Miss Revlon

In 1950's United States, there was a boom of dolls created that were a result of products geared towards grown women. These included Toni (who came with her own "permanent wave" kit,) Miss Revlon, and various other "makeup" or glamour dolls that came with their own hair styling or makeup kits.

Doll manufacturers are smart. They know that little girls like to emulate their mothers. There are few little girls that haven't watched their mother put on lipstick or do their hair. So, in 1956 Ideal licensed the Revlon name and created a fashion doll for little girls, with a name that they and their mothers (or aunts or grandmothers) would recognise.

Miss Revlon came in various sizes, from 15 to 20 inches tall. Some dolls have jointed elbows (like Madame Alexander's Cissy.) Most dolls have light brown hair, but some can be found with dark brown or very blonde hair. A modified version was introduced toward the end of Miss Revlon's popularity, and this doll was a pixie faced doll. She had pink hair, was called Pink Fairy, wore a fairy dress and only comes in the 18 inch size. Miss Revlon has a "high heel foot" and wears dresses and costumes that were representative of the high fashion of their day (including real fur wraps). Some dolls have pierced ears. Hair can either be short or long and worn in a pony tail. Dolls have sleep eyes. They are marked Ideal, followed by VT and the size of the doll, and are made of high quality vinyl and hard plastic.

I have a Miss Revlon and a Little Miss Revlon doll in my collection. Little Miss Revlon was introduced in 1958. She is a smaller version of Miss Revlon, and stands at about 10.5 inches tall. Little Miss Revlon is all vinyl and has a twisty waist. Both dolls have girlish faces on a teen body.

My Miss Revlon is a 20 inch doll. She wears an original Miss Revlon dress and replacement shoes. She is the shorter haired version and does not have pierced ears. My Little Miss Revlon also wears an original dress. Her vinyl has darkened slightly, but she fortunately is not plagued with a bad case of green ear, which is the case with so many pierced ear dolls of the 1950's.

Miss Revlon was sadly knocked off her pedestal by the introduction of Barbie in 1959. Barbie was more adult-like compared to the childlike Miss Revlon, and so a new era of dolls began. For some of us, however, the old era never really passed away.

O K Kader doll

Until I moved to Australia, I had never heard of these hard plastic baby dolls that were manufactured in the 1950s through the 1990s in Asia. OK Kader had factories in Hong Kong and Thailand. The Thai factory closed in 1993 after a massive fire killed many workers. There were both black and caucasian versions of these dolls.

Kader dolls seem to be popular among collectors in Asia and the Pacific, and no wonder. They have sweet chubby faces and characteristics unique to Kader dolls: a "clacking" tongue and twist wrists. The tongue is attached to the eye mechanism, so when the doll's eyes close, the tongue retracts and moves side to side. Wrists can be twisted so that the doll's hands can be posed. Dolls have hard molded eyelashes. My doll also wears replacement lashes.

All Kader dolls come with molded hair, although mine is wearing a wig (dolls usually lose most of their hair paint). The dolls may have residual glue on their head seams. I've seen them range in size from 13 to 25 inches (although there may be dolls on either side of that figure.) My doll is a 20 inch doll from about 1960. She has two little teeth in her rosebud mouth. Her matinee jacket and pants probably are not original to her, although I usually see OK Kader dolls for sale wearing knitted baby clothes. Most of the dolls I've seen for sale on eBay are vintage dolls that date from the 1950s and 1960s. Newer dolls have hard vinyl heads.

If you are a collector of dolls from the 1950's, you might want to have a look around for an adorable OK Kader doll.

Celebrity Doll - Sonja Henie

Sonja Henie was an Olympic ice skating champion from Norway. With her blonde girl-next-door looks and athletic abilities, she became a natural for the cinema and starred in several motion pictures in the 1930's and 40's.

Given her prominence and popularity (it's said that at the height of her acting career, she was one of the most highly paid actresses in Hollywood), it was natural that a doll was made in her likeness. In 1939, Madame Alexander released the Sonja Henie doll (a few years after Ideal released Shirley Temple and around the same time that the Deanna Durbin doll was released.)

