Author: Lynn

Hello! I’m so glad you are here!  It is already March!  I feel as though I’ve not yet got reorganized from Christmas….anyone else have that feeling?  Wherever you live, I hope you are beginning to see signs of spring and renewal.  It has been cloudy, cold, and rainy for the past couple of weeks.  I am soooo happy to see the sun shining! 

Thank you so much for your emails and DMs on the last blog post!  I’m always happy to know your thoughts and feelings on the blog.  It is a work in progress, and sometimes the learning curve gets steep. LOL!  

So, “Let’s Talk Dolls” for just a minute or two.  I have noticed Chatty Cathy showing up in more and more collections.  I have seen more for sale.  Chatty Cathy must be on the upswing for the spring!  Did any of you have a Chatty Cathy as a child?  I did and I loved her mainly because she could talk!!!  That was just the coolest thing EVER to me!  I still have mine although she is by no means in minty condition.  Her condition is well loved.  

Chatty Cathy is a pull string “talking” doll that was originally created by Ruth and Elliot Handler and manufactured by the Mattel toy company from 1959 to 1965.  Cathy was depicted as a 5 year old girl.  Originally her hair was a short blonde bobbed style and she had big, blue eyes.  Brunette  and auburn haired versions of the doll were introduced in 1962 and 1963, respectively.  An African American version of Cathy with brown skin was produced in those same years.  In 1963, her hair was re-styled into what Mattel called “long twin ponytails”, aka pig tails.  The Mattel catalogs made the claim that Chatty Cathy and all the other Cathy dolls had go to sleep eyes.  

Although Cathy’s mouth did not move, her lips were slightly parted to give the appearance of talking.  Cathy “spoke” one of eleven phrases at random when the ring protruding from her upper back was pulled.  The ring was attached to a simple string connected to a simple phonograph record inside the cavity behind the doll’s abdomen.  The record was driven by a metal coil wound by pulling the doll’s ring.  (no batteries needed!)  The voice unit was designed by Jack Ryan, Mattel’s head of research and development.  

The doll originally had eleven phrases when it came on the market in 1960 such as “I love you”, “I hurt myself”, or “Please take me with you”.  Seven more phrases such as, “Let’s play school” or “May I have a cookie?” were added to the doll’s repertoire in 1963 for a grand total of 18 phrases.  Legendary cartoon voice actress June Foray recorded these phrases for the 1960s version of Chatty Cathy.  

In 1960, a child had the choice of one of two outfits for their doll.  One outfit had a blue dress with a white eyelet overblouse , panties, crinoline, blue shoes and white socks, and the other dress had a red velvet headband, red sunsuit with a red pinafore with an overskirt of white voile, red shoes and white socks.  Other accessories accompanying the doll were a story and comic book, shoehorn, and a paper wrist tag that was also a numbered warranty card.  The doll and its accompanying accessories were advertised at less than $20.

In 1961, the red dress was discontinued, and replaced by a pink and white striped dress with a white pinafore called “Pink Peppermint Stick”.  This dress was available until 1964.  1961 also saw the introduction of six extra outfits available separately.  They had names like “Party Dress”, “Nursery School Dress”,  “Sleepytime Pajamas”,  “Playtime Shorts set,” and “Party Coat”.  The outfits “Sunday visit Dress” and “Sunny Day Capri Short set” came out in 1963.  

This is a brief history of Chatty Cathy’s beginnings.  My Chatty Cathy is the blonde.  While I think she’s lovely, I always wanted the redhead dolls because they looked like me.  I was so pleased to have the blonde, but the redhead never came my way.  Maybe someday……

*The photos in this blog were made by me of my personal Chatty Cathy. *

We have talked dolls about one of the very first talking dolls.  I hope you have enjoyed it.  Please share this blog with a friend.  Enjoy your dolls, stay well, and above all be kind to one another.

Hugs,

Lynn

BabyBoomerDoll

Hello and Happy February!! I can’t believe that January has already slipped by….I hope the weather where you are is better than it has been here the past week.  We have had sleet, freezing rain, snow, wind, and below zero temperatures.  Like many of you reading this, we have run the gambit.  While it has been pretty, I am ready to move on to spring weather.  How about you?  I’m ready to trade my snow shovel for a shovel to play in the dirt with!

