Long before the bodacious Barbie was born into toyland in 1959, little girls had access to idealized feminine images via the movie star paper doll, where not only the glamour girls, but even the ...

As a young girl in segregated Spartanburg, South Carolina, Kitty Black Perkins took a brown crayon to white paper dolls so their skin would match hers. “I seldom saw white people, and so it was all I ...

Now, Mattel is getting into the act with its Barbie “Women in Film” set, which features a Barbie studio executive, director, cinematographer and movie star doll, housed in a collectible box.

Handler was watching her daughter Barbara playing with movie-star paper dolls when the idea for Barbie was born. The first version was based on a German doll named Bild Lilli. She, in turn ...

Finally, there’s movie star Barbie, wearing a sequin floor-length gown with a beaded silver necklace, holding her award. The toymaker said the four film career dolls are meant to encourage girls ...