Bild Lilli
| Type | Dolls/Action Figures |
|---|---|
| Inventor | Max Weisbrodt |
| Company | Greiner & Hausser Gmbh |
| Country | Germany |
| Availability | August 12, 1955–1964 |
The BILD-Lílli doll was a German fashion doll launched on August 12, 1955 and produced until 1964, when Mattel acquired the rights to the doll and thus production ceased. Its design was based on the comic-strip character Lilli, created by Reinhard Beuthien, for BILD Zeitung, a German newspaper. The BILD-Lilli Doll was made of polystyrene, came in two sizes, and had an available wardrobe of 1950s fashion.
Lilli was a German cartoon character created by Reinhard Beuthien for the tabloid Bild-Zeitung in Hamburg, Germany. In 1953 Bild-Zeitung decided to market a Lilli doll and contacted Max Weissbrodt from the toy company O&M Hausser in Neustadt/Coburg, Germany. Following Beuthien's drawings, Weissbrodt designed the prototype of the doll, which was on sale from 1955 to 1964, when Mattel acquired the rights to the doll and German production stopped. Until then, production numbers reached 130,000. Today Lilli is a collector's piece and commands prices up to several thousand Euros, depending on condition, packaging, and clothes.
There are no books about the Lilli doll alone. Even though their whole Barbie success was based on this German original, Mattel's legal department made sure that using the name Bild Lilli as a book title or product name would infringe copyright laws. Mattel had discreetly bought up all and any patents and copyrights to Bild Lilli, while Marx Toys held some of them after the demise of this toy competitor. Unlike Barbie, Bild Lilli was produced for only eight years and never reached the importance of the American doll. By the time the creators and producers of the original Bild Lilli doll, O&M Hausser, realized that Mattel had duped them into selling off their intellectual property and distribution rights for ridiculously low lump sums, Barbie had already made Mattel such a successful and influential market leader that lawsuits were struck down in favor of the ever-growing American toy giant. However, in several books about Barbie or the German lifestyle in the 1950s there are chapters dedicated to Bild Lilli. In the book by Knaak all dolls and wardrobes are described and shown in colour.
Reinhard Beuthien was ordered to make a "filler" to conceal a blank space in the Bild-Zeitung of June 24, 1952. He drew a cute baby, but his boss didn't like it. So he kept the face, added a ponytail and a curvy woman's body and called his creation "Lilli". She sat in a fortune-teller's tent asking: "Can't you tell me the name and address of this rich and handsome man?" The cartoon was an immediate success so Beuthien had to draw new ones each day.
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