Doll-A-Day 2023 #333: Jester Jenny

  Today's doll is Jester Jenny.

  She's a Kelly Club doll, from 1999, back when a poster of all the dolls available was included in the box. Jenny's bio is included on the back of the box.

  Jenny is wearing a pink and gold jester suit, with a pink collar, pink tassel loafers, and a velvety pink jester hat.

 

  Jenny was a Kelly friend. The smaller Jenny has dark hair, but the large 16 plush 'Cuddly Soft' Jenny Kelly friend was a red head. They're both cute.

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

Doll-A-Day 2023 #332: Fred Flintstone

 Today's doll is Fred Flintstone.

Fred was one of a series of four dolls. The dolls were 'played' by Tommy and Kelly.

 

They were play line dolls, released in 2003. Fred wears the typical Fred Flintstones outfit.

But he has the cute Tommy face.

He also has a cow lick, ala' Alfalfa from Little Rascals/Our Gang.

And like Fred always is, he's barefoot.

  As for Pebbles and Bamm Bamm, they were released as Tommy/Kelly dolls too. (Or, should I say, Kelly and Tommy were Pebbles and Bamm Bamm.) Those dolls were released as part of the Barbie 'Silver Label' line. They were more considered collector dolls, and were more expensive. Consequently, they still sell for more than the adults.

  That's the doll for #332. Stayed tuned for more!

Doll-A-Day 2023 #316: Barnum's Animals Crackers Kelly

   Today's doll is part of a 2002 series of  Kelly dolls called Barnum's Animals Crackers.

Better known as just 'animal crackers', the 'crackers' in question are the little animal shaped cookies that come in the little boxes that look like the wagons circus animals used to be hauled in.

  There were three dolls in the series: Jenny as the tiger, Kayla as the lion, and Kelly as the elephant. The boxes were made to look like they were circus wagons too, with wheels. The box also has a string handle, like real boxes of animal crackers.

Why didn't Kelly have to paint her nose? And what happened to her shoes?

Kelly is wearing an elephant costume with a completely vertical trunk, and big ears lined in pink.

The bottoms of the pant legs have black elephant toenails on them. And all the dolls came with a mini animal cracker box.

  That's it for today. See you again tomorrow.

Doll-A-Day 2023 #114: Kelly as Little Red Riding Hood

   Today's doll is a boxed set: Kelly as Little Red Riding Hood.

This is one of those collector's sets featuring Barbie's little sister, Kelly. It was fourth in the Storybook Favourites series, which also included Raggedy Ann and Andy, Goldilocks, and Hansel and Gretel, This set was produced in 2001.

The back of the box gives a kindler, gentler version of Little Red Riding Hood than the one I grew up with. In this version, Grama was just hiding in the pantry, and comes out when a huntsman scares the wolf away. In the version we had as kids, the wolf eats Grama, and a woodcutter ends up cutting the wolf open with his axe and Grama is found whole and sound inside the wolf's stomach!

  Kelly  as Red wears a pretty dress, with attached apron, and her signature red hooded cape....

...while the Wolf wear Grama's  night cap and glasses!

This wolf could barely get Red in it's stomach, let alone Grama.

  Red has her basket of apples. In the story I know, she has a jar of jelly and some bread for Grama.

The elastic that held it to her hand has finally given up.

Red's cape has a hook and eye closure, but is stitched together anyway.

 The Kelly dolls in the collector sets like this seemed to have more realistic hair than the play line dolls. It's not crazy long, and not as terribly thick as the play line's.

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

Doll-A-Day 2023 #73: Sailor Tommy

   Today's doll survived a damp box from what I am now calling The House of Fire. Ken brought a wet box that contained mint boxed dolls that had no damage, amazingly enough. Even their boxes were fine. This doll was one of them. He's Sailor Tommy.

  I'm pretty sure this doll was part of Fuzz's collection. Not this boxed one, but one just like it. Fuzz's Tommy's didn't stay in the boxes! They were played to death...or at least had their clothes and things stolen for Fuzzy the Doll.

There was an earlier Tommy who came wearing blue shorts and a red and white striped shirt with an anchor decal on the front. He wasn't 'sailor Tommy' though, just 'Tommy' 

  I said this recently, but, I miss the old Tommy and Kelly dolls. I think they were so much cuter than today's Chelsea and friends. Look how cute little Tommy is!

