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74-538: Engineering work on the project began in 1968 and the first patents issued in 1970. The Optigan was released in 1971 by Optigan Corporation, a subsidiary of toy manufacturer Mattel, Incorporated of El Segundo, California with the manufacturing plant located nearby in Compton, California . At least one TV commercial from the era is extant, featuring the Optigan demonstrated by actor Carl Betz (best known for his role as

148-777: A ukulele called "Uke-A-Doodle". The company was incorporated in Hawthorne, California in 1948. In 1950, the Magic 8-Ball , currently owned by Mattel themselves, was invented by Albert C. Carter and Abe Bookman. Mattel started television advertisement when it became the first sponsor of the Mickey Mouse Club TV series. The Fisher-Price Corn Popper , and the Xylophone was released in 1957. Mattel would ultimately acquire Fisher-Price on August 20, 1993. The Barbie doll debuted on March 9, 1959, going on to become

222-769: A $ 2.3 million fine to the Consumer Products Safety Commission for marketing, importing and selling non-compliant toys. Mattel was noted for its crisis response by several newspaper publications, including PRWeek , the Los Angeles Times , Fortune and Business Management. On June 11, 2010, Mattel launched Monster High , a fashion doll line featuring the teenage children of famous and well-known monsters like Dracula , Frankenstein , Cleopatra , Gorgon , Werewolf , and The Mummy . It led to popularity and cult following success which Mattel translated into two spin-offs, each with

296-486: A 2013 Christmas Day Peninsula Seniors lecture that the founders, according to Elliot, couldn't fit Ruth's name into that of their company. The company began selling picture frames and later dollhouse furniture out of the scraps from those frames. Matson sold his share and stake to the Handlers due to poor health the following year, with Ruth Handler taking over his stake. In 1947, the company had its first successful toy,

370-530: A chance to gain the license given their work on Star Wars, which led to a Descendants license. Disney Consumer Products also made an attempt to evolve the brand from "damsels" to "heroines." In September 2014, Disney announced Hasbro as the licensed doll maker for the Disney Princess line starting on January 1, 2016. Mattel again became the licensed doll maker, instead of Hasbro, in January 2022 and

444-428: A company-wide community service initiative that focuses on working with nonprofits and organizations around the world to give children a day focused on the power of play. While formerly associated with content productions, as of 2020, Mattel Creations is now an e-commerce and content platform of Mattel, Inc. In April 2020, the company released a Thomas & Friends special titled “The Royal Engine” to celebrate

518-475: A composer best known for his popular mid-20th century Christmas melodies. As such, many of the songs in the Christmas books were Marks compositions. Despite its use of recordings of actual musical instruments instead of internally generated sounds, the Optigan suffered from poor tonal quality due not only to the bandwidth limitations of its optical system, but its mechanical system as well. The Optigan concept

592-575: A different focus than Monster High; Ever After High in 2013 and Enchantimals four years later. In 2011, Hot Wheels set a new world-record for a jump made by a four-wheeled vehicle at the 100th anniversary of the Indy 500. The 332 feet jump broke the previous 301 feet record set in 2009. In early 2010, HIT Entertainment licensed Thomas & Friends to Mattel for toys. Mattel then agreed to purchase HIT Entertainment from Apax Partners on October 24, 2011, for $ 680 million, excluding its share of

666-428: A doll from scratch and customize everything including facial features, hair, accessories and outfits, and the doll’s favorite places and hobbies. On April 19, 2018, Mattel named former Maker Studios CEO Ynon Kreiz as chairman and the replacement CEO for outgoing CEO Georgiardis who moved on to head Ancestry.com , effective from April 26, 2018. Two months later, the company laid off 2,200 employees partially due to

740-714: A number of like-minded companies during the 1960s. The Barbie Dreamhouse made with cardboard and paper made its debut in 1962, when also the Astronaut Barbie, the first of many space-themed iterations of the doll, was introduced. In 1965, the company built on its success with the Chatty Cathy doll to introduce the See 'n Say talking toy, spawning a line of products. Barbie traveled to the Moon four years before Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin . In 1967, Mattel released