Sonja Henie is an all composition doll with blonde curly hair and brown sleep eyes. She was available with several skating outfits, and also came with skiing outfits and skis. Sonja Henie dolls range from 14 to 21 inches tall, with the smaller sizes having a twist waist. Her toothed smile and dimples give her face a soft appearance, and her face mold was used for other dolls including a bride doll and some WW2 military dolls. Arranbee also made a Sonja Henie doll with the Nancy Lee head mold.

My Sonja Henie is 18 inches tall. She wears a skating outfit that I haven't been able to identify, new ear muffs, and her skates are original. Her wig is a soft mohair wig. My doll is marked MADAME ALEXANDER SONJA HENIE on the back of her head.

I love these old celebrity dolls. They're great reminders of days gone by.

More Patsy family dolls

With the phenomenal success of Patsy, Effanbee developed several other dolls with the same Patsy type face and right bent arm. These dolls were manufactured in the period from 1929 to 1946

First there was Patsy Ann, essentially a larger version of Patsy; Patsy Lou, Patsy Joan, Patsyette, Patsy Jr, and many others. All of the dolls have a typical Patsy-type face: chubby cheeks, puckered lips, short bobbed hair (some with molded headbands), painted side-glancing eyes or sleep eyes in all different colors with lashes, and a toddler proportioned body. Dolls are all composition. Some dolls came with mohair or caracul wigs.  There were also black versions of these dolls.

The dolls started to wane in popularity and in the last year of their manufacture, 1946, they were unmarked, otherwise, dolls are marked Effanbee and have the doll's name.

I have a Patsy Ann from the early 1930's and a Patsy Jr, from 1946. There's a big difference in the quality of the newer dolls versus the older dolls. I am guessing that when materials became scarce during World War 2, shortcuts had to be made. As you can see on my Patsy Jr from 1946, there is a top layer of paint that is peeling, revealing a lighter tint below. I've seen this on a few Patsy Jrs. Patsy Ann, however, looks almost as good as the day she was purchased. Patsy Ann wears an original dress (don't you love the penguins?) and shoes, and Patsy Jr wears a vintage mommy-made onesie and old oilcloth shoes.

Patsy Ann is 19 inches tall, and Patsy Jr is 11 inches tall. There were plenty of imitators during the years of Patsy's popularity, but one good way to identify your doll, if she is unmarked, is to closely check the pattern in the molded hair. It's unique to Patsy dolls. It's generally straight, slightly parted in the middle, and curves on her cheeks. Some dolls have the molded headband. Patsys did not come with bow loops (a loop of composition through which you can thread a ribbon.)

Patsy's face is so endearing - no wonder she had so many imitators!

Ginny, Jill and Jeff

Vogue Dolls, Inc. was created by Mrs Jennie Graves and grew from humble roots as a cottage industry, to be the largest doll-only manufacturer in the world. In 1957 Vogue bought the Arranbee doll company and used their R & B doll molds for a few years.

In the late 1940's, with the advent of hard plastic being used for doll manufacturing, Mrs Graves developed a little doll who was to be named after her daughter, Virginia (Ginny.) Ginny dolls are only eight inches tall, but came with extensive wardrobes and accessories that Mrs Graves designed herself.

These dolls are highly sought after and changed in small ways through the years. The earliest dolls had painted lashes and eyes and had molded hair under their wigs. Later dolls had molded eyelashes, sleep eyes, and came as bent leg walkers. Dolls are often marked Ginny and/or Vogue. Ginny connoisseurs will say that the best Ginnys have a hard plastic head and body (later dolls had vinyl heads).

Of course, a successful doll always has extended family. In 1957, Vogue introduced Jill (1957 - 1965), Ginny's big sister, and then in 1958, Jan came on board. Jan was Jill's best friend. Ginny and Jill also had a brother, named Jeff (1958-1961), who was Jan's boyfriend. There was even a baby sister, named Ginette (1955 - 1969). Jill and Jan are 10 1/2 inches tall, Jeff is 11 inches tall, and Ginny and Ginette are eight inches tall. Dolls are marked Vogue either on the head or the back.

Jill and Jan are teen dolls. My Jill is an early Jill, with a grayer skin than later Jills, and a pony tail instead of a bubble hair cut. She wears a vintage untagged dress. Jeff  is wearing original clothes tagged Vogue. My Ginny is wearing an original tagged Ginny dress. Together, they make a cute slice of 1950 's Americana.