The early Kelly and Friends were 'Kelly Club' dolls.

He has real rooted hair. Today's male Kelly friends dolls have molded and painted hair styles. These little guys had bowl cuts, like I used to give Fuzz. Back when kids looked more like kids, and not miniature adults. 

  His clothes are much better made and cuter than the modern ones too.

His outfit is all one piece, and he has an anchor on his shirt.

  Did I just say 'modern' ones?! Sheesh! It wasn't THAT long ago, was it?!

2000?! Holy cow! That was 23 years ago! That's a whole adult person ago! That's Ivy ago!

  He has a little multicolour sailor hat.

He's wearing little Kelly tennis shoes, but you can't see them.

  He came with a little tug boat. 

It was originally rubber banded to his hand, but after all these years, the rubber band disintegrated.

You don't get accessories with the simple dolls anymore either. Something else you're a lot less likely to get these days: free stuff! You'll notice that in the first picture you can see that it says on his box that you can get a free child size t-shirt with the purchase of three dolls. I don't know how we never took advantage of that one. I suppose it was when Ivy got past toddlerhood that she fell in love with Kelly dolls. When this offer was out, she was only a baby. She was busy nursing like she learned from Popeye, and not sleeping from the colic that caused. When she became a toddler she loved Krissy dolls, those tiny dolls with loads of inappropriate-for-a-toddler sized accessories. (Don't worry. I was with her all the time. She never played with them alone. And she didn't put toys like that in her mouth...just books, paper, chalk, and bird seed...)

  That's the doll for today. If I had access to Fuzz's Tommy dolls, I'd try to figure out which one was this one, and show him to you out of box. It would probably be difficult though, because there was a lot of similarity in some of those Tommy dolls. Out of box it's often difficult to tell who is who.

  Tomorrow: another doll. (What a surprise.)

Doll-A-Day #60: Tommy and Kelly as Hansel and Gretel

   Remember Tommy and Kelly? Tommy has disappeared in the mists of Mattel time, but Kelly, who was already Shelly in Europe, turned into Chelsea and became a long legged seven year old. But back in what I think of as the heyday of Kelly/Chelsea, there were Tommy and Kelly. As kids, Fuzzy collected all the Tommy dolls, and Ivy collected all the Kelly dolls. I once wrote a book for Ivy called, "Ivy and the Magic Flying Sheep", wherein Ivy was granted wishes by, yes, some magic flying sheep. After a few set backs, where the sheep find loopholes, and don't appropriately grant Ivy's wishes to be Queen of the World, etc., the last line of the book is, "...somewhere in the world, it was raining Kellys." I mean, between Fuzz and Ivy, they had almost all the Tommy's and Kellys produced. They even split at least one set, the Grease one, with Fuzz taking the John Travolta, and Ivy taking the Olivia Newton John, except that they traded sweaters/jackets. 

  One set they didn't have, together or separately, was this one: Tommy and Kelly as Hansel and Gretel.

(I can't think of Hansel and Gretel without thinking of the Bugs Bunny cartoon where Bugs earns the correct pronunciation of Hansel's name, "Hansel? Han-sel? Haaansel?..." You can watch the cartoon HERE.) But I always wanted it! This particular one, from our sales stuff, made it's way to Emma's house in a very wet box after the fire. Fortunately it was just the box it was stored in, along with some other dolls. The actual doll box is fine. So, it survived. And you know what? Mine now! At this point, as they were headed to storage, I still didn't open them. And I might not. I like them in the box, for now at least. So here they are.

  It describes itself as 'Barbie Collectibles'. This was the higher end Tommy and Kelly dolls, considered to be for adult collectors, and not play dolls. As such, they were a little more expensive than play line dolls. This set was produced in 2000, and was the second in the storybook series.