I’m sure you are curious about the title of this post.  I have collected dolls for many years and I didn’t know until it was brought to my attention recently that there was a right way and a wrong way to do so – and I was doing it the wrong way!  I had NO idea!   Seriously? I was intrigued by the logic of this thinking, so I thought I would share it with you.  This is totally off the path from what I had planned for this post, but it just seemed too good not to share.  So – here goes!

I am not going to tell you there is a right and a wrong way to collect dolls, just simply because I don’t believe that there is such a thing.  Obviously, there are those who do, and I am totally okay with that (for them), but I don’t appreciate them placing their thought process upon my collection.   There are those who believe you should collect only one brand of doll.  That’s fine!  I have several of the same brand….I have Madame Alexander, Ideal, Allied Eastern, and Eegee just to mention a few.  But my collection is not solely composed of one brand.  I was informed that I should choose only one brand and stay with that brand.  It was perfectly fine to collect various dolls within that brand.  Hmmmm….

If that wasn’t an option for me, then possibly I should choose just one doll and collect the different versions of that doll.  That’s fine, too.  I have Patti Playpal dolls, Gerber babies, Cissy dolls (both vintage and modern), Thumbelina dolls, Kewpie dolls, and the list continues.  Again, I didn’t seem to be forming my collection in the way they thought I should be.  By this time, I am seeing that there may be several “right” ways to collect dolls.

Now while these methods may hold true for many other types of collections and collectors, somehow it didn’t seem right for me personally.   Me being me, I proceeded to question them on this method of collecting.  Somehow in the back of my mind, all I could think about  was that my spouse is a die-hard General Motors guy.  If he is going to trade trucks, he automatically goes to the GM dealer.  That seemed to stick to the methods that were being presented here.  But I am not purchasing a truck, I collect dolls.

In my humble opinion, doll collecting is a joy.  It is a wonderful hobby which brings a daily smile to my face and often challenges me and stretches my abilities as I begin to restore them.  For me, that restoration process is as much fun as the hunt for that special doll.  Those who are collecting the “right” way look at their collection as an investment.  Well, that’s fine.  I always thought something was considered an investment only if you intended to sell it and make a profit from it.  Yes, someday my collection will either be left to my grandchildren or sold when I am beyond the point of properly caring for the dolls or have made my permanent residence in Heaven.  But until then, my dolls are pure enjoyment for me and those I choose to share them with.

Opposing opinions are a wonderful thing.  They cause us to think and to reason out what is best for us personally in this particular case.  While I am more than happy to listen to their thoughts, that doesn’t mean I am going to change my way of thinking about my collection and part with the dolls I love and enjoy so very much.  There are many collectors in the world that collect so many different types of dolls.  Those dolls are all beautiful to their collectors.  Maybe I don’t always understand it, but that isn’t important.  What is important is that I understand the value that doll has to that collector.  Perhaps it was handed down through their family, perhaps made for them when they were a child.  All dolls have their own stories and should be respected by others.  I have dolls that would mean absolutely nothing to anyone else, but because of the back story behind that doll I wouldn’t part with it for anything.  They have become a part of me.  I’m sure there are those of you who have similar dolls in your possession.

This right/wrong discussion went on for over an hour.  I love to play the devil’s advocate in these type situations, so I was enjoying listening to their thought process.  While I would never tell them that they are wrong, I would openly say that their methods are not for me personally.  Although in their opinions, I am not collecting my dolls in the right way, I will not be changing my methods.

I collect what is beautiful to me.  I collect dolls that remind me of childhood times.  I collect dolls that were handed down through my family.  I collect dolls that in my eyes have a story to tell but also have more to share once restored and brought back to a version of their glory days.  I collect dolls that “speak” to me.  Maybe you didn’t hear them speak, but I did (giggle).   In short, I am going to collect what makes me happy.  Someday, they make someone else happy also.

Let me ask you….how do you collect dolls?  There is no right or wrong answer to this question.  Our collections are all as individual as we are as people.  I think that is as it should be.  I don’t believe anyone has justification in openly telling someone that what they are collecting and the method they are using is wrong.  If the methods are different, that’s great!  Even our differences can be enjoyed by others.  The world would be a pretty boring place if we were all alike, in my opinion.  We are all our own individual just as our collections are individualized.  The doll community, for the most part, is a wonderful, welcoming place. In a world where this isn’t always the case, maybe we should remember that in a world where you can be anything you want to be, the very best thing is above all to be kind…

I hope your February is good!  Stay well, be happy, and  be kind to one another!

