This particular Pearl doll was made by Horsman, and is all original.
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When I got Pearl out to photograph her she had developed a cloudy eye. Her eyes are plastic, and the cloudiness isn't on the surface,so I don't know what the problem is. |
Poor Pitiful Pearl was made by Tristar in 1955 and by The Brookglad Corporation in 1958.
I have even seen photos of a mask faced, cloth body version of Pearl,(or at least a Pearl rip off.),described as a late 1940's doll from Poland.
In 1963 she began to be made by Horsman. As I said, that's who made my doll.
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In a box like this. 'Make her neat and pretty'. There was also a set that came with a pink party dress for Pearl. Pearl was supposed to be a poor girl. She has a patch on her dress. |
Pearl's creator modeled her on Pearl Bimblick, the daughter of a Jewish seamstress, who was his best friend when they were twelve. According to a Look magazine article, printed just before Pearl's Christmas 1956 release, he wanted her owners to see Pearl as "a spirited and resourceful girl who has fun and knows how to work out a good life for herself...I thought there ought to be in the doll world, not only glamorous dolls to be regarded with wonder, and baby dolls to be mothered, but, a plain, unfortunate doll on which kids could exercise their ready compassion for those in any sort of trouble."
And who was Pearl's creator? Keep reading...
She's all vinyl, and has sleep eyes with 'real' lashes.
Pearl has long, rooted hair with bangs.
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| The tape goes all the way around her head. I'm not sure if it's original, but I'm almost afraid to remove it. |
She has the standard articulation: neck, shoulders, and hips.
The Horsman Pearl came in two sizes, 12" and 17". My girl is 17" tall.
Pearl was remade in 1973, but apparently those dolls have the 1963 markings. I suspect mine my be one of those.
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| Her clothes are leaving dust all over her. I think the age is getting to them. |
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| She's marked on the back of her head too, but I couldn't get it to show up. |
Pearl was the creation of author and illustrator William Steig.
Steig was best known for his New Yorker covers...
...and the children's books Sylvester and the Magic Pebble...
...and The Amazing Bone...
..until one of his children's books was made into a movie in 2001...
The Horsman Pearl is from the same era as Little Miss No Name.
In fact, a while back I had to convince my friend Lori that the doll she had as a kid was Little Miss No Name, and NOT Poor Pitiful Pearl, as she always thought. She may have called it Poor Pitiful Pearl, but the burlap dress and plastic tear gave her away.
Pearl didn't have the big eyes of the Keane paintings that inspired Little Miss No Name, but she was decidedly pitiful.
I didn't know about Poor Pitiful Pearl as a kid, or I would most certainly have wanted her.
Not as much as I wanted my Little Miss No Name, but she still would have drawn me to her because she looked like she needed love.
While researching for this post I came across this picture on Pintrest:
**NOTE: I often use pictures of dolls in box, or packaging of some sort, for reference purposes. But I don't like to use anybody's artistic pictures, or just pictures of loose dolls/items, because I consider that to be stealing somebody's work. However, this is a real conundrum, so I'm doing it. **
The picture was pinned from Worthpoint, and they got it from an old Ebay auction. Their auction said they had seen a doll just like theirs on Ebay earlier, being sold as Pearl's cousin. They called her 'Poor Pitiful Suzie'. She is supposed to be 17" tall and have a stuffed vinyl body.
...and the children's books Sylvester and the Magic Pebble...
...and The Amazing Bone...
..until one of his children's books was made into a movie in 2001...
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| And the rest is history! |
The Horsman Pearl is from the same era as Little Miss No Name.
In fact, a while back I had to convince my friend Lori that the doll she had as a kid was Little Miss No Name, and NOT Poor Pitiful Pearl, as she always thought. She may have called it Poor Pitiful Pearl, but the burlap dress and plastic tear gave her away.
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| I got this girl at a yard sale for a quarter. I lost my tear when I took my LMNN, with her detachable tear, to school in first grade, even though Mom told me not to, because I would lose it. Umm... You can see and read about my LMNN HERE. |
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| She's supposed to have her right sock falling down, but it has been up for so many years it didn't want to go. I was afraid of ruining that old elastic by forcing it. |
Not as much as I wanted my Little Miss No Name, but she still would have drawn me to her because she looked like she needed love.
While researching for this post I came across this picture on Pintrest:
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| The scarf was made for her and was not original. |
The picture was pinned from Worthpoint, and they got it from an old Ebay auction. Their auction said they had seen a doll just like theirs on Ebay earlier, being sold as Pearl's cousin. They called her 'Poor Pitiful Suzie'. She is supposed to be 17" tall and have a stuffed vinyl body.
