My All Time Top Ten Posts as of January 2020

  Don't forget to check our Facebook page,(Except for you Dorothy.) for the latest posts, which include a really cute stop motion felt video!
  A while back I did a post reviewing my top ten posts of all time. I thought it would be interesting to look at that again and see if anything has changed. So what are my all time Top Ten Posts?
  Well the number one post hasn't changed. It's my post on Mrs. Beasley,her history, my life long love, and a Yard Sale Tale.

My Beasleys.

Who would have thought Mrs. Beasley would still draw such a mob?! I always wanted a Mrs. Beasley. Apparently, I'm not the only one with that obsession.
  The second place post is even more strange,because they are dolls I think few people have even heard of. They're Violet Pickles and Ruby Buttons.

Maybe the creator of Violet and Ruby is the draw. He's E.J. Taylor,a doll maker who decided to write and illustrate a book series, Ivy Cottage, on Violet and Ruby,two live rags dolls who live with Miss Biscuit, the old lady who made them. 

E.J. Taylor makes beautiful dolls,with a  lot of personality.
 

Or maybe it's just the words 'Ivy Cottage' that are the draw! If you Google Ivy Cottage a lot of shabby chic stuff comes up.
   The third place goes to my post called Happy Beatles Birthdays Part 2. I covered various things including Christmas ornaments and figures. Oh. And Tammy's shirt.

Up at number four we have Little Miss No Name.

She was one of my favourite childhood dolls. I still love her, even if Ken thinks she looks like Ignorance and Want from "A Christmas Carol" and can't look at her!
  Coming in at number five is an Ai doll,Bee Balm.

I've done posts on several Ai dolls, but none of them have reeled in as many views as Bee Balm. I have no idea why.
  Number six is another doll few people have heard of, so his position on the list surprises me. He's That Kid.

That Kid and Mrs. Beasley are the two dolls I longed for the most as a kid. I have three of these boys now, including the one I finally got that still talks! I did a post with video so everyone could hear him, since I don't think anybody has posted his voice online. My video doesn't seem to work, but one day I'll get that fixed. He did come with his box and instructions, so if anybody is interested you can see that post HERE.
  Number seven is another of my childhood dolls. She's Newborn Thumbelina.

My newborn Thumbelina,me, my mom,and my sister,Christmas day.

I asked for this doll one Christmas after spotting her at the local Hart's store. I think Mom and Dad must have bought her that day behind my back.
  Number eight is a strange little kid. If you thought That Kid was weird looking, check out this Ratti Tjorven doll.

She's one of those dolls that you like, but, on the other hand... A lot of people seem to like her though.
Number nine is a real surprise. But maybe it shouldn't be. Maybe it's because a lot of people my age remember Topo Gigio fondly from the Ed Sullivan Show.
 

On the other hand, it could be because, unbeknownst to me, he has been popular all around the world since before the Ed Sullivan Show, and he still is in many countries.
  It has just occurred to me that I should have started with number 10 and been counting down. Oh well. Too late now. So here's number ten. Another fairly surprising one. It's my post on Penny Brite.
 

Penny Brite was a doll made in the 60's by Deluxe Reading, but I don't know of many people that remember her, or collect her. I have my childhood doll, and my sister's...and a boat load of others now. (That's the boatload above.) I have posted another Penny, and a couple of clones, but this post tops those by a long shot.
  So those are my all time top ten most popular posts. I last did this in 2016. Most of the top ten from that list are included here, even if some of them have switched their places around. At least one dropped off the top ten list. Penny Brite wasn't even on it the last time. I wonder what will be the Top Ten the next time I do this.

Doll-A-Day 2017 #12: Poor Pitiful Pearl

  Today's doll is Poor Pitiful Pearl.

This particular Pearl doll was made by Horsman, and is all original.

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.

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.

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.

Her clothes are leaving dust all over her. I think the age is getting to them.

She's marked on the back of her head too, but I couldn't get it to show up.

I got my Pearl at an auction for something like $5, because no one else wanted to bid on her!

  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...

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.

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.

Pearl didn't have the big eyes of the Keane paintings that inspired Little Miss No Name, but she was decidedly pitiful.

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.

 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:

The scarf was made for her and was not original.

 **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.

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.  

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.