The Cross-Dressed Ken
On July 18th, it was the 34th anniversary of a what turned out to be a strange journey for a woman and her Barbie doll loving daughter. Carina Guillot had made a stop into a Florida Toys “R” Us store with her then twelve-year-old daughter, Jocelyn. While looking through the new Barbie dolls they were struck by a Ken doll dressed in a skirt, modeling a purple tank top under a lace apron. Baffled, mother and daughter took the doll to the front of the store, where confused employees looked over the merchandise but could find nothing afoul. Bewildered and amazed, Carina purchased the doll for $8.99.
Word spread about the cross-dressing Ken and the enigmatic toy became a story in the St Petersburg Times. The article picked up steam from there and made national news appearing in Newsweek. Carina and Jocelyn soon found themselves ushered to The Joan Rivers Show in a limousine and they made another appearance on The Arsenio Hall Show. A collector offered $2,000.00 for the limited-edition Ken but the Guillot turned down the money. Another offer of $4,000.00 was also declined. Meanwhile, officials at Mattel were scratching their heads and reexamining their quality control procedures.
Back in Florida, a twenty-six-year-old Toys “R” Us night clerk named, Ron Zero laughed hysterically when he saw the story in the St Petersburg Times. He never imagined that his nighttime prank would become a national obsession. He later admitted to his employers that he had dressed up the Ken doll and two others and put them back in their respective boxes before resealing the lids with white paper glue. While his styling may have been tacky, his packaging skills were extraordinary.
Toys “R” Us officials now had the embarrassing task of telling Mattel that it was not a procedural problem of theirs but an issue of their own. Four days after Ron Zero admitted his deed, he was fired for destroying toys.
When told of the joke, Mrs. Guillot remarked, “Oh well, it generated a lot of excitement for a while.”
It is unknown if the Guillot’s have maintained their doll, and no-one knows what became of the other two cross-dressing Kens.