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| Looks like a Magic Skin body. Did they even make Pearl dolls like this? |
Who is this doll? She looks very Pearlesque, and she's wearing Pearlesque clothes. But she's not Pearl. Anybody know anything about her? To go to the Worthpoint page and see other pictures of her, and read the description, you can go HERE.
I also once saw an auction for an advertising doll for a gas station or some related thing, which was obviously made from the Pearl molds, only she had red hair and was wearing gas station coveralls or some such thing. I can't remember the name of the gas station. I think it was a man's name, like Gus's or something.
Anybody know anything about these dolls?
You can see photos of creator William Steig and the original Pearl, and read an article from the time on the Vintage Doll Collector blog, HERE.
Anybody know anything about these dolls?
You can see photos of creator William Steig and the original Pearl, and read an article from the time on the Vintage Doll Collector blog, HERE.
To close on a serious note, any prayers, good vibes, or positive energy, or whatever you believe in that could be sent out for our niece in law Carly would be deeply appreciated. Carly and her husband, our nephew Chris are only 30 years old, and have been together since they were 15. Recently we learned that Carly is battling cancer. Today she updated her prognosis, and things, although not impossible, don't look good. Any and all positivity coming Carly's way couldn't hurt. For those of you who think it inappropriate for me to stick this serious message on the end of a doll post instead of giving it a separate post of it's own: to be quite blunt, more people will read this one.
See you tomorrow.
See you tomorrow.
Your Pearl is in the same boat with several of my vintage dolls with that eye going glazed. I'd heard that a warm hair dryer was supposed to fix that, but I've never tried it. If you find an effective fix please let me know; my Little Miss Revlon doll is starting to look possessed!!!
ReplyDeleteHave you checked to make sure the cloudiness isn't on the outside of her eyes? Try using a fingernail, or a baby toothbrush. Are the eyes metal or plastic?
DeleteHi, I've used a hairdryer on an Arranbee Littlest Angel for cloudy eyes. The dryer is too wide and needs to have a cardboard "cone" attached to focus the air on just one eye at a time. Use low or no heat for about 10 minutes at a time. I did this twice a day for about 2 weeks and saw significant improvement-but until you can get the inside of the eye entirely dry, it will keep getting cloudy to some degree... hope
Deletethis helps
Thanks!
DeleteFirstly the doll is very cute, another I've never seen before. But I like her face with the big gap between her nose and her mouth. The clouding of her eye is apparently quite common on some older dolls, and sometimes instead of cloudy, the colour will change altogether. The only way around it is to change the eyes for new ones, but I don't know how easy this is to do on a doll with sleep eyes.
ReplyDeleteSecondly, no I don't think it's wrong or inappropriate to put a serious note on the bottom of your doll post, you're right, more people will read it than, sadly, if it were a post on it's own.
I wish your niece in law all the very best, that any treatment she's going to have will work well for her...I'll send positive vibes and thoughts her way.
Big hugs to you and your family xxx
Thanks very much.
DeleteI thought the cloudiness was only in eyes with metal backing. These eyes are plastic as far as I can tell. The timing would be right for plastic eyes. I thought at first it was dust on the outside of the eye,as I've seen that before. It didn't come off even with my fingernail though. Strange.
I will add Carly to my prayer list. I think it's always appropriate to ask for prayers. We are human first and need human attention before we can do anything else.
ReplyDeleteI do remember Pearl. I didn't have her but she was out when I was a child. I remember that my mother thought her name was so funny. I can't remember Pearl's face but I thought it was a little different. I could just be mixing her up with another doll.
I think the tape was to keep her bangs in place. I don't remember hairnets being used on dolls when I was a child.
Thank you.
DeleteI'm sure the tape was to keep her bangs from straying,but I'm also sure I'll make a mess of her hair if I remove it. I don't work well with hair.
I'm so sorry to hear about your niece in law. Don't give up hope, my aunt was diagnosed with thyroid cancer in 1998 and given about a year and a half to live, all the doctors told her to get her affairs in order. She fought and lived until November of last year, about 18 more years than they gave her. Don't EVER give up hope, send her cards in the mail, stickers or fun socks. Little things to make her smile, hope and laughter can help so much when battling cancer. The doctors might say one thing but doctors don't know everything, and they can be wrong. I hope she gets better and kicks cancers butt!
ReplyDeleteI have sent your story along to Carly and she greatly appreciated it.She puts a lot of faith in a positive attitude and she said she loved hearing your aunt's tale.Thank you.
