Doll-A-Day 2023 #217: Susie Slicker

   Quick post today. It was a bisy one. I apologize if you've seen this doll before. I photographed her last week, thinking she was the perfect doll to photograph on a rainy day, (and it was just about to pour when I took her picture.), but when I started to prepare this post, I checked, and found that she has actually appeared on the blog once or twice, with her 'relatives'. She's never had her own day though, and I have nothing else photographed, so there you are. She's Susie Slicker.

She came wearing the raincoat, with matching hat, tights, and boots. No clothes though.

  One curious thing about some Susie Slicker dolls, and Susie Sad Eyes, is that some of them were made with big green rings under their eyes. I hadn't seen any like that in person at first, so I assumed it was colour run from the eyes. It isn't though. Some of the dolls, including this girl, were made that way.

Susie Slicker, and her non-raincoat wearing counterpart, Susie Sad Eyes, was inspired by the big eyed paintings of Margaret Keane. (The movie "Big Eye", released in 2014, was the story of Margaret Keane.) There were loads of  the dolls made in the 60's, by several companies. They vary in quality, depending on who actually made the dolls.

She's 8 inches tall, with the standard 5 points of articulation.

  To see and learn more about Susie Slicker, Susie Sad Eyes, (and my personal history with them), and Margaret Keane, check out my Big Eye Week posts in the side bar. See you tomorrow!

Doll-A-Day 96: Susie Slicker

   The other day I told you about finding a replica of my stolen childhood Susie Slicker at Salvation Army. She fits right in with the theme I had planned for this month; April Showers. So here she is.

With only one boot, poor Susie has to be careful not to get her tights dirty. Too late!

She is wearing her original raincoat, tights, and one boot.She's missing her purple rain hat.

Susie Slicker also came with an umbrella.I remember mine was mint green plastic with a white plastic handle.The umbrella didn't actually  open.

The lilac buds are finally budding.Susie's coat is so stiff these days she can't raise her arms to touch them.

I still have my Susie's hat and coat,but she must have been wearing her tights and boots when she disappeared. I'm not sure I remember her actually having tights. Replacement purple Susie isn't wearing any, and I got her in her original box, so maybe they didn't all come in tights.

On the other hand, replacement girl doesn't have her umbrella either.(She does have her hat, but it's AWOL at the moment.)

Replacement Susie.

Susie Slicker was made in the 60's. Various companies put out Susie Slicker and Susie Sad Eyes, (the non-raincoat wearing version.), type dolls of varying quality. The look was based on paintings by Margaret Keane.

Susie Slicker in her original box. This one appears to be like my Susie. Replacement Susie came in a coloured hard plastic box with cut out flower shapes.

With auction Susie.Notice the big dark rings under auction Susie's eyes. I remember my original Susie didn't have those.I'm not sureif mine had the thinner bangs like new girl though. It was a loooong time ago!They both have the stiffer plastic raincoat though.

No one is immune to the dreaded One Hair.

 

As I said yesterday, we saw replacement Susie on line, and since she was wearing the purple raincoat and hat I assumed she was the same as my Susie. She has a softer vinyl rain coat and hat, and she's got a very red complexion. I remembered my Susie as being a much better quality doll.She was made of a better quality plastic,with nicer hair,and her raincoat and hat are a much stiffer, heavier, shinier vinyl. Some of that could have been idealized childhood memories, but I do have the hat and coat as proof it wasn't just that! Besides, this doll fits all those other memories, so maybe I was right.

See you tomorrow for another doll.

Doll-A-Day 35: Love Me Linda by Vogue

Today's Big Eye doll is Love Me Linda by Vogue Dolls.

Produced by Vogue in 1965,Linda stands 15" tall. She's all vinyl, with rooted hair and painted eyes.She's jointed at the neck, shoulders, and hips.

She came with or without a  tear molded on one cheek.My doll doesn't have a tear.

That's just as well. I like Little Miss No Name's tear, which is a separate piece of clear plastic. A tear molded in the vinyl of her face would look kind of like a mole or something. Bleh.

