Doll-A-Day 2019 # 145: Tiny Tears

 Between being sick,having a car that barely runs, and all the rain we've been getting this Spring,I have only gone to two or three yard sale this year,all on the same day a couple of weeks ago. But what a day it was. I made an amazing haul,most of which I won't keep, but which will help replace the car. Over the next few days I'll be showing you some of the haul I made that day.
 Today's doll is a doll from the first yard sale I went to that day. It was an amazing sale for vintage toys. I passed up a music box similar to the one I had as a kid for a quarter. (I should have bought it for that! You can see mine HERE. Theirs didn't come with a doll.) I did buy three Care Bears,a Popple,a somewhat worn Raggedy Ann from my childhood era,another couple of dolls I'll be showing you in the coming days,and this baby.

She's Tiny Tears.
 

She has a strange hairline. It looks like she's wearing a mask,but the hairline is just lower than her face level,in the same vinyl. The earlier dolls had woolly hair called caracurl. This isn't it.

She was made by American Character.

Tiny Tears was first made in 1950 as a rubber baby with a hard plastic head. This girl is the version first made in 1958, made completely of vinyl.  She's 13 inches tall.

 This is her original dress and romper.

The romper is a wrap around arrangement. I'm not sure this would work on a real baby!

Here's what it should look like.

There was another romper that was similar.

1959

The gimmick of Tiny Tears was that she could be fed a bottle of water and then squeezed around the belly, and she would cry through the giant tear ducks placed strangely on the sides of her nose. (And also pee.Mine doesn't seem to have,umm,the necessary arrangement for that.)

Her eyes look brown here, but they were green when I used the flash.
 

In 1959 Tiny Tears was given an interesting sleep eye feature. They were called 'rock-a-bye eyes'. When the doll was laid down, her eyes didn't close right away. They closed gradually. I read one description that said they would only close if the doll was rocked. In any case, they didn't automatically close when the doll went horizontal,like other sleep eyes. I think this girl must have those eyes,but not working correctly, because they don't even open all the way when she's sitting up.

 

She has dimples on her hands.

 

 And dimpled baby feet.

 That's today's doll. Don't forget to follow,and enter the Blogaversary giveaway,and check back tomorrow for another doll.