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Party
Proves You’re Never Too Old to Play With Barbie
By
Daniel Dullum
Spectrum staff writer
ROSEVILLE — The residents at Cordia Senior Residence who attended
a 45th birthday party for Barbie, the world-famous fashion doll,
knew they had cake and ice cream, punch and an entertaining program
to look
forward to.
What they didn’t anticipate at last Tuesday’s event
was audience
participation.
Susan Gillespie, the Cordia activities director who donned a dishwater
blonde wig to assume the persona of “Barbie had she actually been allowed to age,” told
residents to take the Barbie dolls on their tables and undress and redress
them as quickly as possible.
Women in their 70s and older found themselves playing with dolls for the first
time in decades.
Phyllis McDonald, 81, said she last played with a doll when she was 6.
“I liked Barbie dolls because they’re very sophisticated,” McDonald
said. “They’re not a traditional doll. You can’t cuddle
them and treat them like a baby.”
McDonald acknowledged Barbie’s recent midlife crisis, which involved
breaking up with longtime boyfriend, Ken.
“Yes, but she still looks the same as she did when she first came out,” she
said.
Ethel Westphal, 90, helped two friends with the re-dressing process and
said it went well, except Barbie’s shoes wouldn’t stay on.
“The dress went on OK,” she said. “She has to go shoeless!”
Cordia put together an impressive display of Barbie dolls and memorabilia to
mark the anniversary of one of the most successfully marketed toys ever.
“I did a birthday party for Barbie when she was 40, too,” Gillespie
said. “When I realized it was the 45th, I said we had to do it again. It
just seemed right. It’s a perfect vehicle, but one you wouldn’t think
of for residents who are into their 80s. But they had paper dolls, it’s
a reminiscing time, and [the Barbie dolls] are timeless now.”
The doll originated when Ruth Handler, wife of Mattel co-founder Elliot Handler,
noticed her daughter Barbara playing with paper dolls and picturing them in grown-up
roles.
Handler worked on developing a doll she thought would inspire little girls to
think about what they wanted to be when they grew up. She named the doll after
her daught.
The doll sold for $3 in 1959. An original Barbie today is worth up to $4,500,
depending on condition and original packaging.
“Very few of those dolls are around anymore,” Gillespie said. “That’s
because they were meant to be played with.”
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