Living Dolls Week:Doll-A-Day 183: The Muppet Show Scooter Doll

  I haven't really talked much this week about the original 'living doll': the puppet. Puppets have been around for hundreds of years. The oldest written information on puppetry dates from the 5th century BC. The word 'puppet' actually comes from an ancient Greek word, and means "drawn by strings", or "string pulling". This would refer, of course, to marionettes, which are figures operated by strings connected to various points. There are far too many types of puppets for me to go into them here, but the most common types that most readers will be familiar with are marionettes,glove puppets,(simple puppets that are worn on the hand of the puppeteer.)

Like these Punch and Judy characters, (which aren't actually Punch and Judy themselves.)

...
ventriloquist dummies...

Charlie McCarthy and Mortimer Snerd with 'Bergen', as they called him. (Otherwise known as Edgar Bergen.) Charlie's 'sister' Candice Bergen said Charlie had his own room in their house. Why not? He helped pay for it.

...rod puppets,(similar to glove puppets, with the addition of rods that control arms, etc.), and shadow puppets,(usually jointed,  flat rod puppets that are performed behind a back lit screen, like those from Indonesia and China.)

Like this guy.He's a shadow puppet and a rod puppet.

  As a kid I loved watching ventriloquists on TV. I even bought a Howdy Doody dummy, as I mentioned recently, and tried to learn ventriloquism.(In spite of what Ivy thinks, I'm really not that bad!) I did a puppet show for my 3rd grade class using hand or 'glove' puppets, which I ended up performing for all the other classes too. (The subject was Conservation, quite a big thing in the early 70's, when I was in 3rd grade.) I also considered being a puppeteer, brought on by my love for a group of puppets I had been watching on TV almost as long as I could remember.I'm talking, of course, about  the crowned heads of 'living dolls', The Muppets.

Muppets creator Jim Henson, (Uhh, he's the guy in the front, center...) with Muppets from Sesame Street,and The Muppet Show/movies.Henson was born in Mississippi in 1936.

The Muppets were the creation of Jim Henson.The name is a combination of 'marionette' and 'puppet'.("Muppet" that is, not "Jim Henson"...) He named his puppets that because that's what he considered them to be.

Muppet performers left to right: Back row: Richard Hunt with Scooter,Jerry Nelson with Floyd Pepper,Jim Henson with Kermit,Dave Goelz with Beauregard,Frank Oz with Animal. Front row: Kathryn Mullen with Camilla or a random chicken, (since she didn't perform Camilla), Louise Gold with Piggy Sue (No! It's not Miss Piggy!), and Steve Whitmire with...my eyesight's not that good!


The Muppet characters are a mix of types. Some of the larger Muppets, like Sweetums, are actually a costume, with an operable mouth and eyebrows.

Muppets like Fozzie, Rowlf, and The Swedish Chef are 'two man puppets', with one puppeteer performing the mouth and one arm, and another puppeteer performing the other arm.

 Fozzie amazes Rowlf with his piano playing.

Kermit, Miss Piggy, Scooter, and Gonzo are rod puppets:one performer using the body as a glove puppet, but using the other hand to operate the rods that control the arms.

Scooter is keeping his rods to himself, but his uncle, J.P. Grosse apparently doesn't care who sees his rods! These days, even The Muppets use CGI, to digitally remove the rods from scenes where they show.

Which brings me to today's doll. It's Scooter. (Not Skipper's friend Skooter!)
 

This is the Fisher Price Scooter doll, made in 1978.

He has velcro on his hands so he can do...this?

He can also do this.

His orange yarn bangs are worn down quite a bit.He's a hard to find character though, and one of the few Scooters made, so I was really excited to find him at Salvation Army recently.

Cool Muppet Show logo on his jacket. It's supposed to be on his back, but , oh well.

I love his tennis shoes.

He can't really stand unsupported. He's doing a lot of leaning.

He's about 14 or 15" tall.

Tomorrow is another Skipper Saturday.See you then.

Living Dolls Week:Doll-A-Day 182: The Pillsbury Doughboy's Uncle Rollie

  This week we're looking at 'living dolls',characters in movies, TV, and other media, 'portrayed' by 'living dolls' like The Pillsbury Doughboy.(His real name is actually Poppin Fresh.)

These days Doughboy is created using CGI, (computer generated imagery), but back in his early days he was portrayed by  a puppet, using stop motion animation.

Doughboy in his first commercial,back in 1965. He has since appeared in over 600 commercials for 50 different Pillsbury products.

This original Doughboy stop motion figure sold online for $600. Not really that expensive for an American advertising icon. He looks like he must have been the puppet used for getting the belly poke.The original clay Doughboy figure for stop motion commercials cost $16 to make.