DeleteMy Horsman 1963 Pearl is 11 inches tall and my Brookglad Pearl is 13 inches tall. They make a cute sister combo.
ReplyDeleteI'll bet they look nice together. How cute!
DeleteI had a magic skin stuffed non-jointed Pitiful Pearl when I was young. I grew to love her, but I asked my dad for a pretty doll. He gave me Pearl instead. I secretly cried about it. She became a favorite, but it took time. I was very young.
ReplyDeleteAw! Poor you and poor Pearl.At least you grew to like her.I never warmed to my 'Raggedy Gretel',which I got when I asked for a Raggedy Ann.
DeleteMy sisters and I remember this doll well! I was just texting them now, using the phrase, ‘ poor pitiful,Pearl’, which we have used ever since we were kids, and I was searching for a photo of her to attach😆. We remember finding her in the Sears big toy catalog, asking for her for Christmas. Our mother was horrified, and we never got her- this may be the year we got our ‘Baby Dear’ dolls, instead. We were just wondering how well it sold- we think we must have felt sorry for Pearl!
ReplyDeleteIt's a shame you never got her. I don't remember her from when I was a kid, but I would have felt sorry for her too! I felt that way about my Little Miss No Name. She needed to be taken care of. I think my mom thought she was a bit scary though!
DeleteI wonder if parents back in the day thought this was 'negative for children', hence the hesitation to get a 'pitiful' doll for their kids. There is a sweetness about this doll, and a quality that people respond to..which is the point of dolls - maybe they are miniature aspects of our human selves, and we love them for this, too. Hmm...It is July 2021 as I write from New Orleans. I wish you and the family well on the health challenges of your dear one. And imagine lovingly for a good outcome. Cheers from the French quarter!
ReplyDeleteI think the general leaning is toward 'pretty' dolls. A lot of people don't want to see anything ugly, or 'pitiful'. 'Pitiful' is sad, and unappealing to most. Then there are kids like me, who wanted to love and nurture 'pitiful' types. Thank you for your good thoughts. As of today, Carly is doing great!
DeleteShe may be pitiful, but I think she's cute. lol My Mom uses the phrase poor pitiful pearl. I didn't know it was a doll! And I didn't the know the history of Shrek either, pretty interesting.
ReplyDeleteI’ve recently been honored with my Great Grandmother’s Pitiful Pearl, and I’m afraid her hair has been somewhat over-loved. I would like to replace it (I’m handy). She has lots of adventures and needs new looks all the time. I was reading up on it and noticed the holes in her head are spaced quite widely, which may not work well with some materials. Pearl deserves the very best! Any suggestions for quality hair that will hold a curl, brush easily, and be thick and lustrous like a 70’s shampoo commercial? Or do I need to adjust my expectations? Thanks!
ReplyDeleteI know there is doll hair that can replicate that coveted 70's shampoo commercial hair, and you should be able to curl it. I just don't know what kind it is, or where to get it. I would say that unless the doll hair specifically says you can use heat on it-don't. Heat can damage doll hair and even melt some types! Try Googling "replacement hair for dolls" if you want to root it yourself, or just buy a doll wig. There are lots of wigs for dolls these days. They come in sizes, so you'll have to figure out what size Pearl would wear. I wish I could see what she looks like when you get her done! Good luck!
DeleteI have a collection of “Pearls” A slender “17 Brookglad. She can wear Miss Revlon clothes. I also have a “Sad Susie Pearl” and a Canadian “Pearl” I was lucky these were not stolen by a dishonest relative.
ReplyDeleteSo it really is Sad Susie? I'm excited! Tell me more and I'd love to do a post on her if you'd email me some pictures! If you send your email address, I won't publish it, and I'll get in touch with you. Who made the Sad Susie? I haven't ever been able to find anything else about her.e
DeleteWas wondering if you had any information about Pearl's fellow Brookglad creation, Rusty. Had one as a child and a few years ago bought one from Ebay. Can't help but smile every time a look at him.
ReplyDeleteJust what I see online. He's a cute littler feller. He looks like he was sculpted by the same person who did the Brookglad Dennis the Menace.
DeleteYes, I wouldn't mind knowing the name of the sculptor. It's genius how Rusty's expression seems to change when light is hitting his face from different directions - warmth, trusting, kind, and more. All very touching.
DeleteFor her foggy eyes, have you tried a few drops of sewing machine oil? It's saved some of my vintage dolls, who had the same issue.I'm expecting my first Pearl doll next week. I'm so excited!
ReplyDeleteDo you put the oil where it will run into the eye, around the edge, or directly on it?
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