Barbie designer 'was full-blown swinger'

A new book has alleged that Barbie doll designer Jack Ryan was a "full-blown seventies style swinger".

Jerry Oppenheimer's Toy Monster: The Big, Bad World Of Mattel goes into detail about the personal life of the designer, who is credited with popularising the children's toy.

Oppenheimer writes that Ryan was a man with "a manic need for sexual gratification" and claims that he held orgies at his Bel-Air mansion.

According to the New York Daily News, a friend of Ryan told the author: "When Jack talked about creating Barbie... it was like listening to somebody talk about a sexual episode, almost like listening to a sexual pervert."

Ryan apparently "surrounded himself with busty Barbie clones", telling one that he loved her being tall because it meant "he could stick his nose in [her] boobs when he hugged [her]".