July 29th, 1992. The Baltimore Sun runs a feature about a surprise candidate in the upcoming presidential race: Barbie. The 11.5-inch icon of girlhood and glamor is running for office – and flying off the shelves. But how did a plaything become important enough to make national news? To answer that question, we take you on a journey through doll history, from French porcelain beauties to cherubs that stood for women’s suffrage. And of course, the doll who taught us how fun life in plastic could be. How did these dolls revolutionize play and even politics? And what do they have to tell us about ourselves?
Special thanks to our guests: Florence Theriault, doll expert and founder of Theriault’s antique auction firm; Pat Wahler, author of The Rose of Washington Square: A Novel of Rose O'Neill, Creator of the Kewpie Doll; and Robin Gerber, author of Barbie and Ruth: The Story of the World's Most Famous Doll and the Woman Who Created Her.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Thanksgiving Reconsidered
Defying Gravity and Monarchy
The Last Battle of the First World War
Remember, Remember the 5th of November
The Haunting Case of H.H. Holmes
The Bowery Boys: Electric New York
The Sky Is Falling
The Night Witches
Monopoly Money
The Mother of Level Measurements
"The Strangest Gathering of Men"
Blindspot: The Road to 9/11
9/11: Rescue on the Water
Shaving Russia
The True Winnie-the-Pooh
The Man Who Stole the Mona Lisa
Pop Music Pirates
The Road Less Traveled
Jesse Owens Takes Germany
Fiddling with the Truth
Create your
podcast in
minutes
It is Free
The Food That Built America
Not What You Thought You Knew
Letters of Love in WW2