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Barbie's Secret: Creator Was Kinky Swinger

New book looks at man behind the doll

By Sarah Quinn,  Newser Staff

Posted Jan 9, 2009 11:53 AM CST

(Newser) – If you always thought Barbies were a little creepy, this might be why. The doll's creator was a "full-blown seventies-style swinger" with "a manic need for sexual gratification," a new book reveals. Jack Ryan, who was once married to Zsa Zsa Gabor, held orgies at his LA mansion and often visited hookers, from "high-class call girls to streetwalkers," the New York Post reports.

Another of Ryan's ex-wives was the voice of Mattel's talking Barbies. "He once said to me he loved me being tall so he could stick his nose in my boobs when he hugged me," she said. Jerry Oppenheimer's Toy Monster: The Big, Bad World of Mattel spills about Ken, too. The Barbie and Ken dolls were named after the Mattel founder's kids; the real Ken was secretly gay and died of AIDS.

Jerry Oppenheimer's Toy Monster: The Big, Bad World of Mattel comes out next month.
Jerry Oppenheimer's "Toy Monster: The Big, Bad World of Mattel" comes out next month.   (Wiley)
Barbie dolls debuted in 1959.
Barbie dolls debuted in 1959.   (Flickr)
A mother and daughter shop for a Barbie at a Toys R Us in New York on Nov. 21, 2008.
A mother and daughter shop for a Barbie at a Toys R Us in New York on Nov. 21, 2008.   (AP Photo/Mark Lennihan)
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When Jack talked about creating Barbie ... it was like listening to somebody talk about a sexual episode, almost like listening to a sexual pervert.
- Stephen Gnass, friend of Jack Ryan

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COMMENTS
Showing 1 of 1 comment
Terrence
Jan 12, 2009 6:29 AM CST
Frankly, I don't believe it

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