by Mona Neeley, publisher/editor
This month’s story on Barbie’s connection to Colorado brought back a lot of memories for several of the staff members at Colorado Country Life and at the Colorado Rural Electric Association. Most of the women in the office had a Barbie story, whether it was disavowing any connection to Barbie and her world, or happily noting all of the Holiday Barbies collected through the years.
And, as we worked on the story, we raided basements, storage units and top closet shelves to bring together the Barbies pictured in the December issue.
The original Barbie at the Musee des Arts in Paris
Special thanks goes to Carol Ellenwood, whose daughter Cassi Gloe is CCL’s designer and production manager. Carol shared her original classic 1959 Barbie, which was the second edition version of the pony-tailed blonde in the black and white stripped swimsuit. Still in her original box, this Barbie leads our parade of Barbies through the years.
The 1962 Barbie pictured in the magazine, is courtesy of barbiemedia.com, but the 1965 Barbie with the brunette pageboy haircut came from the top shelf in my closet where this “bendable” Barbie, a Midge doll and a knock-off of the original Barbie reside in the classic black plastic Barbie case pictured in the Barbie feature story.
Barbiemedia.com also provided the 1971, 1977 and 1980 Barbies pictured with the story. The 1990’s Barbies were my daughters. Having survived her childhood, they are now stored in a box in our basement, along with a huge Barbie RV and a variety of pink cars, a complete schoolroom and more.
This month’s story gave many readers a fun trip down memory lane. But I don’t think that is the end of Barbie’s story since I noticed how quickly my 2-year-old granddaughter grabbed her mom’s Barbies when she discovered them lying on a table. And with the new shapes and variety in the latest Barbies, she’ll have all kinds of new dolls to pick from.
Barbie Facts:
• Barbie’s full name is Barbara Millicent Roberts.
• Barbie is from (fictional) Williows, Wisconsin.
• Barbie collecting took off in the 1990s, thanks to eBay and the introduction of designer Barbie dolls.
• Barbie has represented more than 40 different nationalities.
• Barbie dolls are sold in 150 countries.
• Barbie has over 13 million fans on Facebook, 240,000 followers on Twitter and 600,000 followers on Instagram (@Barbie).
courtesy of barbiemedia.com