814-442: A partnership with Google Cardboard. On January 21, 2016, Mattel acquired Fuhu, makers of Nabi tablets and other technology-driven hardware, in a bankruptcy proceeding for a sum worth $ 21 million. On March 30, 2016, Mattel formed a "senior head" division named Mattel Creations to centralize its multi-platform content output. In the process, the production teams and operations of Mattel Playground Productions, HIT Entertainment and

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888-518: A princess-themed Barbie line in 2010. Barbie sales began plummeting in 2012, thus removing focus from the Disney Princess line. Mattel had only sold Cinderella , Ariel , Belle and the two Frozen princesses ( Anna and Elsa ) around its last year of the Disney license in early 2016. With these competing lines and an expiration of the brand license at the end of 2015, Disney gave Hasbro

962-611: A reboot of He-Man and the Masters of the Universe, including new toy lines and brand extensions, a new comic book series and a Netflix series. In October 2019, Mattel released Hot Wheels Monster Trucks, which included a full line of die-cast vehicles, and a national live-event tour, Hot Wheels Monster Trucks Live. The company also released a line of gender-neutral dolls called the “Creatable World” Mattel Children’s Foundation announced and organized its second annual "Global Day of Play",

1036-432: A solo Optigan spinning the "Big Band Beat" disc behind singer Peter Hicks' vocals. Hackett made use of all five of that disc's vamps and its ending; that particular disc featured no percussion tracks. On his Live Archive: 70s (2001), featuring a performance from 1979, he plays a surrealistically silly interlude on the instrument (introducing it as "the most tasteless thing I could possibly do"). His 2003 release, To Watch

1110-497: A takeover offer for Mattel, with Hasbro worth about $ 11 billion at the time and Mattel, $ 5 billion. The latter rejected the offer less than a week later, according to Reuters . On January 29, 2018, Mattel and Chinese internet technology and video game company NetEase formed a joint venture mobile publishing and development studio, Mattel163 , aimed at creating apps based on the former's key brands. That same year, American Girl released “Create Your Own,” allowing kids to create

1184-412: A toy astronaut with space vehicles and a Moon base for boys, with a gumby-like central character named Major Matt Mason . On May 18, 1968, Hot Wheels was released to the market. Hot Wheels was invented by a team of Mattel inventors, which included a rocket scientist and a car designer. That year also saw another doll release, this time, Christie, Barbie's friend and the first black doll, which in

1258-658: Is an American multinational toy manufacturing and entertainment company founded in Los Angeles by Harold Matson and the husband-and-wife duo of Ruth and Elliot Handler in January 1945 and headquartered in El Segundo, California . Mattel has a presence in 35 countries and territories; its products are sold in more than 150 countries. It is the world's second largest toy maker in terms of revenue, after The Lego Group . Two of its historic and most valuable brands, Barbie and Hot Wheels , were respectively named

1332-596: The American Girl brand) and Swindon , England -based toymaker Bluebird Toys (along with its most prized property, Polly Pocket ). In the same year, the first American Girl retail store opened for business in Chicago . In 1997, the Fisher-Price Little People toys underwent a redesign to look more like real kids with different skin colors, added arms and hands, and greater detail on

1406-582: The American Girl content creation team in Middleton, Wisconsin were absorbed into Creations the following day. On July 19, 2016, NBCUniversal announced Mattel's license acquisition to produce toys based on the Jurassic Park franchise after Hasbro's rights expired in 2017. Former Google executive, Margo Georgiadis , was announced as company CEO on 17 January 2017. On November 10, 2017 The Wall Street Journal reported that Hasbro had made

1480-736: The PBS Kids Sprout channel (now Universal Kids), which would be completed on February 1, 2012 for £680m, and be managed under Mattel's Fisher-Price unit. In 2012, Mattel introduced a doll, Ella, to the Barbie line. The doll is bald and was distributed directly through hospitals to children experiencing hair loss due to cancer and other diseases. On October 16, 2013, with reports of high profitability, Mattel launched an in-house film studio, Mattel Playground Productions , through which it produces original films, TV shows, Web series, live events, and games. Fortune Magazine named Mattel one of

1554-411: The analog waveforms on the disc to an audio signal. A flip-down door beneath the keyboard allowed access to the disc's loading area to the left of the unit and a disc storage area to the right. Program discs were loaded by simply sliding them onto the felt-covered platform; a V-shaped notch on the front of the panel aided in alignment. When power was applied and the front cover closed, a spindle engaged