  Okay. I have an issue with their version of Hansel and Gretel. I understand they may have wanted to make it a little more palatable for modern audiences, but let's be honest. In the original version, Hansel and Gretel's father is also responsible for leading them off into the forest, hoping to lose them. In the story, the stepmother is sick of having to divide the scarce food with them, and persuades her husband to lose the kids in the forest so they themselves can better survive. The father goes along with this idea! The next day the four of them go out into the forest to 'collect wood'. The parents then proceed to lose the kids. Luckily, Hansel heard their evil plans, and filled his pocket with rocks, so as to leave a path home. The kids leave a pebble path, and make it back by morning. (How they saw those pebbles in the dark I don't know.) The stepmother is furious, and demands that they take the kids out again the next day. Again the father gives in! The kids don't have a heads up this time though, and Hansel has no time to collect rocks. This time when the kids are led out and lost, Hansel has only bread to leave behind. He leaves a nice trail of bread crumbs, but when it's time to follow it, the kids find that it has been eaten by birds! Now they can't find their way home. This is when they get even more lost and find the candy covered house of the old witch who eats kids. You know the rest. The witch tricks them into thinking she is kind, and the kids gladly go into her house. Next thing you know, Hansel is in a cage, being plumped up for cooking, and Gretel is made into a servant. When the vision impaired witch asks Hansel to stick his finger out so she can tell how fat he's getting, Hansel sticks an old bone out instead. When the witch gets fed up waiting for Hansel to fatten, she decides to eat him anyway. Gretel is forced to fire up the stove for cooking Hansel, and when the old witch leans over to the oven door to see if the fire is hot enough, Gretel pushes her in and slams the door! Way to escape a child killer Gretel! But, uh, yeah, she just murdered someone. Mattel doesn't want to blame the father for abandoning the kids in the forest alone, but they have no qualms in telling us that Gretel is a murderer. I mean, it's not like the witch didn't deserve it. And what else was Gretel supposed to do? The witch was going to kill her brother. I don't think the prosecuting attorney would have a leg to stand on if it went to court. However, I do think child services would still take the kids, once they'd made their way back home, even though the stepmother had gone and the father welcomed them home. After all, this guy is easily persuaded to abandon his kids. What happens if he gets another, um...witch of a wife, and she wants him to drop the kids off a cliff? This guy is too easily swayed. He's not responsible enough to have kids.

  Okay. We now return to our regularly scheduled program, i.e., the dolls.

  Aren't they cute? They have slightly more tan complexions than the standard Tommy and Kelly dolls, and a more realistic shade of blonde hair. 

Tommy has a sort of Dutch boy cut, minus the bangs, and a hat, while Kelly sports a kerchief.

Gretel has a printed on patch on her apron, and a basket of bread.

Hansel is wearing lederhosen. That translates to, not, shorts with straps, but 'leather pants'.

That's a whole basket of bread! They could have left chunks big enough to have choked those birds! In the book I have from when I was a kid, they are only given one stale lump of bread between them, which makes more sense, especially if they were supposed to be so poor, and starving.

  But let's get back to those lederhosen. He has little embroidered flower decorations on the middle strap, and buttons in the front. That middle strap: good idea. Like bibbed overalls, it keeps the straps from falling down. (Kid Fuzzy's favourite outfit was bibbed overalls, which Fuzz called 'hook up pants'. My dad was in charge of shortening or lengthening the straps, because I always screwed it up.)

Another shot of those buttons. There's also a checked shirt and yellow socks.

Hansel's shoes are regular molded lace up Tommy and Kelly shoes, in black. 

Gretel has a dress and apron combo, which also has embroidered accents, and some faux lacing on the bodice.

 My childhood Hansel and Gretel book was a Golden Book with this beautiful cover by artist Eloise Wilkin, illustrator of the doll inspiring "Baby Dear".

I loved the artwork as a kid. But one thing that really stuck with me was a picture of the witch putting the kids to bed. They are sleeping in a bed with shelves and doors. I have loved the look of it ever since. I want to build a dollhouse with a bed like this. 

It's called variously a closet bed, closed bed. cupboard bed, box bed, or cabinet bed. That witch may have eaten children, but she had great taste in furniture.

  And those are the dolls for today.  Tomorrow we'll see another doll.

