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Marilyn Armstrong — Seeking Intelligent Life on Earth

Category Archives: Dolls

Toni — 1953, Still plastic after all these years

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Toni - From 1953, still beautiful and young after all these years. One of my favorite plastic friends.

Toni – From 1953, still beautiful and young after all these years. One of my favorite plastic pals.

Daily Prompt: Prized Possession — Annabelle

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Annabelle was a doll made by Madame Alexander. She was in production for one year only — 1952 — the year I turned five.

My mother loved dolls, but she had grown up poor. She had only had one doll in her entire life, a china-headed doll she got from her mother. That was a big deal in a large, poor family. There were 6 other brothers and sisters to keep fed, clothed and who also had birthdays. Mom loved her doll and when one day, the doll fell off her bed and broke her china head, my mother was inconsolable. She said she had cried for weeks and everyone was sympathetic, but she never got another doll.

Then there was me, her first daughter and the one who loved dolls as much as she had. My sister, who came afterwards, never cared for them as I did.

Annabelle - by Madame Alexander - 1952

Annabelle – by Madame Alexander – 1952

Annabelle was the first of a line of expensive dolls with which I was gifted through my girlhood. Annabelle was followed by Toni,the big 24″ Toni with platinum hair and the whole set of curlers and “permanent wave” solution. After that, there was Betsy Wetsy, though my mother, in the midst of potty training my younger sister couldn’t imagine wanting a doll that wet herself. Many other dolls would follow. But Annabelle always had a special place in my heart. I talked to her, slept with her, dragged her around. I loved her through restringing, rewigging, repainting and redressing.

After all my other dolls had passed along into dolly heaven, I still had Annabelle. Right before I left for Israel, I gave her to my friend’s daughter … and Loren still has her to this day.

Annabelle Too

Annabelle Too

Some years back, I went hunting for Annabelle. I knew I couldn’t get my original girl back. She was Loren’s now. Even though Loren was grown with a son of her own, she was not parting with Annabelle. Most of Madame Alexander’s dolls had long production runs, but Annabelle was a one year only limited edition. But I found her, and she has rejoined my life. I even have her original box, traveling beauty supply kit and tag. She’s perfect and obviously had never been loved quite as voraciously as I love her predecessor.

I still do give her a furtive hug now and again. Sometimes, the best person in the world to talk to is a doll that will always smile and understand. That’s my Annabelle.

Portrait of Annabelle

Portrait of Annabelle

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Dolls, Dresses and Special Effects

Playing around with the various special effects filters in my camera today. I’ve never actually used any of them, but for some reason today I felt like trying them out. This pretty lady is a 16 inch Toni by Ideal, virtually identical to the doll I got for my sixth birthday. Her dress was made just for her.

Toni 16 Toy Filter

I thought it would be fun to take “toy lens” style pictures of toys, in my case, dolls. I used to be a serious doll collector. Although I’m no longer a doll collector, I still have quite a large doll collection.

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The three big dolls (above) were taken using a poster format. The two big beautiful girls are Madame Alexander‘s Binnie Walker (left), Winnie Walker (middle), and on the right, one of the rarer large Ideal Bride dolls. She was the last Ideal doll before they went entirely to high-heel wearing fashion dolls. All the dresses were made for these dolls by a seamstress. The bride’s dress is amazing.

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Meet Cissy from Madame Alexander, one of the most popular fashion dolls ever made. This is an original from the early 1960s. There have been versions of Cissy continuously through the years, including now, though their dimensions vary quite a bit. What they have in common are joints in all the right places, height and high-heeled feet.

The lady in pink (above) is wearing an original outfit by a doll clothing designer based on an outfit she remembered her mother wearing in the 1950s. The cloth was from a dress I found at the Salvation army. I loved the fabric, so she made two of these outfits, one as a gift to me and one for herself to sell. You would not believe how expensive doll clothing is. It costs more than my clothing. A lot more.

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Above is an all original Cissy. Her dress was an evening gown and started out as light blue, but the decades faded it to nearly white. I thought she looked bridal, so I had a veil, bouquet, crinoline and gloves made for her. I bought her new shoes and stockings and appropriate undergarments. I think, all in all, her outfit cost significantly more than my bridal outfit. But I’m not as classy as Cissy.

