LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA: Barbie creator Jack Ryan was apparently so much into his revolutionary product that he began having sexual relationships with hundreds of women, who looked like the dolls. His obsession even cost him his marriage to his second wife, the late actress Zsa Zsa Gabor, whom he called “my big Barbie”.
Gabor had accused him of living “in a fantasy world,” and also claimed, “Jack’s sex life would have made the average Penthouse reader blanch with shock,” as per The Sun. She also added, “My new husband was a full-blown seventies-style swinger, into wife-swapping and sundry sexual pursuits as a way of life.” The startling details about Ryan have been revealed as a new Barbie film, starring Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling is set to hit theaters in July.
Who was Jack Ryan?
Ryan was first a missile engineer before entering the world of dolls. He was reportedly assigned the job to design dolls for little girls by Mattel’s owners, Ruth Handler and her husband Elliot, soon after the mid-1950s. He immediately began the work by sharpening the doll’s nipples and making her legs longer.
A friend of Ryan, Stephen Gnass, said, “I often think about the expression on his face when he described the doll’s voluptuousness. When he talked about Barbie it was like listening to somebody talk about a sexual episode, almost like listening to a sexual pervert.”
The first Barbie was released in the market in 1959 and it instantly became a hit. Its designer struck a deal with Mattel and instead of getting money for its iconic creation, he would get 1.5 percent of the revenue, which the company made by selling dolls. The huge amount of money helped Ryan buy a mansion, where he “hosted hundreds of parties with jugglers, fortune tellers, calypso musicians, go-go dancers, rhyming minstrels, and drunken guests,” The Sun stated.
‘Jack was very good in bed’
It has been said that his weekly parties often used to conclude with him having sex with a new Barbie clone. Not just that, Ryan also had sexual partnerships with his women workers. Budding actress Gwen Florea, who was the voice behind the first talking Barbie, reportedly shared that the doll creator would love to “stick his nose in my boobs when he hugged me.”
Florea also mentioned, “Jack was very good in bed. He was very, very considerate. But it was the whole aura of his personality that was so attractive.” Brit Derek Gable, Mattel's senior designer, added, “People hooked up. It was considered the thing to do. If you weren’t doing it, you weren’t in the in-crowd.”
As per reports, Ryan also used to force women in his life to go under the knife to look like Barbies. He also made them take diet pills, containing the drug amphetamine. However, his obsession and bizarre way of living eventually took away his royalty payments from him. Now, Ryan’s daughter Ann, 68, has claimed, “My father put his heart and soul into everything he did for Mattel, which continues to benefit from his contributions. He never received the credit he deserved. They broke my father’s heart.”
