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I fell in love with Bob Mackie's designs while watching the Sonny & Cher show. As a little girl, I thought Cher was the most beautiful woman I'd ever seen and in the most beautiful clothes I could imagine.

When Mackie Gold was released? I bought her for myself as a Christmas present. She was everything I wanted to be and everything I thought Barbie should be. I was just as happy this spring when I was finally able to add his Golden Legacy to my collection as well.

Over the years, I was thrilled when the "Mackie face" became the signature face of Barbie. Again, that face was everything I wanted in my dolls - collector and otherwise.

Two years ago, I was lucky enough to be at the NBDCC in Palm Desert where Mr. Mackie had a private screening of his film "Naked Illusion" for conventioneers. The day of the Mattel luncheon when it was announced, he regaled us all with stores about his designs and, most touchingly, his grandchildren. How he was teaching them to draw and create, to see their own visions come to life. He was more than just a larger-than-life figure that he. He was "Grandpa" and so very, very human in a way that my teenage brain couldn't have comprehended in the late 1980s when I was first flipping through the JC Penney's catalog and stumbled on the ad for Mackie Gold.

Over the last several years, a lot of "larger than life" figures in my mind have become more human for one reason or another. For me, he was just the first.


Bob Mackie and Bill Greening prior to the screening of "Naked Illusion" - Palm Desert, CA (2024)






A few of my favorites, even if it's just the face....