Doll-A-Day 2019 #348: Wizard of Oz Kelly and Tommy Dolls: Dorothy, Scarecrow, Tin Man, and Cowardly Lion

  As I said before,I've been remiss in not posting more Wizard of Oz dolls this year,because 2019 marks quite a milestone for the movie. Since it was made in 1939, The Wizard of Oz is turning 80 years old this year! Can you name another 80 year old movie that's still watched regularly by children? So today we're looking at this little group.

They are obviously the Scarecrow, Tin Man, Dorothy,(and Toto!),and the Lion, from The Wizard of Oz. A note about their background, which you may have seen the yellow brick road to in the last couple of previous posts.  It is from the 2000 Barbie Wizard of Oz Emerald City Playset.

This set is from 2003.I think Mattel did a really good job on the costumes.

They came with this certificate of authenticity.

The faces are still the regular Kelly faces, but they really did really well with the face paint. The Scarecrow even has his pointy eyebrows.

Not everybody has a tag, but the Lion has tags that let you know he's a 'Barbie Collectibles' doll.

Trivia: The Wizard of Oz was made by MGM studios, and yet this tag says copyright Turner Entertainment. That's because Ted Turner bought the MGM catalog of films in the 1980's. (That's when he came under fire for colourizing old black and white films. "In Living Color" did a sketch where Jim Carrey played Ted Turner, hosting colorized movies, with the slogan, "I'm Ted Turner, doing whatever I like to more classic films." In 1996 Warner Brothers bought Turner Entertainment. Now, "The Wizard of Oz" is owned by and copyright Warner Brothers. The irony of that! When the movie was made there was a huge rivalry between the studios, with MGM and Warner Brothers being the top two studios. I imagine Louis B. Mayer,(the 'Mayer' of Metro Goldwyn Mayer,which is what 'MGM' stands for.),turning over in his grave to know that Warner Brothers now owns his films.

The Dorothy Kelly has big brown eyes ,like Judy Garland,who played her.

The set also included Toto.

Trivia: MGM desperately wanted Shirley Temple to play Dorothy. When the movie started being planned,Shirley was still a big box office draw. MGM tried to borrow Shirley from her studio, 20th Century Fox. Fox and MGM negotiated for a while. Fox didn't want to let rival MGM use their biggest star. MGM agreed to trade use of their two biggest stars,Clark Gable and Jean Harlow,for Shirley for The Wizard of Oz. The deal fell through after Jean Harlow's untimely death in 1937. MGM 'settled' for using a contract player,(an actor under contract with the studio), Judy Garland. By the time the movie came out in 1939, Shirley's box office popularity had dropped. I think Shirley, as much as I love her childhood films, would have been a terrible Dorothy. I can't imagine her, with her limited singing ability, singing a song like "Over the Rainbow".  In 1940, in an effort to capture the success of  The Wizard of Oz, Fox released the Shirley Temple film, "The Bluebird". Shot in Technicolor, it was a much darker fantasy than Oz, adapted from the stage play by Maurice Maeterlinck. Shirley played a mean, grouchy girl, and the experiences in the film included a raging forest fire meant to kill Shirley and her brother, a visit to dead grandparents who live in their old home, sleeping except when someone thinks of them, and a visit to the Land of the Unborn, where Shirley meets her future little sister, who tells her that she'll 'only be with (you) a little while'. Ah! It sounds horrible, but as a kid, and even now, I really like it! You can watch "The Blue Bird" in it's entirety HERE. The film was unsuccessful when released. It was remade in the early 1970's,with an international all star cast that included Elizabeth Taylor, and that was also a box office failure.

Toto is made of rubber.

Dorothy also came with a plastic basket, and a blue and white gingham napkin, which, unfortunately, I found after the photos were taken.

                                                                               Found it!

As with most Dorothy dolls, this one also has the wrong hair style. Dorothy had two curled ponytails at the beginning of the movie, and long, curled hair after her makeover in Emerald City. She never had full  braids.

She's missing the light blue hair ribbons she came with.

Dorothy Kelly's costume is pretty accurate though. The high collar with rick rack trim, the gathered sleeves, and the way the gingham is pieced on her dress, are all screen accurate.