 She was also sold by Sears as Pretty as a Picture, and that doll came with a small framed picture of herself.(She's "got tears in her ears, from laying on her back, crying over..." herself, apparently. That's an old hillbilly song by Homer and Jethro that my hillbilly parents used to sing, by the way.)

  Love Me Linda came in various outfits. My doll is wearing her original dress, (which could do with a wash, but I'm afraid I'll ruin it. Maybe when I get brave enough...),tights, and black velveteen shoes.

Her dress has a little cameo attached.

Linda has big eyes, and the one type even had a tear, but she's smiling. She just doesn't look sad.

She also didn't have one of those pitiful sayings on her tag like Lonely Lisa, or the motto on Little Miss No Name's box. Her tag just said, "Hi! I'm Love Me Linda". Well boo hoo. This is why she's a BIG eye doll, and not a Sad eye doll. You have to admit, they are big.
  Tomorrow we'll see another big eye doll from the 60's.

Doll-A-Day 34: Lonely Lisa by Royal

  Today we continue with  'Sad Eyes Week'. Today's doll is Lonely Lisa, made by Royal dolls.

Looks like Lonely Lisa beat Little Miss No Name to the punch by about a year.Lonely Lisa was made in 1964. She came in two sizes,16 and 20 inches tall. Mine is the 16" size.

Lonely Lisa has a wire armature, which allows her to be posed.

Her head, arms, and legs are vinyl, and her body is stuffed cloth.She has rooted hair and painted eyes.

 Lisa's hair is brittle, like my Little Miss No Name's, and breaks easily when combed.

She strongly resembles this painting.

Another big eye painting by Margaret Keane.

Apparently she came with a wrist tag that said, "My arms long to hold you, I'll bend to your touch. Please take me home. I'll love you so much. I'm lonely, Lisa."Oh man! Would I have wanted this doll when I was a kid!

Supposedly she's pretty hard to find.I had never heard of her until I got her at an auction. I researched to find out who she is.

I'm pretty sure this is her original dress. She also has a cotton half slip and cotton undies.

I think she came with shoes, but hers are missing. I'd love to get her some new ones. Maybe her only problem isn't that she's lonely. Her feet are cold too.
  Ok. I've been talking about Margaret Keane paintings for a couple of days now, and I've show you a couple. Well, this has nothing to do with dolls,(But then I do ramble anyway.), but I have to show you this. I came across this while researching Margaret Keane paintings. Early on her paintings were considered cheesy, but  alot of celebrities liked her stuff and asked her to paint them.Ok. Here's Joan Crawford.

Her eyes are a little wonky.

Oh, never mind. I guess they were just that way.

Several things strike me here.One: Joan has plastic covers on her couch! Anybody that rich could afford to get her couch cleaned, or even buy a new one when this one got dirty.On the other hand, maybe that's a good idea. If she beats you with a wire hanger for hanging clothes on them, what does she do if you spill that ever present Pepsi on the couch?! Keep the couch covers on Mom! Two: I don't care if she was chairman of the board or whatever of Pepsi for a while---she keeps Pepsi on the coffee table with her Oscar?! Three: Everything in this picture screams COLD! Four: Is that a doily on the couch arm? Cause I would think those would be really hard to keep on with those plastic couch covers.Shoot, you'd have trouble staying on the seat yourself.

Okay. Fine. But this one is a little...weird. I don't know. It just has some strange quality about it. I just can't put my finger on it.
 Jerry Lewis and his entire family as clowns? Harlequins? What's up Jerry? Couldn't find any red noses to stick on those dogs?(Cats would totally not permit that.) 

Because Jerry's a clown, get it? That's "This Diamond Ring" Gary on the right.Check the arm on the kid in pink. Old Rubber Arm Lewis. Fuzzy commented that the weird thing about the kid in red, bottom right, is that he looks like those are his feet, and his head is on his butt. He has a point. And by the way, Jerry Lewis was never this pretty.How much did he pay Margaret for that?

  Tomorrow is another sad eye day. See you then.