Mrs Graves refused to advertise on television, so Barbie overtook sales of Ginny and Ginny faded into obscurity before becoming popular again with collectors. Thankfully, there are plenty of people who appreciate Ginny, Jill, and Jeff.

 

Pedigree dolls - older and newer

The Pedigree Doll Company was an English doll manufacturer that was active from the 1930's through the mid 1980's, when it eventually went bankrupt. Dolls are usually marked Pedigree Made in England.

I own three Pedigree dolls which are examples of the Pedigree company through the decades.

The first is a baby boy doll made of composition. He has side-glancing painted eyes and teeth that need a wee bit of work to straighten out. He's in need of a good cleaning, but, as he dates back to the 1930's, he's not in too bad a shape. Baby Pedigree is approximately 16 inches tall.

The next is the much sought-after hard plastic toddler doll made from the late 1940's to the late 1950's. She was a Mama doll, but her cryer is now missing. This adorable dolly was literally rescued from a trash heap. She needed to be re-strung, her torso was split and warped, and her hair was bleached to a strange colour due to being left outside in the sun; however, being the kind of woman who takes pity on old abandoned dolls, I rescued her, and with the help of my husband, we managed to repair her body. She has silicone "collars" where her legs meet her torso so that they don't get pulled in by her new stringing. Her wig is original and full, and I dyed it to help mask the strange green tint that it had, and her eyelashes are replacements. She has flirty sleep eyes that still freely flirt from side to side, even if they don't open and close well any more.

After her body was repaired and some blush restored to her face, she was given a new outfit. Her shoes are original as far as I can tell, and I am eventually going to make a new set of front teeth for her. Truly, restoring this doll has been a labour of love. Toddler Pedigree is about 20 inches tall.

The 1950's was a heyday era for Pedigree. They made toddler dolls, walker dolls, and Brighton Belle, a playpal size doll that stood around 28 inches tall. All are highly collectible and sought after, especially if their plastic hasn't faded and they don't suffer from Pedigree doll disease. Pedigree doll disease is not treatable, unlike other hard plastic doll "diseases."  Once the plastic begins to break down, you may as well throw the poor dolly away, as she will melt over time.

The third Pedigree doll dates from the late 1960's. She's Pedigree's Sindy doll - their teen doll competition to Barbie, Tammy, and other teen dolls of the era.  My Sindy has a twist waist and posable legs. I am fussy about Sindy. When Pedigree went bankrupt in the mid 1980's, Hasbro bought the rights to manufacture the doll, and they changed her look. The Sindy of the 1960's is quintessentially a British Mod doll. Anything else just doesn't feel right. Sindy is 11 inches tall and like Barbie, came with an extensive wardrobe and accessories.

Pedigree dolls are great examples of dolls that were popular in England and other Commonwealth countries in the 1940's through the 1960's. Since living in Australia, I've been introduced to these dolls and love them as much as my American dolls. 

Madame Alexander Cissette

A couple years after Madame Alexander developed Cissy, she also came up with Cissette, a miniature version of the large fashion doll.

Cissette has all of the attributes of her larger "cousin," including bendable knees and a fabulous wardrobe. She is made from hard plastic and wears a synthetic wig.

The original Cissette was discontinued in the mid 1960's and then came back in the 1990's, with a few modifications. For one thing, she grew two inches! Early Cissettes came dressed in the couture of the day, but modern Cissettes are often sold as historical figures. My modern Cissette is dressed and coiffed to represent Veronica Franco, a celebrated courtesan of 16th century Venice. As you can see, the Alexander doll company is meticulous in their costume and hair style details!

Vintage Cissette has a matching bra and panties with rosebuds. She dates to about 1961 and is marked MME ALEXANDER on her back. Modern Cissette is from 2008 and is marked ALEXANDER on her back. They certainly are very "grown up" for such little dolls.

Kewty and Sue

In the late 1920's, toddler dolls started to take the nation by storm. Two such dolls were Amberg's Sue doll (a doll with molded curls and a swivel twist waist) and Arranbee's Kewty. (There was also another version of Kewty made by Domec which more closely resembles a carnival doll.)

Kewty and Sue rode the wave of success that Effanbee's Patsy had created. Toddler dolls with molded hair, about the right size for little hands to hold, became popular. There were also plenty of other imitators that cropped up along the way during the 1920's and 30's (I'll showcase a couple more in another entry.)