Hugs to you all,

Lynn

BabyBoomerDolls

Hello Friends!  Happy 2022 to you and yours!  I hope you had a wonderful holiday season.  I am glad you are here today to read the latest  post of the BabyBoomerDolls blog.  Today we are going to look at a doll that seems to have a mystery surrounding her.

I recently restored this Ashton-Drake Galleries TV Patti Playpal.  I have posted photos of her on my IG account which I will also post here.   Given her name (TV Patti) and the brief history provided on her, she has raised some questions.  I will try to give you more information on her in this post.  This lovely Patti Playpal is known as “TV Patti” because apparently Ideal never actually put her into production!  She was in the television ads but not produced for sale.  This seems to remain a mystery as to why…..

This doll pictured here was manufactured by Ashton-Drake Galleries and is known as TV Patti Playpal Doll.

This Patti stands over 35″ tall and is simply amazing in her detail.   She is a collectible vinyl doll.  She has a moveable head, shoulders, and hips.  Her eyes are a beautiful, vibrant  shade of blue and are sleep eyes.  She has long, brush lashes.     She has beautiful long blonde rooted hair and a soft porcelain looking complexion.  She originally was outfitted in a pink flowered dress which was a two piece dress and pinafore set.  The skirt of the dress had a half slip sewn into it.  The white pinafore is trimmed with red and green rickrack.  I will include photos of her original clothing.    She wears black Mary Jane type shoes.

This beautiful doll is a reproduction of the classic Patti originally manufactured by Ideal.  However, the doll pictured here  was manufactured by Ashton-Drake Galleries.  She is marked on the back of her neck A.D.G. 06.  In the 2000s Ashton-Drake Galleries and Danbury Mint briefly revived the production of the Playpal dolls.

Her COA reads:  upon the retirement of this issue, no more of this edition of  TV Patti Playpal will ever be produced.  Once the edition is retired, it will never be reopened.  She is truly a collectible!  She is now  one of those HTF dolls.  I did some research and there are a few still out there to be purchased.

While I always keep a doll’s original clothing, I don’t always leave them in it forever…which is the case here.  When I restored her, I put her hair back into the original style.  I chose to redress her and give her a little more personality rather than the ADG personality she came with….

There are vintage television ads on the internet that feature a doll that looks quite similar to this ADG doll.  There is not a lot of information on this doll to be found.  I hope what little I could find will be of interest to you.

Until we can be together again to “Talk Dolls”, stay well and be kind to one another.

Hugs to all,

Lynn

BabyBoomerDolls

Hello!! Happy December!  For those of you who celebrate Thanksgiving, I hope you had a lovely day.  I’m happy you’re here today!  We are going to talk for a few minutes about Christmas decorating and how or if you use your dolls to decorate.  So….”Let’s Talk Dolls”….grab your coffee/tea and let’s get started.

My Madame Alexander 8″ dolls are frequently used in my decorating.  They are tiny enough that they make lovely little vignettes in smaller spots.  I not only use them at Christmas but all throughout the year for holiday decorating.  I will include a photo of some of my decorating with these little sweeties.  Do you use your small dolls for decorating?

Many of the dolls I collect are quite large, and they make some neat holiday displays.  Do you dress your dolls for the holidays?  There are just so many avenues to take when adding your dolls to the holiday mix!   And they never fail to bring a smile to our faces!

