Doll-A-Day 2023 #21: Rushton Hobo

   This guy came from a flea market back in the summer. He's a hobo doll, made by Rushton.

He's about 20 inches tall.

  When I found this poor hobo, he was being displayed in a baby sized coffin! Bleh! He was being sold coffin and all, but I asked how much he'd be by himself. No way am I taking home a baby coffin. Again, bleh.

  Okay. Why did Rushton think kids would want to play with a hobo? But I guess they did, because there are a lot of these guys around.

He has monkey ears. When he was picked up at our house, Emma's friend thought he had been singed in the fire. Emma, who knows more about dolls said, "I'm pretty sure that's how he is supposed to look." The black on his face is supposed to be '5 o'clock shadow'. Do they still use that term for when someone hasn't shaved?

Rushton made loads of plush toys. They were based in Atlanta, Georgia.

He's a Rushton Star Creation, according to one side of the tag on his butt.

The other side of his tag says 'The Rushton Company Atlanta, Georgia'.

    As I said, they made lots of these hobos. The hobos aren't all the same either. There are loads of different clothing fabrics and hair colours. Even the cloth bodies came in different fabrics.

Here's his back and bottom, with his pants down and his shirt up. His body is patterned flannel.

There was even one with bare feet instead of built in felt shoes, like this guy has.

 He's wearing removable clothes: a plaid flannel shirt, and flannel pants with an elastic waist.

His cloth body has a split seam. He is stuffed with chopped rag stuffing.

 He's what is called a 'mask face' doll, as he has a rubber face only, and the back of his head is cloth.

Well, 'hair' on the back of his head. He also has a loop, as if you might want to hang him somewhere. That's weird. Maybe he was hung for display in the store. I have no idea.

   He also has rubber hands.

 He would have originally had a hat. He does have something you'd never have on a kid's toy these days: your traditional hobo cigar. 

There's lots of detail in the burning end of that cigar.

  Where did the idea come from that all hobos smoked cigars? This myth was propagated by Red Skelton and his Freddy the Freeloader hobo. Hobos in movies and TV shows were always picking up other people's old cigar butts and smoking them. I bet they picked up more than cigar butts doing that.

  Rushton made loads of chimps, clowns, Santas, animals and hobos, and even the famous Jill, (as in Jack and...

...which became the original Mrs. Beasley doll on the TV series Family Affair, before she was changed over to the Mattel version. Jack and Jill were also mask faced dolls. The Mattel Mrs. Beasley had a complete vinyl head with rooted hair.

Anissa Jones as Buffy, in an early still from "Family Affair", with the original mask face Rushton Jill as Mrs. Beasley.

I've even seen a dark haired doll with the Mrs. Beasley face, described as a female hobo. I'm not sure if that was her real identity or not. Jack and Jill were part of a line of nursery rhyme characters, so it may have been one of those.  To read my full post on Mrs. Beasley and her history, you can go HERE.

I've seen these hobo dolls listed as being from the 40's, 50's and 60's. I'm not sure when they were really made, although I'm guessing 50's and 60's from what I've seen. Although, the Rushton company was around a long time. It was founded by Mary Waterman Phillips. She began by making stockingette dolls with hand painted faces. The toys were sold as Mawaphil dolls. In 1921 Mary married, and the company became known by her married name, Rushton. The company closed down in 1984. I know I bought Unsentimental Niece a very Rushton looking clown doll for her birthday in the very early 80's. I'm not sure it was actually made by Rushton, but it looked just like the Rushton ones. It's somewhere in Fuzz's closet, so it will have survived the fire. Unsentimental Niece gave it to Fuzz when Fuzz was little. Then Fuzz became a bit afraid of it and it got stuffed away somewhere. I'll post it someday if I come across it. 

  Rushton produced so many toys, and most were so adorable they're hard to resist...until you see the prices. Rushton is so collectible now that the prices can be pretty high. That's one reason I sold the Jack doll I found at a yard sale. I wish I had kept him!

  There's a page with information and identification of Rushton toys, which you can see HERE.

  That's the doll for today. Ken has brought a bunch of things from the house for me to clean and rescue, so I have to get busy. See you tomorrow for another doll.