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1628-431: The circle of fifths , specifically B-flat, F, C, G, D, A and E major , minor , and diminished and were played with the left hand in much the style of a chord organ or accordion . The remaining five were assigned to rocker switches above the chord buttons and featured (depending on the disc in question) percussion , sound effects , introductions, vamps, and endings synchronized with the chord buttons. Pushing upward on

1702-477: The "Banjo Sing-Along" disc on a later remix of Devo's 1981 single , "Beautiful World". The earliest recording that used an Optigan was on an album by electronic music pioneer Bruce Haack . On his 1973 release Captain Entropy , Haack made extensive use of the Optigan, utilizing several Optigan disks such as "Nashville Country" for the track "Army Ants" and "Singing Rhythm" for the track "Walking Eagle". The album

1776-554: The Barbie trademark and turned her into a sex object, referring to her as a "blonde bimbo ". The lawsuit was rejected two years later. In 2000, Mattel signed a deal with Warner Bros. to become the master licensee for Harry Potter branded toys. It was extended in 2002; Mattel became the master licensee for Superman , Batman , Wonder Woman , the Flash , Justice League and Looney Tunes toys for all markets except Asia. In 2001,

1850-484: The F at the upper end of the keyboard: press this key, step on the volume control pedal, and the C-diminished/A-diminished chord can often be heard in the background. These same diminished chords intentionally found their way onto the row of major chords. And as pointed out earlier in this article, not all of the chord buttons had their own track assignments. In a very unusual move, A-major utilizes

1924-469: The Optigan and its discs ceased in 1976. The Optigan looked like a scaled-down version of the electronic organs of the day. The various cabinet designs and their matching benches were simulated wood made out of a molded plastic the manufacturer dubbed "Temperite" and finished with matching speaker grille cloth and occasionally reverb units inside the unit. A mechanical reverb unit and cabinetry with genuine wood veneer were available as extra-cost options;

1998-532: The Optigan. Alan also made extensive use of the "breakbeats" and the samples of the Hammond B3 organ that were part of the backing tracks found on many of the soul and R&B oriented Optigan discs. The European distributor of the Optigan used Alan Steward's album for promotion and in-store demos. Steve Hackett has also made frequent use of the Optigan. Hackett's 1980 album, Defector , features an unusual number called "Sentimental Institution", recorded with

2072-493: The Orchestron featured improved recorded sounds over the Optigan. Some models included sequencers and synthesizers . While the same fidelity limitations of the Optigan applied to the Orchestron, these instruments were built to be more reliable and were used successfully in commercial recordings. Regardless of its limitations and its problems with pitch, many notable musicians have used the Optigan or, more likely, samples of

2146-741: The Storms , features sonically expanded samples of the Opsonar "Champagne Music" disc on the track, "Circus of Becoming". Film director and sound designer David Lynch sampled "Big Band Beat" as part of his soundscape The Air is On Fire , produced as ambience for a 2007 art exhibition. He then reused the song, redubbed "Slow 30s Room", in the eighth episode of television series Twin Peaks ' third season, broadcast in June 2017. Mattel Mattel, Inc. ( / m ə ˈ t ɛ l / mə- TEL )

2220-532: The U.S. legal limit of .06% lead by weight. Other toys were recalled because their strong, detachable magnets could endanger children. Mattel re-wrote its policy on magnets, finally issuing a recall in August 2007. The recall included 7.1 million Polly Pocket toys produced before November 2006, 600,000 Barbie and Tanner Playsets, 1 million Doggie Daycare , Shonen Jump 's One Piece and thousands of Batman Manga toys due to exposed magnets . In 2009, Mattel paid

2294-569: The banishing of Elliot and Ruth Handler from the company they had founded. Arthur S. Spear, then a Mattel vice president, took control of the company in 1975 and returned the company to profitability in two years. In 1978, the Mattel Children's Foundation was founded. Ruth Handler sold her stock in 1980 and finally let loose of the company she co-founded. Mattel debuted its Electronics line in 1977 with an all-electronic handheld game. Its success led to its expansion with game consoles then

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2368-426: The center hole of the disc and a motor-driven idler wheel spun the disc on the spindle. The power switch itself was mechanically linked to the disc's drive system; lowering the front panel dropped the spindle and disconnected power to the instrument, allowing the program discs to be changed without the need to fully power down. A broad, flat, white plastic cleaning tool with a purple, simulated velvet cleaning surface