I have thought back to when I was a child and tried to remember dolls being used for Christmas decorating.  The first memory that I can recall is standing on the sidewalk with my hands and nose pressed against a cold, frosty store display window looking at the aluminum tree with the beautiful rainbow reflector changing the colors of the tree.  The fantastically gorgeous dolls in all sizes all wearing their Sunday best dresses.  There were doll buggies, doll strollers,  doll beds that the sides raised up and down, tiny little kitchens, tiny trunks full of beautiful little dresses…everything any little girl would ever want for her dolly.   I remember a tiny train making its way from one end of the window display to the other and back again.  While the little boy standing next to me was thrilled with the train and all the BB guns and the pedal cars, I was totally focused on those beautiful dolls with sleep eyes that opened and closed and their beautifully styled hair with the  big, colorful bows that matched their dresses perfectly.   There were dolls of all sizes,  from the tiniest that were no bigger than my hand  to the ones that were as big as I was at the time.  Some were displayed in beautiful boxes with the lid removed and the wrapping paper still on the bottom of the box.  Others were standing around the tree and “playing” with all the various toys scattered throughout the window display.  It was literally a magical scene to me as a little girl from a small town.  I wasn’t used to seeing store windows like this one!  There was a crowd gathering in front of the window and my Granny insisted that I allow someone else to have my spot and to share.  While I wasn’t thrilled about moving away from the window, I remember my Pap picking me up and holding me so that I could see above the crowd.  Turns out that I still had a good view of all the magical things happening in that window as my Pap was over six feet tall!  That is still such a wonderfully vivid memory for me.  That wonderful window was completely decorated with all those magnificent dolls and all their accouterments.  I believe that probably set some sort of precedence in my mind that it was totally okay to use dolls to decorate for Christmas.  I talked about that window for the longest time, so it definitely made an impression on me.

I have been seeing many Christmas scenes scattered about on Instagram and Pinterest.  I enjoy the vintage dolls with the vintage toys and decorations.  Such beautiful reminders of Christmas from the past.  I also see scenes with Barbie and her friends celebrating the holidays.  She always looks so beautiful and stylish.   I love to see the dolls all dressed in their Christmas attire.  I also enjoy sewing those dresses for my girls!  For me, half the fun of the holidays is the preparation and decorating.

Whether you have one doll or one hundred, it is fun to incorporate them into your holiday decorating.  I’ve heard it said that “Christmas is for kids.”  If that is the case, I don’t want to ever get too old to play with dolls.  How about you?

So how will your dolls spend this coming holiday season?  Will they be playing in the doll room,  or possibly wearing dresses that look alike, or will they be sitting under the tree as if Santa has left them there for you?  The possibilities are endless!  What are the possibilities that are percolating through your mind?

Have you started to decorate yet for Christmas or perhaps you are finished….either way, as doll collectors, we still view Christmas as through the eyes of a child because of our love for dolls.  We see something that those who are not  doll collectors often  miss.  It almost seems as though we are in on a secret of some sort…..

I will leave you with these thoughts and my views for incorporating my dolls into my personal holiday decorating and why I use them in the festivities of the decorations.  I’m sure you all have your own special reasons….whatever the reason,  ENJOY the season and remember why we celebrate this time of year.  After all….”its the most wonderful time of the year” as the song says…..

Be well and be kind to one another.

Big Hugs to each of you!

Lynn

BabyBoomerDolls

PS – Throughout  December I will be posting snippets of my decorating with my dolls on my Instagram account (@babyboomerdolls),  if you would like to take a peek.  I’m sure it will change over the next 24 days, so check back frequently! 🙂

Hello, friends!  I’m so glad you’re here!  Today we’ve turned another page on the calendar.   It is now October!  I’ve always heard the phrase that “time flies when you’re having fun”.  While that is true, “time also flies as you get older.”  Seems as though I have just gotten things back in order from this time last year.  Thinking about time passing so quickly has also made me think about all the blessings in my life.  I have many, but right now, I am primarily talking about BabyBoomerDolls.

When I was younger, I often had dreams of a small business of my own.  I have been able to do that to a small degree as I have sewn for others in some capacity since I was sixteen.   Still, that wasn’t quite the dream I had in mind.  That was more like work, and I’ve heard it said if you like your job, you will never work a day in your life.  THAT sounded like the place I wanted to be.    I was blessed with the sewing of wedding/prom dresses, special occasion dresses, and the like for others.   That was advantageous as it brought extra income into my home.  I met some wonderful people and made some life-long friends while sewing.  To this day, some of those people  are among my closest friends.

Still, I had a home, a young family, a job, church activities, and just life in general.  There wasn’t time left over for fulfilling dreams just yet.  However, I knew that someday there would be time to revisit those dreams.  This would require patience, which has never been one of my greater virtues.    During all this time passing, I added and subtracted and revised the dream many times over as it rolled around like a pinball inside my head.   It was always in the back of my mind.  The seed was sown and I had been unknowingly nurturing it.

