BOMBS, BOOBS & BURGERS

Did you know that Barbie was designed by a guy whose previous career was building missiles? It's true! In the mid-fifties Jack Ryan (the engineer, not the Harrison Ford character) was building Hawk missiles for defense contractor Raytheon. He was bored and wanted to get rich, something he couldn't do with Raytheon because anything he invented belonged to the company. So he took his know-how of transistors and micro-circuitry over to Elliot Handler, president of Mattel Toys, who was very impressed with Ryan's "space-age" skills. Handler gave Ryan a sweetheart deal that included royalties on every toy patent he came up with.

Not only did Ryan configure Barbie's joints, he also redesigned the doll from its original inspiration - a German novelty sex doll named Lilli, which itself was inspired by a raunchy newspaper cartoon. Ryan made Barbie, named after Handler's daughter Barbara, look like less of a "street walker," and a phenomenon was born. Barbie made Mattel, the Handler family and Ryan very, very rich. Ryan's skills in miniaturization also came in handy in designing a pair of mega-follow-up hits for Mattel, including Hot Wheels race cars and the Chatty Cathy doll, as seen here:



Ryan was also a sex fiend. He used his riches to build a sex palace that would have made Hugh Hefner jealous and often courted multiple mistresses. He married actress Zsa Zsa Gabor and tried to get her to join in on his swinging lifestyle, but she would have none of it. The two divorced after only a few months of marriage and he ultimately committed suicide in 1991. Quite the interesting fellow, if you ask me.