2442-400: The characters of Frozen were part of the line. The latest collection of dolls was available for purchase in January 2023. In January 2015, board member Christopher Sinclair replaced CEO Bryan Stockton, following with 2/3 of senior executives resigning or receiving lay off. The following month, an upgraded View-Master to provide a virtual reality viewing experience was announced through

2516-474: The circus (and related companies) in 1982 for $ 22.8 million. In the early 1980s, Mattel produced video game systems , under its own brands and under license from Nintendo . In 1985, the company launched the Barbie “We Girls Can Do Anything” TV advertising campaign to encourage girls to believe in themselves. They also released the CEO / Day-to-Night Barbie to celebrate women becoming CEOs. In 1986, Barbie joined

2590-557: The company's best-selling toy in history. In 1960, Mattel introduced Chatty Cathy , a talking doll that was voiced by June Foray and revolutionized the toy industry, leading to pull-string talking dolls and toys flooding the market throughout the 1960s and 1970s. In 1961, Mattel introduced the Ken doll . The company went public in 1960 and became listed on the New York Stock Exchange 3 years later. Mattel also acquired

2664-524: The control for the reverb on units so equipped is located below the power switch. Non-reverb equipped Optigans feature a metal plate which reads "Stereophonic" in raised relief and which hides the unused opening. Reverb-equipped units had a slightly different plate which read "REVERB Stereophonic" affixed immediately to the left of the rocker switches and above the power switch. According to optigan.com , two piano bar prototypes were produced. The Optigan played in stereo through two solid state amplifiers with

2738-595: The different bundles. The initial run of musical tracks were recorded by Southern California studio musicians in Hollywood and Torrance . However, a musicians' union strike meant that some of the later discs were recorded in Germany. One disc is of particular note. The instrumental tracks for "Bluegrass Banjo" were recorded by members of the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band . The Vox Humana disc keyboard sound

2812-646: The exclusive rights to sell dolls, stuffed characters and preschool toys based on Disney characters. On January 31, 1988, Mattel shut down its operations in the Philippines and shifted the distribution and sales of Mattel-branded toys and games to Richprime Global, Inc. (formerly Richwell Trading Corporation). Mattel returned to working with Disney the following year. In 1991, Mattel moved its headquarters from Hawthorne to its current El Segundo site, in Los Angeles County . In 1992, Mattel created

2886-575: The face, hair, and clothes. Also that year, Mattel acquired View-Master , and Hot Wheels partnered with NASCAR drivers Kyle Petty and Jack Baldwin leading to the production of the first NASCAR-themed vehicles. In 1998, Mattel donated $ 25 million to help rebuild UCLA’s children’s hospital, which was later renamed the UCLA Mattel Children's Hospital . Barbie was inducted into the National Toy Hall of Fame that year and

2960-406: The factory was originally part of Fisher-Price outsourcing production to China . A chain of events followed that led to its distribution of millions of hazardous toys, including ones contaminated with lead. On August 14, 2007, Mattel recalled over 18 million products, with Louise Story of The New York Times in close coverage. Many of the products had surface coatings that contained more than

3034-420: The father on The Donna Reed Show ). The Optigan was promoted in at least one Sears-Roebuck catalog. All rights to the Optigan, the disc format, and all previous discs were sold in 1973 to Miner Industries of New York City , an organ manufacturer who formed a subsidiary, Opsonar, to produce it. Miner had record sales for a time, in part due to Opsonar. However, sales declined shortly thereafter and production of

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3108-502: The first President Barbie, claiming that Barbie has run for President 7 times since 1992 and released an all-ticket in 2016. Mattel entered the gaming business in 1992 with the purchase of International Games, creators of UNO and Skip-Bo . The company purchased Fisher-Price, Inc. on August 20, 1993, and Tyco Toys, Inc. (owners of the Matchbox and Dinky Toys brands) in 1997. In 1998, Mattel acquired Pleasant Company (creators of