My Kewty and Sue dolls appear to be dressed in their original costumes with their original shoes and socks. Sue is about 14 inches tall, and Kewty is about 15 inches tall. Sue is marked on her back:Amberg/Pat. Pend./L.A.& S. © 1928 and Kewty is marked on her back: KEWTY. They both have painted eyes, and to be honest, I think they are just as adorable as Patsy. Both dolls have a little age-related wear, but considering that that are 80 years old, they've held up well over the years.

In these photos, Kewty is on the left, and Sue is on the right.

Arranbee Debu'teen

The Three Graces and a Muse

The Arranbee doll company is known among collectors for creating dolls with beautiful faces. One of these dolls, aimed towards the pre-teen market, was called Debu'teen. As her name implies, this teen doll was intended to be a debutante - or the age at which a girl entered society and was considered to be grown-up.

Debu'teen was made only for two or three years, from what I can tell, between 1938 and 1940. She came in various sizes, from 11" to 22" tall. The larger dolls had cloth bodies, one that was designed so that the doll could be seated more easily. Debu'teen came with beautiful clothes designed to appeal to older girls.

I have four Debu'teen dolls. All are unmarked (not uncommon for these dolls) but are distinguishable by their facial molds, which strongly resemble a larger version of the Mary Hoyer face mold. There is a second face mold doll that I unfortunately don't own, that has wider set eyes and a wider mouth. Three of my dolls have mohair wigs and one has a synthetic wig which may not be original to the doll, although it is certainly very old. It feels like a very early version of saran.

I nicknamed my dolls the Three Graces and a Muse since they are so beautiful and delicate. They all have composition bodies. The larger dolls are 18 inches tall, and the smaller one (which may be a Vogue doll that used the Debu'teen face mold) is 14 inches tall. They all wear their original clothing, with the exception of the blue dress, which is a replica of an original costume. They are truly stunning, dressed in heavy satins, netting, and lace!

Nancy Lee (also made by Arranbee) often gets confused with Debu'teen, but when seen side by side, it's obvious that their faces are quite different. To see more Debu'teen dolls, you can visit DollyHeaven.com.au. Carol Pope restores these dolls to their original beauty and does a great job!

Celebrity Doll - Ideal Deanna Durbin

The Ideal Novelty and Toy Company had a hit on their hands with their Shirley Temple doll. Shirley appealed to little girls everywhere - but what about older girls? Every doll manufacturer covered both their younger and older consumers, so in 1938, Ideal came out with another celebrity doll for their teen consumers: the Deanna Durbin doll.

Deanna Durbin, a native of Winnipeg, Manitoba, is a contemporary of Judy Garland, and they appeared together in a short film called Every Sunday. Ms Durbin became Universal Studio's most popular female star of the 1940's, so Deanna Durbin dolls became popular, as well.

The dolls range in size from 15 to 21 inches (a 24 inch doll was produced in 1938) and are made of composition. They are jointed at the shoulders, neck and hips, have beautiful human hair wigs, brown sleep eyes, and an open, smiling mouth with six teeth. She is marked on the back of her head: Deanna Durbin Ideal Doll, USA.

At the height of Deanna Durbin's career, her image was also used for Ideal's Miss Liberty doll (a Deanna Durbin doll dressed in patriotic outfits with blonde hair), The Queen of the Ice (an ice skating doll also with blonde hair), and a short haired Gulliver doll. The Deanna Durbin doll face mold was modified only slightly for Ideal's Judy Garland doll, which came out in 1940.

My Deanna Durbin is marked and has her original face paint and human hair wig. Her eyes were crazed but have been enhanced. Her dress is a replacement but suits her, and she wears a tiara. My dad once told me he had had a crush on Deanna Durbin when he was a boy, so this doll will always be a little bit special to me.

Doll Land update

A kind blogger let me know that the comment function in Doll Land wasn't working - so I've had to change templates. There will be some continuing updates to the functionality of Doll Land, but at least, now you can leave comments or ask questions if you like.

Thanks, Giovanna, for letting me know.

Regards,
Melanie O.

Madame Alexander Cissy

In the mid 1950's, Madame Alexander added a fashion doll to her range. This doll has arms jointed at the elbows, and legs jointed at the knees. She is made of hard plastic, has sleep eyes and wears an elaborate wig. Her name is Cissy.