 The Pillsbury Doughboy ad campaign was conceived by Rudy Perz, and the original drawing was by Martin Nodell, the creator of the Green Lantern.Pretty weird, huh? The original voice of the Doughboy was by Paul Frees, who was also the voice of many cartoon characters, including Boris Badenov in the Bullwinkle cartoons.He was also the Little Green Sprout in the Green Giant commercials, and the Ghost Host at Disneyland's Haunted Mansion attraction. He also dubbed in a lot of Tony Curtis's 'female' voice in "Some Like it Hot"...
 

You don't say?

...and Humphrey Bogart's voice (which was weak from his esophageal cancer and could barely be heard in many scenes) in Bogart's last movie, "The Harder They Fall". Pretty versatile guy.
   I always wanted a live Doughboy. Alas, the closest I could come was the rubber toy, which I found available in bins at the grocery store when I was a kid. I begged my mom to get me one. She refused. I don't know. Maybe they were only available if you bought Pillsbury biscuits. In our house we only ever had homemade biscuits. (When we went to my Dad's stepmother's house they were so exotic: They ate canned biscuits, which in the 60's were tiny little things that you could peel and eat layer by paper thin layer. I loved them. I loved Mom's too, but the canned ones were something special since we never got them any other time. These days I prefer homemade biscuits, and we bake them in the same pan my Mom always made biscuits in.)
   Doughboy is so well known he's been parodied and even had other characters based on him. (Who didn't realize that the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man from "Ghostbusters" was a take off on the Doughboy? "Something from my childhood that could never hurt us.")

Maybe crossed with The Michelin man.

   I still love the Doughboy though, and I have made up for that childhood loss. My first Doughboy was one of the originals that I saw a bin full of when I was a kid. I found him at a porch sale years ago.

Like this guy.

  After that I added the more recent Doughboy. (And remember, I'm old, so when I say 'recent' I mean sometime in the last 20 years...)

You can tell the old from the new by the eyes and Pillsbury symbol on the hat. Old Doughboy has much lighter blue eyes and symbol than New Doughboy.
  Then came a keychain, a fridge magnet,a cookie jar, a giggling Doughboy doll,a beanie, a tiny beanie...Well, you get the idea. I didn't remember him having a family, but apparently in 1974 they made loads of characters, including his... sister? wife?... Poppie Fresh (It's up for debate, but I think she's his sister.)...

Poppie. Got her doll too.

 ...his little brother Popper, his little sister Bun Bun,and his grandparents, (Or are they his parents?), Grand Popper and Grand Mommer. They even had a dog(Flapjack) and a cat,(Biscuit),who were also dough blobs, of course.There was also the extremely rare Uncle Rollie, who is our doll today.

I found him at the bottom of a box at a yard sale. I hadn't ever heard of him, but he was obviously a Doughboy relative. I didn't realize how rare he was since I had never heard of him. I also didn't know Uncle Rollie came with a blue car, so I wasn't even looking for his car.Afterward I went home and looked him up to see who he was, and found out about the car. So  I went back to see if they had the car. No such luck.The car had a rumble seat you could put one of the other finger puppet dolls in.(Doughboy, the little brother and  sister, etc.)

He's not in the best shape, but as rare as he is, who's going to complain?

He's pretty small, at only 3 3/4" tall.

So, with all that, I still haven't gotten a live Doughboy.

"Who-hoo!"

 He's not even real anymore, let alone alive. He's all CGI and it's just not the same.

However, that pig from the Geico commercials...

Wheeee!!!

Living Dolls Week:Doll-A-Day 181: Topo Gigio

    Today we're continuing with our theme this week, 'Living Dolls'.
    I grew up watching the Ed Sullivan Show every Sunday night. My favourite bits were when Topo Gigio, a little Italian mouse appeared. (Topo means mouse.)

Ed and Topo.

Apart from being tremendously cute,Topo was amazing. He was a puppet, but by using a special tiny stage with black velvet curtains, black puppet rods, and FOUR puppeteers dressed all in black, Topo seemed to be really alive. He walked around, climbed Ed's arm for a kiss,(eww!)...

"Keesa me goodnight, Eddie."

...danced, sang, (with a little quiver of his whole body on the high notes.),took a shower,and even got into his tiny bed.

Topo Gigio was so popular he appeared on the show 92 times, and was the closing act on Ed's last show in 1971.

  Topo was the creation of puppeteer Maria Perego.

Topo with his human 'Mama', Maria Perego.

He was actually a star in the early 60's, before he ever appeared on the Ed Sullivan show. He had been a popular performer on Spanish, Italian, and Austrian tv since 1959.He was the star of his own movie, "The Magic World of Topo Gigio" in 1965, but from what I have been able to find out, it's a lost movie.No one can find a copy of it.

