Image Lilli

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Lilli was a comic by Reinhard Beuthien that appeared in BILD from 1952 to 1961 . It became so popular that the BILD editorial team decided in 1953 to have a doll produced as an advertising material based on the prototype. The picture Lilli became the model for Barbie , the most famous doll in the world, and is therefore still a household name today.

history

The modeller Max Weißbrodt of the toy factory O. & M. Hausser in Neustadt near Coburg made a prototype of the doll based on Beuthien's drawings , which was produced from 1955 to 1964. During this time there were also clothes and accessories to buy. Around 130,000 of these dolls were produced over the entire production period.

Ruth Handler , the co-founder of Mattel , discovered the doll in a shop window on a European vacation in 1956 and created Barbie based on its model , which was presented at the US toy fair on March 9, 1959. Mattel bought the rights to the doll in 1964. As a result, production in Germany had to be stopped. Today, like the early Barbies, the Bild-Lilli is a collector's item and achieves prices of several thousand euros, depending on the original packaging, accessories and condition.

The comic

The caricaturist Reinhard Beuthien was commissioned to produce a black and white drawing to fill the gap for the first issue of BILD on June 24, 1952. He drew a cute baby, but the editor didn't like the picture. So he added pouty lips, eyelashes, a ponytail, and a lusciously curved female body to the face and named the character Lilli . She was sitting with a fortune teller and asked: "Can't you tell me the name and address of this rich and handsome man?" The drawing was an immediate success and Beuthien made a new one every day from now on.

Lilli was a typical representative of the post-war generation at the time of the economic miracle . She was chic and perky and spoke openly to her friends about her various lovers. She earned her own money as a secretary, but had no qualms about being invited by rich men ("I could do without bald old people, but my vacation fund couldn't!"). The comic always consisted of a drawing by Lilli who was talking to her friends or her badly tested boss ("Since you were so angry when I was late this morning, I'll be leaving at five o'clock this evening!") . Often she was presented in situations that made sparse clothing plausible, e.g. B. in her bedroom in front of the mirror ("What a shame that this disappears under thick ski clothing in winter!") Or on the beach (to a police officer: "Two-piece swimsuits are prohibited? Well, which part should I take off?" ). She was by no means insensitive to the beauties of nature ("The sunrise here is so beautiful that I always stay long in the nightclub to see it!"), But was more interested in fashion and film stars. The last comic with Lilli appeared on January 5, 1961.

Two attempts by BILD to introduce a modern version of Lilli failed after a short time - once in 1989 (drawn by John M. Burns) and most recently in 2007 as "Lilly" (drawn by Studio Ully Arndt ).

The doll

The Bild-Lilli was available in the sizes 30 cm and 19 cm. Three patents were granted for her because her head, hair and legs had been designed in a completely new way:

  • The base of the neck was not modeled on the head, but the cut between head and body ran diagonally from the bottom to the top from the chin to the neck. This allowed her to tilt her head flirtatiously when you turn it to one side.
  • The hair was neither a wig nor was it drawn in individually. It was draped around the edge of a plastic hemisphere that was screwed to the head. The hair was then gathered in a ponytail and a single curl fell over the forehead.
  • If you sat her down, she did not spread her legs (this would have been perceived as vulgar for a doll depicting a grown woman), but held them parallel, like a lady. This was achieved by the fact that her hip joints were not at an angle, but were attached straight to the body.

The doll was made of hard plastic and had modeled eyelashes, ear studs and pumps (all painted black). Her face was painted on and had a bright red mouth, black eyes and arched brows. Her fingernails were red too. The limbs were held on the body by rubber bands. Lilli had always been drawn to be blonde, but there were also red-haired and brunette dolls - probably due to delivery problems with the doll's hair. Each doll had a true-to-scale BILD with it and was sold in a clear plastic tube labeled Bild-Lilli .

In the first year of sales (1955) the large dolls cost around DM 12.00 ; the small ones about 7.50 DM. At that time office workers earned an average of 200 to 300 DM a month; from this it can be seen that the doll was by no means a cheap toy. It was advertised as an original adult gift. In an advertisement from the 1960s, young men were suggested to give their girlfriend a picture Lilli instead of flowers (Lilli commented on this in a comic to her boyfriend: “I thought it made so good that you recently gave me a Lilli doll , now I have a suitable present for you too! ”- with that she gave him a jumping jack).

