Doll-A-Day 2023, #2: Baby Ginger by Cosmopolitan

   Today's doll is one from my childhood, and my sister's. She's my sister's doll, Baby Ginger.

This is her original bonnet and shirt. She also had yellow pants. For some reason, my sister has her doll, but I have her doll's pants!  

 Ginger was made by Cosmopolitan in the 1950's. She began as an 8 inch hard plastic doll called Ginger, made to compete with Vogue's Ginny. (In fact, Ginger and Ginny were both produced by Commonwealth Plastics.) The next version was the 10 1/2 inch Miss Ginger, (You can see ones I have posted HERE, HERE, and HERE.). This version was a more mature lady, and intended to compete with Little Miss Revlon. There was also an 8 inch Little Miss Ginger, made to compete with the 8 inch Little Miss Revlon. My sister was born in 1956, and when she was small, she got this Baby Ginger. Baby Ginger was supposed to be a baby, and was a competitor to Ginnette, the baby version of Ginny. She is about 8 inches tall, and is all vinyl, with jointed neck, shoulders, and hips. This particular Baby Ginger was a Kellogg's promotion, available for $1 plus one box top from Rice Krispies or Raisin Bran. She came with her 'three piece corduroy playsuit', (Only the pants are corduroy.), white sandals, a bottle, and a diaper. That was 'offer B'. Offer C was a complete 15 piece set including a  6 piece bathtub and accessories set, a 5 piece christening outfit, a party outfit, a sun suit, and a two piece night outfit. The price for this massive set? The same $1 and 1 box top!

  She has a bottle mouth, and is a drink and wet doll.

She has sleep eyes, with those hard plastic lashes. In fact, the Baby Ginger booklet proclaimed her to be the 'first and only 8" all vinyl fully jointed drink and wet baby doll with rooted hair and moving eyes'.

Of course, if she missed any one of those things out, she may not have been the first. She may have been the first to have ALL those qualifications. Or maybe not.

  Her brown hair is rooted in a short style.

This one is a bit worn!

  She had an entire wardrobe. 

  Of course, we probably never knew that. When we got something, we never got anything to go with it. For example, we had a few generic Barbie clone clothes, but never any more real Barbie clothes, (until I got one Barbie, one Ken, and one Francie outfit when I was a kid.), extra clothes to go with our Penny Brite dolls, or any sets for our GI Joes, etc. This prompted my sister to start sewing and make doll clothes. Later she worked as a tailor, so I guess it did her some good.

  That's the doll for today. See you tomorrow for another doll.

  

Boopsie,Cutesy,and Ginger

  A few days ago I promised you a look at some recent Goodwill hauls. Well, here they are.

These guys all need some clean up.

These kids were in a bag together. I'm trying to fund a trip to England in the Spring,so I thought these kids might help. They aren't super valuable, but they are worth more than they cost.The tallest one is an 8" Ginger doll.

Ginger is marked on the back of her head.

Ginger was sold by Cosmopolitan in the 1950's. She looks similar to Vogue's Ginny because both were actually manufactured by Commonwealth Plastics.

This Ginger is a walker,and her head does still turn when her legs are moved. She has cloudy eyes,so I'll have to see if I can clean them,or if,like so many dolls of this era, the eyes are cloudy on the inside and can't be improved. I just haven't felt up to doing anything with her yet. They look like they might be ok though. Her sleep eyes open and close alright.

The big plastic baby is Boopsie.

More Cool Thrift Store Finds: Miss Ginger and Mattel Modern Furniture

  Happy Halloween!

  It's that time of year again. I'm once more locked in that struggle with the yard waste guys. I have been really good about getting my leaves raked this year. Since my shoulder has been so bad I knew I could never rake them all at once, so I have been raking them a little at a time. That means I have only spent about half an hour every Tuesday while I'm here alone because Ken's at work and Ivy's at play practice and stage crew, instead of a whole day spent breaking my back, (and my shoulder). So of course, I fill three cans with leaves and the branches Ken and I cut this week, and the yard waste guys don't come.I think they only come when they feel like it. I can't have my trash can tied up all winter, plus I still have two more piles of leaves in my yard. (I didn't dare load up all my leaves and fill all my trash cans, because the chance of the yard waste guys not coming was too great.) I didn't want to put all my leaves in the tree line, like they actually tell you you can do, because there have been too many years they never came and sucked them up. Then all my grass there dies, and the rotted leaves make the ground all lumpy and hard to mow with my little non-motorized mower.

  I am still pretty proud of the two Fall/Halloween photo stories I did a couple of years ago, so if you haven't seen them yet you can check them out
HERE

"The  World Family at the Pumpkin Patch"

and HERE

"The Halloween Party"

  I found some cool things at Salvation Army the other day. First was this Miss Ginger doll.

Miss Ginger was made by Cosmopolitan. There were other incarnations of Ginger,including a childlike doll that competed with Vogue's Ginny, a taller version of my doll that competed with Miss Revlon,and an 8" version called Little Miss Ginger, similar to Little Miss Nancy Ann. This version is 10 1/2" tall and premiered in 1957.  She's in pretty nice condition.She could do with restringing because she's a little loose, but at least she's still together.I'm not sure exactly what to do with her hair.Is it supposed to be one of those bun things?

Anybody know? I know there were Miss Ginger's with ponytails. But this isn't supposed to be a ponytail, is it? One thing's for sure: it's not meant to be worn down!

That's not a case of empty plugs. It's rooted that way. By the way, she's marked 'Ginger' on the back of her head, just below her hair.

Her dress is too big for her. I'm not sure if it's homemade.I love the belt. It's sewn on in the front, which is why it didn't get lost.I think these are her original shoes though.When I bought her she was only wearing one shoe. I'll tell you where the other shoe came from in a minute.

I also got a bag containing this Mattel Modern Furniture!

There is supposed to be a cushion in the chair.

This other unidentified piece was in the bag too.

The Mattel Modern Furniture is really hard to find and really expensive.

It was actually made a year before Barbie, in 1958.

It's hard to see, but that's a Mattel logo.

The boxes it originally came in said it was for dolls 10" to 10 1/2" tall, like Miss Ginger and Little Miss Revlon.

Miss Ginger and the Little Miss Revlon I found at Goodwill recently.

And it is perfectly sized for them. People still use it for Barbie though, and it works well for her too. It's popular with collectors, especially now that Mid Century design is having a resurgence.

The other Modern Furniture included a couple of different styles of couch, lamps, a stereo cabinet/credenza, dining table and chairs,a bedroom set with bed, clothes rack,and dresser with mirror.

And where did I get the other shoe for Miss Ginger? It was in the middle drawer of this piece of furniture!

 Along with the little plastic guy, who was obviously originally driving something.

His steering wheel was in the drawer too. Must have been some accident.

  So this must have been Miss Ginger's furniture. I went back yesterday to see if any more of the furniture had shown up. If it had it had sold the day before,when I didn't go back. I'm wondering if the Little Miss Revlon and Barbie and Midge I found at Goodwill the last couple of weeks are another case of someone donating half their stuff to Goodwill and half to Salvation Army. That has very obviously happened before. (Like with the zillion Crissy dolls both had at the same time.)

52 in this Goodwill batch. Salvation Army had 42.

You can read the posts about that HERE and HERE.

  I hope everybody has a safe and fun Halloween.This is the first year I have been in the position of handing out candy on Halloween, with no kids Trick or Treating, and I totally didn't think about it until the Trick or Treaters went by! Now I feel guilty! Next year I'll be ready. It's hard getting out of the idea, 'I won't be home on Halloween. I'll be out taking the kids Trick or Treating.' Sniff!