Cissy is 21 inches tall. She comes with a large array of costumes, most of which were high fashion of her era: swing coats, pencil skirts, and Chanel-type dresses with petticoats, hats, wraps, and high heels with stockings. Cissy was the first fashion doll made with a "high heel" foot. Cissy is a teen doll meant for older girls with dreams of being all grown up.


The Cissy face mold was previously used for Winnie and Binnie Walker, but Winnie and Binnie have little girls' bodies. Cissy's body is more mature and is jointed so that she can be posed in many ways.

Madame Alexander ended the first Cissy run in 1962, and later dolls were made without the elbow joint. So influential was Cissy to a teen girl's sense of fashion, that the Fashion Academy awarded Madame Alexander with a gold medal award - three times!

In 1996, Cissy was revived and a modernized version of the doll was born. Modern Cissy has a hard plastic body and a vinyl head and arms and stands 20 inches tall. She has a slightly narrower bust and smaller waist than Vintage Cissy, but both dolls are favorites with collectors.

As you can see, I have one of each - a Vintage Cissy and a Modern Cissy. Both dolls are gorgeous, for different reasons - each representing her own era. Vintage Cissy is marked Alexander on the back of her head, and Modern Cissy is unmarked (which is why saving those hang tags and tagged outfits is so important.) Modern Cissy is Holiday Cissy from 1999. She wears her original outfit and comes with her own earrings as well as a pair of matching earrings for her adoptive "mommy."

Dream World Dolls

Dream World dolls are 11 inch composition dolls that were marketed to the "average" family who could not afford more expensive toys.They were sold throughout the 1940's and were available with a range of costumes: historical, ethnic, occupational, and fantasy.

These unmarked dolls have side-glancing painted eyes and mohair wigs that are glued directly to the head, as opposed to being constructed on a skull cap. Their costumes are stapled to their bodies, so costume changes were not intended for Dream World dolls. As a result of very little handling by little mommies, Dream World dolls tend to remain in very good condition. They don't appear to suffer from the same cracking and crazing as other dolls of their era with "better" composition. The dolls wear oil cloth shoes with laces.

I have two Dream World dolls. Both are ladies of the French court. Their costumes have a few age-related holes, but the dolls themselves are in great condition. When you purchase a Dream World doll, you will most likely also purchase her original costume, which makes her a true representation of her manufacture.

These dolls are delightful and aren't costly at all unless you're fortunate to find one with her original hang tags and in her original box. They are a great representation of their era and sometimes get mistaken for Wendy Ann or Tiny Betty dolls; however, the stapled on clothing, glued on floss, and lack of maker's marks gives them away.

Mary Hoyer dolls

 

I think, of all my composition dolls, my Mary Hoyer dolls have to be one of my favorites. All right - they're all my "favorites," but my Mary Hoyer dolls are just that little bit more special. I'm not sure why this is, but I am guessing it's because of their faces. They remind me so much of Botticelli's Venus:

Back in the 1930's, Mary Hoyer, designer and owner of a knitting shop, had an idea. Why not create a doll for girls who are learning to knit and sew, and sell her own patterns for clothes that fit the doll?  She approached the Ideal Toy and Novelty company, who created a doll with a Mayfair twist waist. The dolls were not marked Mary Hoyer, but were marked Ideal, and they wore costumes with a Hoyer label.

A few years later, Mrs Hoyer commissioned a well known doll sculptor, Bernart Lipfert, to sculpt her own doll, and the Mary Hoyer doll was born. The dolls were 14 inches tall, made of composition and had sleep eyes (or painted side-glancing eyes), and mohair wigs. Patterns of dresses and other outfits were sold along with the dolls. The dolls themselves were marked The Mary Hoyer Doll in raised print on their backs.

The original Mary Hoyer doll became a huge success, and after 1946, they were made out of hard plastic. Other dolls in the line followed: Gigi, Margie, Vicky (identical to Uneeda's Suzette doll), Cathy, Janie and Beckie, but their sales at the time did not match the success of the original doll. The Mary Hoyer doll company closed in the early 1970's, but Mary's granddaughter has re-introduced her grandmother's doll with a few changes and the company has been revived.

