Doll-A-Day 33: Little Miss No Name by Hasbro

  Today is the start of a week long series on 'big eye', or 'sad eye' dolls, (Don't get your hopes up on seeing a Blythe. I don't own one.) and the doll of the day is the queen of all sad eye dolls!

This is my own personal Little Miss No Name that I got for Christmas as a kid.

  Little Miss No Name by Hasbro was produced in 1965,the 'big eye' look having been popularized by the paintings of Margaret Keane, and other artists. That was her only year of production. I guess not very many little kids wanted to care for a sad little waif...

This painting by Margaret Keane is VERY Little Miss No Name.

But pitiful things always appealed to me! (Ken hates to hear that. It's not exactly how a guy wants to think of himself!) I loved all those sad eye dolls and paintings. I got these when I was a kid.

I got these at the grocery store. I may have bought them, but we did get some free when we bought groceries. I do remember getting free pictures. This one's not Keane. These are by Alvaro.

I liked the sad eye thing, but I don't like this style of art now. Too messy.

But this  one was, and still is, my favourite. He's by Franca. I remember he came in a white frame and one of the other kids came in a brown frame, so I switched them, so the two matching kids would have matching frames, and this guy would be more aesthetically pleasing in his brown frame. I couldn't have been more than 7 at the oldest! What an anal retentive kid I was!

I got this dog picture by Gig free at the grocery store. I always loved it, but wanted to help him somehow.

There's been a resurgence in popularity for the big eye dolls of the 60's recently,(Blythe even got revived, with new versions and mini dolls),with the popularity of Goth and Japanese anime', and the Japanese ball jointed dolls, like the Leptospurmum I reviewed last week. As I keep telling Ken, the Japanese dolls are the Big Eye dolls of our time. That's why I wanted one so badly I guess!

 

I had asked for Little Miss No Name. My sister told me she wanted to take LMNN out of her box and stand her in the doorway of the room I was sleeping in (at our Aunt and Uncle's house), on Christmas eve, so I would see her there in the morning. (And she could have too. LMNN stands very well on her somewhat large, flat feet.) Mom said no, because she was afraid LMNN would scare me!

She scares Ken. He can't stand to look at her because he says she looks like 'Ignorance and Want' from Charles Dickens' "A Christmas Carol".

But I wouldn't have been afraid.(Actually, I would have thought it was pretty neat, like she got there herself. It's the type of thing I would have done for my kids.) I  loved LMNN, and only thought she looked like she needed taken care of.
Here I am 'taking care of' her on Easter of 1968, at my Grama's house. I'm holding a chocolate Easter egg. Just candy and dolls, and that's all I need! Wow! I'm still that way!

Can you tell I'm trying to 'accidentally' step on my cousin's foot? That's because I didn't like her. You know why? Because she got me in trouble for saying, "Isn't she a little stinker?" when we were playing moms with our dolls---and I was allowed to say 'stinker'! (But Mom gave in to the pressure to yell at me.)---and SHE STOLE MY SUSIE SLICKER DOLL! You're gonna be hearing about that during Big Eye week, let me tell you! By the way, this is my grama's house in Kentucky. Note the detergent bottle porch decorations. My grama made something out of everything.

 Here's what LMNN looked like in her original box. Wish I still had my box. Look. The poor kid's getting snowed on!

"I need someone to love me...take me home...and brush my tear away."Ahhhhh!!(Frantic sobbing.) How can you not love her?!

Hasbro's Little Miss No Name is about 15" tall, and made of a sort of grayish vinyl. Her torso and legs are a harder plastic, and her head and arms are more rubbery. She came without shoes, wearing only cotton undies and a stiff green burlap dress,(I've seen pictures of dresses that look more brown. Mine is definitely very green.) adorned with fake felt patches,

and fastened in back with a safety pin.

She also had a green elastic headband, and a tear. She actually had a tear, to go with that one hand that could be put out in a begging position.

Pleeeease...

Look at those big brown eyes!This is a LMNN I got at a yard sale for 25 cents.The lady I got her from was her original owner and she had washed LMNN's hair and not combed it. It was something of a pitiful mess, but it conditioned and combed well.

  The tear is most often missing when you find one of these dolls. I know mine got lost! I don't know if the tear was supposed to be removeable, or if I just insisted on it because I wanted her to be able to not cry. Maybe my sister did some more of that stuff she did, like when she removed bases from plastic farm animals 'so they could be free', and cut off G.I. Joe scars and opened Beany's mouth (More on that another day!). In any case, my tear came off and went back on. The yard sale one didn't. Maybe her mother had the foresight to glue her tear on. Whatever the case, I wanted to take LMNN to school in first grade. My mom kept telling me that if I took her to school with her tear on I would lose it. I kept insisting I wouldn't. (This was 1968 or 69, so I had managed to not lose the tear for about 3 years. ) But, listen to your mom kids. She knows what she's talking about. Of course I lost the tear!

Look at that! Now she can't even cry any more! It just keeps getting sadder!

  UPDATE: I forgot to mention that my tear had a tiny 'stem' on it, which fitted into the hole under her left eye. That's how I could take it on and off.

When I found yard sale girl she was naked. I thought these were her original underwear when I found them at a different yard sale, because they are very similar to my doll's. (Almost said, 'similar to mine'! I do not have any underwear like these.) In comparison though, they are a bit different. Longer for one thing.

Not quite sure what they were going for with the hand molds. I get the begging hand, but what's the other hand supposed to be for? One armed marching? Or maybe it's to slap you with if you don't cough up when she begs.

My girl's undies.

.LMNN's hair is the sort that gets crispy with age and breaks very easily. I'm sure my girl used to have longer hair.

Yard sale girl's hair is much longer than my my doll's.

Her hair looks so nice. As you can see, I haven't restored my own doll's hair. I was kind of afraid to. Since this girl's hair turned out so well, I may try. She could do with a face washing too. Hey, that's the dirt of love.

Little Miss No Name was almost the only doll I had who didn't come with extra clothes, that ever had clothes bought for her. (The only others were the one Barbie outfit and one Ken outfit I had, and Satin Supper I bought for Francie.).She has a red winter coat and a blue dress. She's also the only doll I had that my mom ever made clothes for. Mom made her a green and peach plaid dress with a matching bonnet. I wanted LMNN to have things. I wanted her to be happy.

 

She's all cozied in a pink fuzzy doll blanket.

   You can watch the commercial for Little Miss No Name HERE.

 

  Margaret Keane's story has a sad/happy ending little twist to it. Her husband was taking credit for her paintings. She took him to court, and to prove she was the real artist she offered to paint a painting for the judge in the court room. She proceeded to do an entire painting, and Walter, when it was his turn, claimed a sore shoulder and didn't paint. Margaret won the case, divorced her husband, (In 1965.), and moved to Hawaii. She later remarried, found religion, and started painting happier paintings. She's still around, and still painting.
UPDATE: The movie :Bigeye", based on Margaret Keane's life, was released in  2014.