Years past and long story short, kids grew up, married, and have families of their own.  My husband and I retired.   No longer was there a nine to five job to think about.  Retirement has it’s own schedule!  We enjoy so many things together and enjoy that time we are now able to spend  with our family.  Life became different, but it was a good different.

The dream was slowly seeping back into the foreground of my conscious thoughts.  I began to buy and sell dolls in my newfound “extra” time.  I have always loved dolls, so this was a natural progression for me.  I was amazed at the information I was acquiring.  I was able to make repairs and restorations to many types of dolls now.  I was able to combine the dolls with my sewing abilities.  This was fantastic!    This chapter of the dream continued for several years, again allowing me to come in contact with those of like mind.  Doll collectors are wonderful people and are always willing to share information.

Anything I did with the dolls at this point  was done under just my name.  I was pretty pleased with being able to do something I enjoyed so much and still realize an income.  (Even though most times I reinvested in supplies).  One evening while at the dinner table, I announced to my husband that I was going to  develop an Instagram account and call it BabyBoomerDolls.  I am a baby boomer and this seemed like just the right fit for my love for dolls of the 50s and 60s.   I wanted/needed to have someone to really share my passion about the dolls with.  I had to seek out my “tribe” so to speak and find those who  also knew the joy of dolls.

  Late in the  summer of 2020, during the midst of the pandemic, I began posting my dolls on Instagram.  What fun!   Personally, in my humble opinion, Instagram is a wonderful platform.  To have daily exchanges with those who enjoyed dolls as much as myself was a lifesaver during this time of what seemed like isolation from life as we knew it.     All  the while, I was continuing to restore, sew for,  and sell my dolls.  I can feel the dream unfolding….suddenly BabyBoomerDolls was a reality in my life!  I was beyond thrilled!  My tiny little hopes/dreams from so long ago were seeing the light of day.

For well over a year, I was faithfully posting daily to my account and gaining both  followers and friends.  These wonderful people became such a large part of my daily life. You begin to know their families, their pets,  what part of the world they live in, what types of dolls they collect, etc.   You begin to know them as friends.  These were solid relationships developing that I’m confident brought all of us through some dark times during the pandemic.  I have made friends all over the world.  I have met people I’m confident I wouldn’t have otherwise encountered.  I have been able to sell my dolls all over the world.   I will forever be grateful for this time in my life.

This small IG account was placing me on the path of my dream.  People asking for a special doll to be restored, for a special outfit to be sewn were becoming more and more frequent.  It was becoming more and more difficult to keep dolls to sell.   I began to find myself feeling overwhelmed, plus I don’t like the feeling of knowing someone is patiently waiting for me to finish their project.  It was becoming very obvious that I was going to have to make some adjustments in my time.  But where?

A lot of thought and even more prayer went into the brainstorming of solving this complicated situation in which I found myself.  It seemed like this was the only thought on my mind for weeks.  Finally, I was clear on what was the best solution to free up some time and still be able to enjoy my passion for my dolls.

I discussed it with Mr. BabyBoomerDolls and felt good about the conclusions we had arrived at.    I posted on my IG account page that I was not leaving IG.  I would be daily checking my account and posting on my stories.  However, I would be cutting down my daily posts/reels to twice weekly.  This would give me the time needed to fill the private orders for both dolls and sewing.  It felt like the best of both worlds.

To date, things are running smoothly which I am very relieved to be able to say.  I have the time to do the private orders as well as to work on other facets of “my dream”.   I feel truly blessed to have made so many good friends over the years, to be able to hone my skills at both my sewing as well as my dolls, to have the love and support of my family and friends,  to have the peace  and acceptance I have with the changes/decisions made, and the opportunity to continue to nurture and grow my dream into what my heart knows it can be.  Yes, I am counting my blessings!  I have been blessed in ways I am sure I am yet unaware of.

Usually when we get together here, it is a brief moment to share some information on a special doll or manufacturer.   This is our time to “Let’s Talk Dolls.”   This time, I wanted to say thank you to each of you, whether you knew it or not, for helping me along this journey,  for your continued  support of my IG account, for your support as I make changes, and for the encouragement many of you have offered.  You have blessed my life in so many ways and I count each of you as a blessing.

