The absurdity of this new hybrid sex kitten/adventuress/innocent girl found everywhere in mass-culture was never better portrayed than when Zsa Zsa Gabor hissed her immortal camp line, “I hate dat Qveen” (I hate that Queen), her body stuffed into a skintight backless, strapless draped red and gold lamé sheath dress in the previously mentioned “Queen of Outer Space." Set on Venus (“the planet of love”), glamorous space vixens had ample opportunity (as well as curves) to wear strapless gowns, décolleté space dresses, backless halters, “capri” pants, and seamed nylons with sidesplit sheaths-- all accessorized with rhinestone paste jewels and laser guns. This film is certainly a bastion of this type of look and it was undoubtably hailed as a canon of the taste prevailing at this time. It is for this reason that I often refer to dolls representing this style as coming from the “Queen of Outer Space” school.

Perhaps the Queen of “Queen of Outer Space”-dom was a doll that commenced back in 1952 in cartoon form. Characaturist Rheinhard Beuthien, filling in during an emergency at the German daily newspaper Bild-Zeitung, invented the beguiling “Lilli” for the June 24, 1952 edition. Curvaceous and coquettish, the teenage ‘naif’ would string one liners and as Americans say, “double entendres” as if they were pearls. One of the apogees of camp, her nearly cinematic affectations epitomized what would be the Brigitte Bardot era’s idea of “sex appeal." Lilli became so popular after having made just one appearance, that she was kept in the newspaper until she became a household figure (excuse the pun).

Eventually after a number of false starts, (and perhaps “falsies”) a prototype for a three dimensional version, a doll of Lilli would be created by Max Weissbrodt, creator of the Elastolin fashion figures produced by G. and M. Hausser in Neustedt bei Coburg. Shortly would emerge an elongated and stacked Lilli. Cooperation between Weissbrodt and the firm Griener and Hausser GmbH produced the heavy, matt finshed painted plastic doll. Under the management of Rolf Hausser, the son-in-law of Mrs. E. Martha Maar, Lilli was put together and dressed by Drei-M-Puppenfabrik Maar KG in Monchsroden bei coburg.

The packaging, an ovoid tube of clear plastic on a stand marked “Lilli” with the “Bild” logo prominently displayed was designed by Mrs. Maar. These stands when exported to the USA were identical but without the BILD logo. There are no marks on the doll body or head. On August 12, 1955, Lilli 7 1/2 and 11 3/4 inches tall, dressed almost exactly like the sizzling young movie star, Brigitte Bardot, debuted and was exported all over the world. Her extensive wardrobe, although initially ignored by the often macho men who bought her to put on the rear-view mirrors of their cars as gags, was the quintessential sex kitten wardrobe. As one German gentleman, who was a young adult at the time with his own car said:

“She was an irresistable gag...imagine, a doll with big tits, and long legs! Nothing like her existed before, and she was such a clever joke. We’d have such laughs over this gadget, especially on Saturday nights when we’d all drive around cruising for girls and having beers at local pubs”.

Clearly stated!

Absolutely everything for the first series of dressed dolls was skintight - knit jersey, slacks, capris, sheaths, and strapless swimsuits were even further figure-enhanced by big cincher belts, darted waists, and ribknit waistbands. She wore, on rigid, straight-as-an-arrow legs, dangerous high shiny 1940s-ish stiletto pumps in a sadistic shade of glossy black. Her arches were put to the ultimate test with these shoes and to further the fashion vicitmization, the spike-toed heels were moulded on and stayed on even when Lilli was undressed!

It is no wonder Lilli doll was conceived at the beginning with the intention of its makers as more of a fetishist item for men than a children’s plaything. Her shoes had holes in the bottom and her legs were hollow to allow the doll to be placed on her stand made of cream plastic with a metal rod in which to insert into the leg. The first Barbie doll is famous for this device (conceived to support the doll) as well.