At a point in her career, Mary Hoyer licensed her doll mold to several companies including Richwood, Hosely, the ABC Toy Company, and de Angeli-Hedwig, so the only way to be sure you own a Mary Hoyer doll, is if it's properly marked.

I have four marked Mary Hoyer dolls, and one unmarked Hoyer face doll in an original historical costume, which may mean that she is a de Angeli-Hedwig doll; however, with no hang tag or other identifying information, that is just a guess. Two of my Hoyer dolls are unretouched and wear knitted or crocheted outfits made from original Mary Hoyer patterns. The other two have had touchups and are redressed. The blue and cream outfit is one made by a talented doll dressmaker, from an original Hoyer pattern. The unmarked Hoyer face doll is wearing tagged Hoyer accessories. All of my dolls are composition dolls, which dates them to 1946 or earlier.

Retouched Mary Hoyer dolls:

 


















Unretouched Mary Hoyer dolls:

 Unmarked Mary Hoyer face doll (de-Angeli-Hedwig?):

Madame Alexander Wendy Ann - doll repair story

When I first started to collect composition dolls, I decided that I had better learn how to repair them since they are quite old; and unless I wanted to pay premium prices for premium quality dolls, I needed to be prepared to buy dolls that were less than perfect.

In some cases, I was lucky and bought near perfect dolls for a reasonable price at auction, but in some cases, I deliberately bought dolls that needed some help, so that I could learn how to restore them without detracting from their original beauty.

I have nothing against dolls sold as "One of a kind" restorations with custom face paint, but that was not my intention. I wanted my dolls to look somewhat close to factory perfect.

My first "victims" are these Madame Alexander Wendy Ann face dolls, made some time in the 1940's. The smaller Wendy Ann has a Mayfair twist waist and human hair wig. The larger Wendy Ann has a mohair wig.

Here's what they looked like when they came to me:



Both dolls needed their wigs cleaned and re-set. The larger Wendy Ann needed to be re-strung and re-painted. She had been left in the sun to bleach. The smaller Wendy Ann's eyes were completely crazed. Neither doll had any clothes to speak of.

Since their composition was still good, I figured it wouldn't take much to bring them back to their former beauty.

So, for both these dolls, the wigs were cleaned and re-set using doll curlers. I bought an old set of curlers that had been sold with Toni dolls. I figured if they were good enough for Toni, they were good enough for Wendy Ann. I could have saved money and cut up some straws to use for curlers, but the doll curlers were a lot more fun. The mohair wig was completely removed from the large Wendy Ann. It was caked with dirt and would have to actually be washed. The wig was still nice and full, however - so it would have been a waste to throw it away. It was dried on a form so that it didn't shrink. The human hair wig was lightly cleaned with a wet cloth and a little bit of conditioner. That wig wasn't as dirty. It was just a bit ratty and needed detangling. Both dolls' wigs were set with a little bit of white glue greatly diluted in water.

I re-strung the large Wendy Ann. She was my first re-stringing project, and I used cotton-wound elastic. While her wig was off, I repainted her face. It was an interesting exercise in recalling my fine art training in order to mix her face paint to match the rest of her body. It's a very close match, but if I had to do it over, I'd just take her down to my local hardware store and get their computer to match it. Since she is composition, I used oil-base paint. I used an oil crayon rub to give her a soft eye shadow and blush, and a modelling detail brush to do her lashes. If I had to do it over again, I would just use an artist's black illustration pencil for her eyelashes, although the brush is closer to factory. Both dolls had their composition sealed.

The eyes of the small Wendy Ann were crazed, so I cleaned them and gave her new pupils with highlights. Now, they were ready to be dressed.

The large Wendy Ann, I believe, was a bride or bridesmaid doll, as the shape of her burnt-out décolletage looked very much like the shape of the original Madame Alexander bridesmaid costume. I may dress her one day with an original bridesmaid costume, but for now, she wears a factory-made tartan jumper and blouse that complement her red hair. Her underwear and shoes are modern replacements.

The small Wendy Ann is wearing a dress made by a very talented doll dressmaker. I made her pearl and glass bead necklace. Her shoes and underwear are modern replacements.

Would these dolls fetch exorbitant prices on the market if I sold them? Probably not; however, the things I learned while restoring them to their former beauty are priceless.