3182-648: The first Thomas & Friends theme park, Thomas Land, opened in Fujikyu Park in Japan . Mattel purchased The Learning Company (formerly SoftKey) in 1999 for $ 3.5 billion, but sold it the following year at a loss. The company had a $ 430.9 million net loss that year. Mattel earned the first grant for the Disney Princess doll license in 2000. In December 2000, Mattel sued Danish-Norwegian europop band Aqua , claiming their song " Barbie Girl " violated

3256-480: The first diverse line of Barbie dolls with a Hispanic doll and the first African-American Barbie (unrelated to Barbie friend Christie), which will eventually include iterations of Barbie from more than 40 countries. In 1982, He-Man and the Masters of the Universe line of action figures was released, which inspired a three-issue comic book mini-series, an animated series and a live-action film. The Felds bought

3330-646: The first life-sized Hot Wheels car, the Twin Mill, was created. More than twenty life-sized cars were created and all of them were inducted into the Hot Wheels Garage of Legends. American Girl launched its “Girl of the Year” campaign in 2001 to highlight dolls with contemporary stories; each doll is only available for a year. In 2002, the company closed its last factory in the United States ;

3404-619: The following years and decades would spawn an endless line of Barbie-themed and branded family and friends . In 1969, Mattel changed the Mattel Creations and the "Mattel, Inc. – Toymakers" marketing brands to just Mattel and launched the "red sun" logo with the Mattel wordmark in all capitals for better identity. In 1970, Hot Wheels forged a sponsorship agreement with drag racing drivers Don “The Snake” Prudhomme and Tom “The Mongoose” McEwen . In addition to other marketing measures,

3478-662: The instrument if the recordings are made after the year 2000. Among them: Trace, I Dont Know How But They Found Me , Steve Hackett , Third Eye Blind , The Clash , Elvis Costello , Jon Brion , Driefzand, NL, in single "Zunlicht" , Blur , Marco Benevento , Fiona Apple , Crash Test Dummies , Kraftwerk (Orchestron), Coil , Money Mark , Ani DiFranco , Michael Penn , Steve Fisk , Tom Waits , Marilyn Manson , Nan Vernon , Hala Strana , TISM , Thinking Fellers Union Local 282 , The Real Tuesday Weld , King Princess , Them Crooked Vultures , C418 , Unwound , Sparklehorse and Mark Mothersbaugh of Devo —who mixed in parts of

3552-465: The instrument was aimed at amateur players, the majority of the songs in the Optigan's music books are written in the much simpler keys of F, C and G. Vako Synthesizers Incorporated, founded by electronic instrument pioneer David Van Koevering , and who built licensed versions of the Optigan under the name Orchestron in the mid-1970s. Intended for professional use as an alternative to the Mellotron,

3626-471: The issue of girls seeing themselves as less capable than boys. On June 14, 2019, Mattel released new Hot Wheels ID line of cars, which are embedded with NFC chips so that people can scan the cars and then build tracks, race, and view race stats for combined digital and physical racing play. On December 16, Mattel released an update that allowed kids to scan their cars into an app and then access different coding exercises. On August 19, 2019, Mattel announced

3700-567: The line, eventually becoming incorporated in 1982. Mattel Electronics forced Mattel to take a $ 394 million loss the following and almost filed for bankruptcy. In 1979, through Feld Productions , Mattel purchased the Holiday on Ice and Ice Follies for $ 12 million, Also acquired that year was Western Publishing for $ 120 million in cash and stock. which they sold to Richard A. Bernstein in December 4 years later. In 1980, Mattel introduced

3774-465: The liquidation of Toys "R" Us in the U.S. Kreiz started reorganization of Mattel which included new board of directors and added that executives having entertainment backgrounds and a global franchise management group had been charged with finding new opportunities in existing markets. On 30 August 2018, Mattel indicated the formation of its global franchise management division to be headed by Janet Hsu as chief franchise management officer. The division

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3848-519: The list of famous individuals painted by Andy Warhol . New York City -based venture capital firms E.M. Warburg, Pincus & Co. , and Drexel Burnham Lambert invested a couple hundred million dollars in Mattel in 1984 to help the company survive. However, the Masters of the Universe action figure line sales dropped, causing a $ 115 million loss in 1987. In the late 1980s, John W. Amerman, who joined Mattel in 1980 as head of its international division,