Next edition of BBD Blog will be more like you are used to.  Thank you for your time and your loyalty.  Please share the blog with a friend.  Stay well!  Be kind to others.

Big Hugs to each of you,

Lynn

@babyboomerdolls

Shirley Temple….There is so much that could be said about Shirley Temple and how this child star was a bright spot in the bleak grayness of the Great Depression.  The doll that this child star inspired brightened the lives of hundreds of thousands of children during that time.  To those of us who collect dolls, she still brightens our days and brings a smile to our faces.

The six-year-old actress, became a national film phenomenon who illuminated the silver screen.  Shirley Temple, the doll, was introduced to little girls in 1934.  By the end of her first year acting, Shirley would be featured in seven films and would become the top-grossing box office star in the world.

Meanwhile, the Ideal Novelty and Toy Company approached the Temple family with its Shirley Temple doll concept.  After months of negotiations with Temple’s parents, the company secured an exclusive contract to produce a doll of the movie star.  Ideal had the body as they had perfected the torso for a doll called Ginger the year before.  Reportedly, the designer Bernard Lipfert had to make twenty molds before the head was finally approved by everyone involved.  Those first dolls were composition dolls.

The first costume for the Shirley doll portrayed the actress as she looked performing “Baby Take a Bow” in Stand Up and Cheer, her movie of that year.  This inaugural doll had a slightly chubbier face than the real Shirley.  The faces of the later dolls were slimmed down.  At first the dolls were made in four sizes, which prices ranging from three to seven dollars.

The Shirley Temple doll was perfect for a marketing campaign of Hollywood proportions.  Playthings, the industry trade journal reported in 1936 that Ideal pitched “one of the largest national promotions ever undertaken by any doll or toy manufacturer.”  Along with an advertisement for the doll, a contest was announced in the comic strip sections of fourteen million Sunday newspapers.  The top ten prizes were REAL Scottish Terrier puppies like Shirley’s pet, Corky.  Other prizes included doll accessories as clothes and carriages.

The Shirley Temple doll was not only the most popular celebrity doll ever made, she was also the most copied.  Nearly everybody wanted to get onto this band wagon.  Even the renowned doll maker Madame Alexander, after publicly opposing the exploitation of Shirley Temple’s fame as an actress, produced a Little Colonel doll in 1935.  Alexander maintained that the doll was based on the children’s book on which the character was based.  It just happened that the release of the doll coincided with the release of Temple’s movie The Little Colonel.  The doll looked very much like Ideal’s Shirley….

By 1939, the Great Depression drew to a close and the dark clouds of WWII were gathering.  Shirley’s reign as a box-office queen had come to an end.   That same year, Ideal ceased production of the doll.  Ideal was never a company to turn its back on success, they did use some of the Shirley molds for other dolls, including Snow White.

The Shirley Temple doll did make a comeback in the 1950s in vinyl and plastic.  Then, again in the 1970s, she took yet another bow.  I guess, like her movies, Shirley doesn’t age…..

Those of you who read my blog know that all the photos featured here are both taken by myself and the dolls are mine.  I have only three Shirley Temple dolls, but they represent a broad range of the 1950s thru the 1970s dolls.  The first doll pictured is the one  I am most proud of.  I love her size and the sculpt of the doll.  And she also has on all original clothes.   She is the oldest that I have. My plans are to restore her, but quite frankly, all those sausage curls are quite intimidating to me as her hair will have to be washed…I will wake up one morning feeling “brave” and go for it.  That’s how I roll. LOL!

The second doll pictured is a reproduction by Ashton Drake Galleries which has never been out of the box and more than likely will be sold at some point.  The third doll is a small 17″ plastic doll that is simply used as a prop with my large dolls.

Any way you choose to look at it, Shirley Temple was a glimmer of hope when we as a nation needed it.  She has remained a sought after doll to many collectors, me included.

I’m happy you chose to share this little bit of time with me.  I hope you will share this blog with a doll-collecting friend.  Until the next time we get together and “Let’s Talk Dolls”…stay well and be kind to one another.

Hugs

Lynn

BabyBoomer Dolls