75-ShirleyPoster-1 Recognize the young lady in the picture above? Yup, Shirley Temple. An original, but a 1970s edition, probably among the last of these dolls produced. I think this one is from Mattel.

And finally, below, are two Madame Alexander dolls. On the left, Sonja Henie, an original from around 1940. She is not plastic, but composition, which is a combination a sawdust, glue, and paint. You have to be very careful with these old composition dolls. They all date from no later than the early 1940s, after which dolls were no longer made from composition, but hard plastic. If they get damp or too dry, they fall apart.

On the right is a 1976 Cinderella in a Disney-style gown.

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Sonja’s wig is not original, but it is mohair as was the original. However, the original wig didn’t have bangs. I simply couldn’t find a mohair wig that was quite right. I could have gotten an acrylic wig that was the right style, but it would have been the wrong material. Sometimes, you just have to compromise. Her dress and skates are original, as are her tights.

I have many, many more dolls. Eventually, I’ll take some more pictures. These were just for fun and honestly, got photographed because they were located either in my office, the hall next to my office, or the bedroom across the hall. But there are dolls all over the house, except the kitchen and bathrooms. A couple of hundred of them, at last count and others still in boxes.

They are friendly and do not act at all like bride of Chucky. I think they chat quietly while we sleep.


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Plastic Faces, Plastic Smiles

I collect hard plastic and composition dolls from the 1930s through 1960s, with a few a little newer and a few a bit older.

Two “identical” Margaret (Margaret O’Brien) dolls.

In theory, every doll of a “type” is the same as every other doll of that type. All Toni dolls should look the same. But they don’t. No two dolls look exactly the same.

Cissy, as a bride. Madame Alexander, all original.

Minor variations in how they set in their molds and were finished after being removed from their molds. The person who painted them … and what batch of paint colors were used. Up through the 1960s, all dolls’ faces were hand painted, so there were always small differences between them. Many dolls even today are hand-painted.

Cissy, in her couturier outfit made especially for her. Madame Alexander, restored.

Eyebrows will be shaped differently, some with more or less arch to it. Lips may be poutier or more rounded and the two sides of the face don’t usually exactly match. Like real people.

Sixteen inch Tony in designer dress, platinum hair. A very popular doll.

Dolls also came in different sizes, and sixteen inch Toni bore only a sisterly resemblance to twenty-three inch Toni.

Another sixteen inch Toni, dressed for a patriotic holiday … auburn hair, this time.

Big sister Toni, 22 inches, and all original, even her hair … a color that I cannot name since this color wig is no longer produced.

Twenty two-inch Toni, all original, including her wig.

To me, my dolls have their own faces, as obviously different to my eyes as are people. My plastic friends with their plastic faces, smiling gently day and night.


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Dolls, Plants, and the Light From the East …

Facing east towards the deck and the woods, the morning light streams in … so the plants live in front the french doors that lead to the deck. Of course, that means we virtually never open the doors because we’d have to move the plants. So, we use the dutch door in the kitchen. But the dining room doors are lovely

On the top shelf, above the dolls, you can see three of my Tang dynasty Chinese zodiac figures. The cradle with the baby doll in it (it’s a 1950s Betsy Wetsy) … I built it from a kit and painted it myself. Underneath the cradle and the dolls is the sewing machine I don’t know how to use. But I might learn someday. Yeah, sure.

Do you see George Washington and Abraham Lincoln back there?

There are a lot more dolls in the dining room … in fact, they occupy every surface on which a doll can stand. The big green thing on the chair is my 4 string mountain dulcimer. It is beautiful. But you can’t tell because it’s in its case.

The big Dracaena Marginata has been with me for close to 12 years and urgently needs repotting. It’s so heavy and tall it is a hard for me to move it, much less re-pot it. I’m going to add some topsoil to the pot and give it a feeding and hope that will do the job. If it gets any bigger, I’ll have to re-home it anyhow.

I got the two Christmas cacti as cuttings and they bloom beautifully several times a year. Ignoring them is to the key to success. I call it “benevolent neglect.” Succulents thrive on it.

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