Trivia: Dorothy's blue and white gingham dress was NOT blue and white. White didn't photograph properly in the early Technicolor, and pink had to be used for white. There is at least one Dorothy dress on public display. For the opening sepia scenes, a black and white gingham dress was used.
  Dorothy Kelly's shirt is actually a body suit, which closes in the back with a snap. The dress has no opening at all. They really aren't meant to ever be removed. I found a piece here and a piece there in Ivy's room, and when I tried to get them back on Dorothy I could see why Ivy had never done it. The shirt was almost impossible to get on her. The hands wouldn't go through the sleeves. Once I finally did get the shirt on, the dress would hardly go over it. It was a lot of work to redress her!

Dorothy's ruby slippers are the usual Kelly 'Mary Jane' style shoes, with glitter inside the rubber. Trivia: In the original book, Dorothy wears silver slippers. It was changed to ruby for the movie to take full advantage of the Technicolor film.

Trivia: There were many different pairs of ruby slippers made for the movie, including a curly toed pair referred to as the 'Aladdin shoes', which were tried out early on, and rejected. You can see a pair of the ruby slippers at the Smithsonian in Washington, D.C..

The Scarecrow is a cute little guy. they got his pointy eyebrows, red nose, and burlap cheeks just about right. His costume is very well done too.

The original Scarecrow costume is also on display at the Smithsonian. It was preserved for years by Ray Bolger, who played the Scarecrow, and donated after his death by his widow.

Trivia: Ray Bolger was originally cast as the Tin Man, with the Scarecrow being played by Buddy Ebsen. Bolger was very unhappy with his casting, feeling the role of the Scarecrow would be a much better fit for his loose limbed dancing style. He finally convinced the studio, who switched the actors' roles. Buddy Ebsen became the Tin Man. The make-up for the Tin Man was aluminum powder over greasepaint. The powder eventually coated Ebsen's lungs, and he was taken to the hospital, unable to breathe. Rather than wait on Ebsen to recover, the studio recast his role. It went to Jack Haley. The make-up was changed to aluminum paste, to avoid the same catastrophe, but Haley still managed to get a terrible eye infection which kept him  home for a while. Years later his son remembered his father sitting in a room where the lamps were all covered with red cloths, because of his eye infection.

The hat is felt, with a raggedy band and raffia trim.

The boots are the usual Kelly/Tommy boots, in brown this time.

Ebsen's dancing style was even more loose limbed than Bolger's, as you can see in the 'Codfish Ball' dance he does with Shirley Temple in "Captain January". (You can watch that HERE.) As it was, Ebsen got cheated out of his chance at Oz immortality. He did ok for himself though, later becoming known as Jed Clampett in "The Beverly Hillbillies", and as the title character in the TV series "Barnaby Jones".
Trivia: The rubber mask Bolger wore as the Scarecrow scarred his face.

The little Tin Man has another really well done costume. The funnel is attached to his hood, which doesn't come off.

He came with his oil can.

He's made in silver rubber,(his head), and plastic,(arms).

He has tiny 'rivets' down the front of his costume. Trivia: The real Tin Man costume was made of buckram and leather. It was so stiff that Haley couldn't sit down and had to rest on a reclining board  between takes.

He has the Kelly/Tommy ankle boots, in silver.

As you can see, his legs are not silver.

He also has 'rivets' in the hood  of his costume.

The dot on his nose and the blue lips are screen accurate.

Trivia: Jack Haley's son, Jack Jr., grew up to marry Liza Minnelli, daughter of Judy Garland. The two were married for 5 years, from 1974 to 1979.
The Lion has a cute face, but doesn't look as much like his character as the other two guys.

His tail is sewn to the front of his costume.

He has unruly hair and a big tag coming out of his back.

He's the only character that can't stand unaided. It's because of his costume covered feet.

Trivia: The real Lion costume was made of an actual lion skin. It was very heavy, somewhere around 50 to 70 pounds. It was extremely hot, and actor Bert Lahr, who portrayed the Lion, sweated in it so much every day of filming, that the costume had to be aired out and dried on a special rack. Lahr was miserable, and was frustrated that Jack Haley was able to sleep standing on his reclining board between takes. He used to complain that, "That son of a ----- could sleep hung up on a meat hook!"

There is an interesting article about the recent whereabouts of the original Wizard of Oz costumes which you can read HERE
 Those are today's dolls. See you again tomorrow for another one.