Ready for CAE p 20. Barbie. Extra Listening

AN INTERVIEW WITH RUTH AND ELLIOT HANDLER

1. What were the two key decisions Elliot Handler made in the fifties?

2. When did Ruth Handler get the idea of a three-dimensional doll?

3. Who did they name the doll after?

4. Why were they initially disappointed?

5. Who made the Barbie doll an immediate success?

6. What has always been evident in the products created by Mattel?

7. Where and when did Mattel start up?

8. Where did Elliot and Ruth meet?

9. Why did Ruth go to L.A.?

10. Where did Elliot get the equipment he needed to turn his sketches into actual objects?

11. Why was he kicked out of his garage?

12. What were Mattel’s first products?

13. What did Elliot realize when he saw the slats of wood that had been left over?

GLOSSARY

Saw: a hand or power tool or a machine used to cut hard material (as wood, metal, or bone) and equipped usually with a toothed blade or disk. Sierra.

Drill press: an upright drilling machine in which the drill is pressed to the work by a hand lever or by power. Taladradora hidraúlica, perforadora.

Sander: a device that smoothes, polishes, or scours by means of abrasive material. Lijadora.

Flocked wood: wood made of very short or pulverized fibre, similar to cotton, used especially to form a velvety pattern on cloth or paper or a protective covering on metal.

Giftware: wares or goods suitable for gifts.
Slat: a thin narrow flat strip especially of wood or metal. Listón, tablilla


KEY:
1. Television advertising and the creation of a new doll.
2. Observing her daughter and her friends play with paper dolls.
3. They named the doll after their daughter, who had inspired the entire project.
4. At toy show (toy fair) because none of their customers wanted to buy them.
5. Mothers and children (consumers) made the Barbie doll a real success.
6. Innovation and toy design have been evident in the products creators. The people of Mattel have always been truly creative.
7. In 1945 Mattel took shape in a tiny garage workshop in Los Angeles.
8. They met at a charity dance in Denver, Colorado.
9. To pursue a career with Paramount Studio.
10. At Sears.
11. He was dusting everybody’s cars with wood and plastic.
12. Picture frames.
13. That they could make doll house furniture.