wardrobe consisted mainly of traditional  dirndl dresses. 

American auth,or Ariel Levy referred to Bild-Lilli as a "sex doll" in Female Chauvinest Pigs and in interviews about the Lilli-inspired Barbie doll, Eve Ensler referred to Lilli as a "sex toy".

And such is the story behind America's Teenage Fashion Model.  Barbie started life as...a floozy.