The Bild-Lilli was sold in several European countries and also overseas (in this case the imprint on the packaging was simply Lilli , as the BILD was obviously not known in these countries). Many parents saw the doll as not suitable for children - nevertheless, it became popular as a three-dimensional dress-up doll. She owed this to the fact that there were numerous items of clothing to buy for her.

The wardrobe

The Bild-Lilli was sold dressed, and there were numerous items of clothing for her. These reflect the zeitgeist of the 50s - Lilli had something to wear for all occasions. She owned cocktail dresses, beach suits and a tennis skirt in addition to numerous items for everyday wear such as cotton dresses, pajamas and poplin costumes. In recent years her wardrobe has mainly consisted of traditional skirts and dirndls . Lilli's clothes can be differentiated from those of other fashion dolls from the time by the forgery-proof press studs attached with special hand pliers or presses, which come from the German haberdashery manufacturer Prym .

Copies

Like all successful products, the Bild-Lilli was soon copied. Several toy manufacturers (mostly in Hong Kong) made fashion dolls of the same size that looked very much like her but were easy to distinguish from her because of their cheap plastic.

But Lilli also inspired the production of another high quality fashion doll that would soon outshine her: Barbie , produced by Mattel . Ruth Handler , one of the co-founders of the company, bought some Bild-Lillis when she went on a trip to Europe with her family in 1958. Back in California, she gave them to her designers and then had a new fashion doll created, which was presented under the name Barbie on March 9, 1959 at the toy fair in New York. Barbie had pulled in hair and her shoes and earrings weren't modeled - apart from that, she looked like Lilli's face on the outside.

Trivia

  • In 1962 Beuthien created a new comic entitled Schwabinchen for the Münchner Abendzeitung. Schwabinchen was also a modern young woman who made cheeky sayings, but she was never as successful as Lilli and the doll of the same name was of significantly lower quality. In addition, with a size of approx. 26 cm, which is rather untypical for fashion dolls, as well as her muscular body proportions, she did not necessarily correspond to the ideal of beauty of the main buyer target group, namely young girls of that time. Beuthien later drew Gigi according to the same pattern , who had even less success and was never designed as a doll.
  • Lilli became so popular in Germany that a film was made about her in 1958: Lilli - a girl from the big city . The main role was cast in a newspaper competition. Young women from all over Germany sent their photos to BILD and hoped for a career as a film star. The winner was the Danish actress Ann Smyrner .
  • Lilli gave her name to a number of luxury products such as perfume, sparkling wine, and costume jewelry.

literature

There is no book that deals exclusively with the Bild-Lilli. Unlike Barbie, it was only produced for eight years and never achieved the iconic status of its American successor. However, there are chapters in several books about Barbie or the German lifestyle of the 1950s that are dedicated to Bild-Lilli. The book by Knaak deserves special mention here, in which all dolls and items of clothing as well as several accessories are shown in color. Further information can be found in:

  • Silke Knaak: German Fashion Dolls of the 50s and 60s ( German fashion dolls of the Fifties and Sixties ); 2005. No ISBN. Also contains information about Schwabinchen .
  • Dieter Warnecke: Barbie through the decades ; Heyne 1995. ISBN 3-453-08738-0 . German.
  • Wolfram Metzger (Ed.): 40 Years of Barbie World ; Info Verlag 1998. ISBN 3-88190-229-5 . German.
  • MG Lord: Forever Barbie: The Unauthorized Biography of a Real Doll ; Avon Books 1995. ISBN 0-8027-7694-9 . English.
  • Rolf Hausser's story (interview in the magazine “Barbie Bazaar”, February 2000). English.
  • Peggy Gerling and Swantje Köhler: The Truth about Lilli - A Politically Correct Report about Germany's most Famous Fashion Doll . In: Barbie Bazaar, February 1999. (In English)
  • Peggy Gerling and Swantje Köhler: Picture Lilli's outfits
    • Part I: Pants & Shorts. In: Barbie Bazaar, August 2001 (In English)
    • Part II: Evening Gowns, Casual Dresses & Skirts. In: Barbie Bazaar, October 2001. (In English)
    • Part IIII: Beachwear and Sports. In Barbie Bazaar, April 2002. (In English)
    • Part IV: Sleepwear and Special Outfits. (Due to internal difficulties in the magazine "Barbie Bazaar", this episode could not be reprinted. This episode is available on CD from Swantje-Koehler-Verlag for a nominal fee.)

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