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.

First Doll Show of 2022!

  Happy Place. Happy Place. Let's forget the world right now and be happy for a while.

  We recently had quite an ice storm. That was the week before this past week. It looked like this out our landing window.

All our bushes at the side of our house sagged into the street with the weight of the ice.

They also sagged over into our driveway so far the postal person didn't deliver for two days because they would have had to stoop under them to get to the mailbox.

 One trunk of the dogwood even fell over! Unfortunately it fell ONTO our glass patio table and a chair. Oddly enough, It doesn't seem to have caused any damage to the table! We may find that's not so when we try to move it. Fuzz imagined a scenario where we think all is well until we set food on the table this summer, and the whole thing shatters. Anyway, the whole town and far around had looked like a shimmering silver Winter Wonderland for the past few days...until last Sunday. The weather warmed up,  so you can guess what happened. I left a beautiful icy fantasyland Sunday morning to head for the first doll show of the year, and came home to a muddy old town. Here's what everything looked like as I left:

  Everything sparkled!

Grass, trees, and bushes were all covered in a shiny silver coating of ice.

Even the fields were a sparkling silver.

  I took these pictures n the way to the doll show. It was a great one, with plenty of great things and great deals! Here are some of the things I saw.

  Well the first thing I saw when I walked into the sales room was this table, and the little naked Tiny Betsy McCall. (On the upper tier, below the dolls in the white dresses.) She was only $40, and had red hair! That's a really good price for a Tiny Betsy McCall, (And I've been wanting a red haired Betsy), and it seemed to be mostly because she had a crack in her torso, which doesn't really bother me. But I thought,  'I've only just walked in, and I have the whole room to go. I'd better not spend that yet.'  This show had so many really interesting and nice dolls. And I brought less money than normal! I also spent part of what I had, buying dolls for other people! They're going to pay me back, but it meant I used a lot of my money for the day before I had barely gotten started. I couldn't pass up what I bought though. I'll explain that in future posts. Betsy was still there when I left, but I didn't have enough money left. 

  I really loved this American Character Whimsies doll, Tillie the Talker, but she was $50. She was all original and in great condition, and that's a good price, but that was too much for me.

  This guy was made by Rushton, who made the original 'Jill' doll that was used for Mrs. Beasley before Mattel made theirs.  I've seen pictures of him, but I'd never seen him in person.

They'd never make a doll that was smoking a cigar for kids these days!

  These cute, tiny babies may be perfume bottles. Any other ideas?

  I like the kid in the middle.

  Here's a bunch of pretty girls.

The girl bottom left looks happy, but her friend looks very suspicious. 

Here's a close up of the two small girls in the picture above. They were so small, and so cute, with such delicate dresses.

  These three were from Russia, but you can't hold that against them. Very colourful and cute.

  This set of mid century furniture is by Arco. I love that TV!

The dealer had the other lamp, but it was missing the base.

  This is a lion tamer and his lion, by Steiff. Why does his mustache grow out of the corners of his mouth?

I am getting a 1930's, sort of Mae West, thing from these ladies.

  I don't know if I've ever seen a real Blythe in person either. But there she was. That clear plastic box she's laying in made me think of a glass coffin! She was $325!

  This kid is Terri Lee's little baby sister. She had a rubbery texture, but she didn't look lumpy and mumpy like Terri Lee.

  This doll was made in France. She looked a little inexpensive, but I thought she was pretty.

  I found I kept getting drawn to Toni dolls. This one was gorgeous.

  Aw! Look at that baby! The girl with him has a nice head, but it doesn't look like it goes on that body. I mean, I'm sure it does, but it looks weird. The kid in pink is cute too.

This little guy has a wonderful coat. The dealer said she gave him the ship in a bottle she found somewhere, because he looked nautical. He looked good with it.

  The same dealer had this guy. He had no feet. He was a torso on a stick. She said he originally would have had a bellows of some kind under the 'dress', and when pushed upward it would have made a sound.

You can see him again below, with some other wonderful antique dolls

That dealer also had this strange looking kid. Guess what: it's a muff! It's for keeping your hands warm...and it has a head and strange bear limbs.

  More lovely girls.

Look at the personality in this kid. She looks like she's dancing too, which I'm sure was an accident of her placement. but I got a kick out of it.

I recognized this doll as a Roddy doll right away, because it' a bigger version of the one I have.

This doll was so beautiful. The colouring of her face and clothes, and her cute face really appealed to me.

I liked both of these. The little guy in the chair was so cute, and had very realistically painted lips and eyes.

He is a doll made by an artist named Dianne Dengel in 1989.  

This kid appealed to me as the type of doll I would have had as a kid. The green wings seemed to have been added later, and not original.

I liked this Klumpe lady, needle pointing.

This Italian lady was so pretty.

  This dealer had quite a range of Betsy McCall dolls. (The three on the right.) The kid in black is a reproduction Penny Bright.

Bitty Baby looked ready to sumo wrestle.

I think I showed you this girl in  a previous doll show post. She's Maggie by Madame Alexander.

Lots of pretty kids, including some Shirley Temples on the right.

What stands out in this picture is the angry kid in pink!

I think the girl in red and white is a Deanna Durbin. The baby on the right, in white, is a Dimples, I think.

  I don't know who this girl is, and neither did the dealer. Pretty though.

Another Toni that drew me in.

This doll in the flowered dress was on the same table. She seemed to be all original, and has red hair. The dealer didn't know who she was, and asked $15. I said yes, and then they seemed to realize something, and said, "oh well, she told you 15, so..." I think they realized she was worth more. Does anybody know who she is? If you do, leave a comment.

  These two ladies  were very different, but equally nice dolls. 

  So many beautiful dolls.

  Soon I'll show you what I bought. I will tell you I got something that I had really liked at a previous show, which, thank goodness, showed up again.

  I had also arranged to meet Barb from My Little Doll Corner while I was there, because I had promised her some Ever After High dolls. In the parking lot I remembered suddenly that we should take a picture together, like we did the last tie we met up at a doll show. (I guess I only posted a picture of Barb. She posted our picture together.

Barb, on the left, and me.

  So that was the first doll show of this year. If they are all like this I'll be happy...and broke.