3922-420: The lower frequencies, lower speeds rolled off the highs, and moderate to slow tempo lent a slightly muddy quality overall. Natural imperfections on the acetate discs, as well as dust and dirt, came through as scratches, clicks and pops, much like a worn phonograph record. Furthermore, the pitch change brought on by the tempo adjustment made session work with live musicians a difficult proposition, especially since

3996-411: The pitch varied greatly from disc to disc. Even though the technology of the day was more than sophisticated enough to avoid them, there were numerous mechanical problems with the disc's motor drive due to its having been engineered to be as affordable as possible. Changes in environment, which had a physical effect on the photocells, frequently led to crosstalk between tracks. One common example involves

4070-506: The program’s 75th anniversary, featuring animated versions of Queen Elizabeth and Prince Charles as children and introduced by the Duke of Sussex. In the same month, the new Basquiat Barbie was introduced, featuring the work of the artist Jean-Michel Basquiat . Mattel also created an online resource, "Mattel Playroom", to provide free games, activities, coloring sheets, DIY projects resources for parents/caregivers and more to help families during

4144-504: The right-hand keyboard assigned to the instrument's right channel and the chords and effects assigned to the left. The Optigan's playback system functioned much like the storage and reading of an optical soundtrack as was used in motion pictures, using a light bulb to energize a row of photodiodes on the opposite side of spinning, 12" diameter clear plastic film discs (officially referred to as "Program Discs") encoded with fifty-seven concentric optical tracks. The system then translated

4218-424: The rocker switches locked them in place for use with percussion; pushing downward allowed momentary use for vamps, introductions and endings. Not all of the chord buttons had their own track assignments, the result being only fifty-seven sounds on sixty-three buttons, keys and switches. There was also an optical metronome incorporated into the discs which showed as a red flashing light for the downbeat and white for

4292-421: The same soundtrack as B-flat-diminished, G-diminished, and E-diminished, while E-major shares space with F-diminished and D-diminished, thereby making it impossible to play in the keys of A or E, at least with left-hand accompaniment. Apparently, this was done to save space on the disc, further explaining the lack of dominant seventh chords or any chords in the keys of E-flat, A-flat, D-flat, B and F-sharp. Since

4366-470: The same way as the "Starter Set" and sold as six-disc "Entertainment Folios". Some discs were available only as part of a two-disc "Style Pak" with titles such as "The Joyous Sounds of Christmas", "Country Style Pak.", "Polka" and "Songs of Praise" - these last two being produced towards the end of production and in very low quantities. Music books of various styles and even arrangements intended for individual disks were also available and sometimes packaged with

4440-553: The same year by recreating and selling as a set the original 16 Hot Wheels die-cast cars. That same year in September, Thomas & Friends announced an alliance with the United Nations to introduce some of the organization’s Sustainable Development Goals , including quality education, gender equality, clean water and sanitation, sustainable cities and communities, responsible consumption and production and life on land, into

4514-570: The show’s content. On December 24, 2018, Mattel announced the loss of the DC Comics toy license to Spin Master starting in the spring of 2020, hitting an 18-year low on its share price which concluded at $ 9.25 for a share. Mattel reorganized Mattel Creations and renamed it Mattel Television on February 5, 2019, which would be headed by former Disney Branded Television programming executive Adam Bonnett. On June 30, 2020, Fred Soulie in turn

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4588-417: The top 100 companies to work for in 2013, noting only 1,292 positions were full, out of 164,045 job applications during the previous year, as well as more than 1,000 employees had been with the company longer than 15 years. On February 28, 2014, Mattel acquired Mega Brands On April 16, 2015, Mattel announced a partnership with invention platform Quirky to crowd-source a number of products. Mattel added

4662-474: The top global toy property and the top-selling global toy of the year for 2020 and 2021 by The NPD Group , a global information research company. Businessman Harold "Matt" Matson and the husband-and-wife duo of Elliot and Ruth Handler founded Mattel as Mattel Creations in January 1945 in a garage in Los Angeles . The company name chosen is a portmanteau of the surname of Matson and first name of Elliot, with former chairman and CEO Bob Eckert revealing at