The Magic World of Topo Gigio: Look out Topo! I think he wants to eat you! Oh the humanity!

  I got some old Ed Sullivan shows when Ivy was little and showed Topo to her. She loved him just as much as I did. In trying to find more Topo for her I found out he, like Big Boy, "never really went away". He is still a very popular character on Italian and Spanish speaking kid's shows,which are available on DVD.

 Ahhh! How cute is he?!

He is the 'spokesmouse' for the United Nations, and  is still making appearances! Not bad for a foam rubber mouse.
   I always wanted a real live Topo Gigio. Who am I kidding? I STILL want one! When I was a kid I bought a pink wind up rubber mouse with a bowtie, that 'danced', (The mouse, that is. Not the bow tie.), because he reminded me of Topo. I still have him and he still dances.(I'm stunned to see that someone is selling a blue one on Ebay right now and they're asking $135! Whaat?!) When Ivy was little, and just before she became infatuated with Topo, I found a boatload of vinyl Topo toys at a junk store. (Thinking about it, maybe that's what made me go looking for The Ed Sullivan Shows so I could show Ivy 'live' Topo.) They were like baby or dog chew toys or something, just solid soft vinyl with painted details.They were brand new, so I was really confused, because I didn't know yet that Topo was still an ongoing thing. There were about 4 different types. Luckily I bought a bunch of them because, of course,  later Ivy had to have one, (Uhh, a couple.), too. Here's mine.

Cute, but not alive.

And here's Ivy's.

He looks so sad, but there's a reason...

We had mice once, and in the irony of ironies, one chewed Topo's eyelids and the tip of his top knot. Ivy still complains about the 'cannibal mice'.

She loved Topo so much that he even went to "Doll Italy" with her dolls for vacation one year.(The kid's dolls 'went on vacation' to all sorts of places.They always sent home emails and pictures for the kids. Check out my post 'Dolls on Vacation: Your kids will love it', from November 2013, to understand what I'm talking about.)The next year Topo stayed home, but the dolls went to 'Doll Italy' again and did visit his Mama.(He talked about his Mama on The Ed Sullivan Show.)They sent Ivy this picture:

Those are Ivy's dolls Rose (left) and Blue with 'Topo's Mama'. Rose has been partaking of Mama Gigio's red sauce.

 There were boat loads of Topo dolls and toys made, and they are still being made. But I'm still waiting for the live one...
Tomorrow we'll see another 'living doll'.

Living Dolls Week: Doll-A-Day 180: The China Doll

   First of all, welcome to our new follower, Aubrey. Aubrey has a very enjoyable blog called A Bit of Aubrey's Mind, and if you haven't checked it out yet, you should. I've been meaning to follow Aubrey myself,so now is the time to get around to it!
  This week we're going to have a look at some real, 'walking, talking,living dolls'. : In other words, dolls based on characters from movies and television who were 'played' by real 'living' 'toys'. (Characters portrayed by puppets or stop motion figures. You'll see what I mean as we go along.) Living toys were one of my childhood dreams! (And yes, smart aleck, I do like Toy Story!)
  Today's doll is the China Doll, from "Oz, The Great and Powerful".

She's 14" tall, and has a nice articulated body.

I did have trouble keeping her legs straight when she was standing though. She wanted to buckle at the knees.

With her tiny feet and weak ankles, she also had trouble standing. Almost all of these pictures required giving her some assistance.

She's a pretty good recreation of the doll from the movie. The dress could have been a bit more detailed instead of having the lace printed on the fabric, but I guess that's what the super expensive ($180.),limited edition (600),one was for.

I'm a little confused. I'm not sure if there was a Target exclusive with a blue dress, or that there was just a difference between the press photos and the final production doll.

Target exclusive?

The Target doll is supposed to be by Tolly Tots, but that's a division of Jakks Pacific, which is what mine is. Maybe she's Tolly Tots. I haven't looked to see. Mine came from Walmart.

 She has all the little cracks running all over her, just like the movie doll.(Not real cracks of course!) I think it would have been better if there had been some coloration in the lines, and not just indentations.

Without it they kind of look like wrinkles.

"Oz the Great and Powerful" is a prequel to the original story, and was not part of the original canon. China Doll was a character based on the China Princess from "Dorothy of Oz". The China Princess lived in The Dainty China Country.

Apparently the China Doll was actually performed on set with a marionette, and then CGIed. So she did start life as a 'live doll', not an animation. 

She photographs well, don't you think?

The sweet peas are blooming.

Those 'flowers' are actually my leeks, which once again didn't grow big enough to eat, and then began blooming.

See you tomorrow for another doll.