4736-700: The tracks had no specific beginning or end. The "Starter Set" sold with the Optigan contained discs with fairly self-explanatory titles: "Big Organ & Drums", "Pop Piano Plus Guitar", "Latin Fever", and "Guitar in 3/4 Time". More modern styles were represented by titles such as "Movin'!", which was a rhythm and blues disc and "Hear and Now", with a sound clearly based on the hit single "Sweet Seasons" by Carole King (and cover art evocative of that of her Tapestry (1971) album). Other discs were marketed individually and packaged much like long-playing phonograph records . These individual titles were also bundled in much

4810-605: The two racers’ cars, a yellow Barracuda and a red Duster, were reproduced as Hot Wheels toys. In May 1970, Mattel formed a joint venture film production company " Radnitz/Mattel Productions " with producer Robert B. Radnitz , which would kickstart Mattel's venture into full-time entertainment to accompany its most famed toy TV commercials, and later entered a multimillion-dollar partnership with Mehra Entertainment, whose CEO, Dr. Nishpeksh Padmamohan Mehra and Nishchal Shome, are one of Mattel's Inc.'s main directors for Barbie (film series) . The card game Uno (now stylized as UNO )

4884-496: The upbeats inside the Optigan badge above the keyboard. The advantages of this unique optical playback system were that the Optigan's range of timbres was infinitely expandable and that there was no limit on the duration of a note as there was on the Optigan's professional-grade counterpart, the magnetic tape -based Chamberlin or its successor the Mellotron . The disadvantage was that notes could have neither attack nor decay, as

4958-419: Was "role-tripled" to general manager and senior vice president of the new division. On March 9, 2019, Mattel celebrated Barbie's 60th anniversary. As part of the anniversary celebrations, Mattel released 20 new role model dolls in its Shero line to recognize influential women around the world. Mattel donated $ 1 from every sale to its Dream Gap Project Fund, which aims to work with other organizations to end

5032-522: Was invented by Merle Robbins in 1971, and was acquired by Mattel in 1996. In 1971, Mattel purchased The Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus from the Feld family for $ 40 million, whom Mattel kept on as management. Mattel sold the circus corporation by December 1973 although it was profitable; Mattel showed a $ 29.9 million loss in 1972. In 1974, an investigation found Mattel guilty of issuing false and misleading financial reports, which led to

5106-451: Was mandated to seek out new commercial opportunities plus to bring to together consumer products, content development and distribution, digital gaming, live events and partnerships. Hsu was previously the CEO of Saban Brands, where Frederic Soulie last worked before being appointed as senior vice president of content distribution and business development in the franchise division on September 28, 2018. Hot Wheels celebrated its 50th anniversary

5180-479: Was named the company’s new chairman and improved its financial performance in 1987 by focusing on core brands. It paid off as sales of Barbie dolls and accessories increased from $ 430 million to almost $ 1 billion between 1987 and 1992. Mattel secured licensing and sponsorship rights from The Walt Disney Company for a new line of infant and preschool plush toys in 1988, sponsor attractions and to develop and sell toys at three Disney theme parks. Mattel also negotiated

5254-423: Was recorded in his bedroom studio and released on his own Dimension 5 Records, a label releasing children's records from 1962 through 1977. Another early recording that used the Optigan was an album by European dance music pioneer Alan Steward . On his 1976 live album release Just Listen , Alan made extensive use of the Optigan. Six out of the nine tracks on the album including the title track "Just Listen" feature

5328-424: Was similar to that of the Mellotron (early sampling technology), but while the Mellotron used magnetic tape, the Optigan borrowed its technology from motion-picture optical soundtrack technology and its amplitude-modulated format. The disc could be sped up or slowed down using a thumbwheel next to the chord buttons to cause a corresponding change in tempo and pitch ; however, higher speeds tended to roll-off

5402-424: Was supplied with each Optigan to allow periodic cleaning of the photoelectric cell, located near the rear of the instrument. Thirty-seven tracks were sustained or repeatedly percussive notes in the timbre of a particular instrument and were played through a standard three-octave piano -style keyboard with the right hand; twenty-one were of a live band or soloist playing chords in different keys arranged per

5476-402: Was used for the "Vocal Choir" Orchestron disc. For the benefit of those unable to read music, the notes in the books were numbered in correspondence to a numbered and color-coded foil strip above the keyboard. The Optigan's songbooks were written and arranged by Optigan Corporation's music director, Johnny Largo . Largo, an accordionist and session musician, was a contemporary of Johnny Marks ,

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