Doll-A-Day 33: Little Miss No Name by Hasbro

  Today is the start of a week long series on 'big eye', or 'sad eye' dolls, (Don't get your hopes up on seeing a Blythe. I don't own one.) and the doll of the day is the queen of all sad eye dolls!

This is my own personal Little Miss No Name that I got for Christmas as a kid.

  Little Miss No Name by Hasbro was produced in 1965,the 'big eye' look having been popularized by the paintings of Margaret Keane, and other artists. That was her only year of production. I guess not very many little kids wanted to care for a sad little waif...

This painting by Margaret Keane is VERY Little Miss No Name.

But pitiful things always appealed to me! (Ken hates to hear that. It's not exactly how a guy wants to think of himself!) I loved all those sad eye dolls and paintings. I got these when I was a kid.

I got these at the grocery store. I may have bought them, but we did get some free when we bought groceries. I do remember getting free pictures. This one's not Keane. These are by Alvaro.

I liked the sad eye thing, but I don't like this style of art now. Too messy.

But this  one was, and still is, my favourite. He's by Franca. I remember he came in a white frame and one of the other kids came in a brown frame, so I switched them, so the two matching kids would have matching frames, and this guy would be more aesthetically pleasing in his brown frame. I couldn't have been more than 7 at the oldest! What an anal retentive kid I was!

I got this dog picture by Gig free at the grocery store. I always loved it, but wanted to help him somehow.

There's been a resurgence in popularity for the big eye dolls of the 60's recently,(Blythe even got revived, with new versions and mini dolls),with the popularity of Goth and Japanese anime', and the Japanese ball jointed dolls, like the Leptospurmum I reviewed last week. As I keep telling Ken, the Japanese dolls are the Big Eye dolls of our time. That's why I wanted one so badly I guess!

 

I had asked for Little Miss No Name. My sister told me she wanted to take LMNN out of her box and stand her in the doorway of the room I was sleeping in (at our Aunt and Uncle's house), on Christmas eve, so I would see her there in the morning. (And she could have too. LMNN stands very well on her somewhat large, flat feet.) Mom said no, because she was afraid LMNN would scare me!

She scares Ken. He can't stand to look at her because he says she looks like 'Ignorance and Want' from Charles Dickens' "A Christmas Carol".

But I wouldn't have been afraid.(Actually, I would have thought it was pretty neat, like she got there herself. It's the type of thing I would have done for my kids.) I  loved LMNN, and only thought she looked like she needed taken care of.
Here I am 'taking care of' her on Easter of 1968, at my Grama's house. I'm holding a chocolate Easter egg. Just candy and dolls, and that's all I need! Wow! I'm still that way!

Can you tell I'm trying to 'accidentally' step on my cousin's foot? That's because I didn't like her. You know why? Because she got me in trouble for saying, "Isn't she a little stinker?" when we were playing moms with our dolls---and I was allowed to say 'stinker'! (But Mom gave in to the pressure to yell at me.)---and SHE STOLE MY SUSIE SLICKER DOLL! You're gonna be hearing about that during Big Eye week, let me tell you! By the way, this is my grama's house in Kentucky. Note the detergent bottle porch decorations. My grama made something out of everything.

 Here's what LMNN looked like in her original box. Wish I still had my box. Look. The poor kid's getting snowed on!

"I need someone to love me...take me home...and brush my tear away."Ahhhhh!!(Frantic sobbing.) How can you not love her?!

Hasbro's Little Miss No Name is about 15" tall, and made of a sort of grayish vinyl. Her torso and legs are a harder plastic, and her head and arms are more rubbery. She came without shoes, wearing only cotton undies and a stiff green burlap dress,(I've seen pictures of dresses that look more brown. Mine is definitely very green.) adorned with fake felt patches,

and fastened in back with a safety pin.

She also had a green elastic headband, and a tear. She actually had a tear, to go with that one hand that could be put out in a begging position.

Pleeeease...

Look at those big brown eyes!This is a LMNN I got at a yard sale for 25 cents.The lady I got her from was her original owner and she had washed LMNN's hair and not combed it. It was something of a pitiful mess, but it conditioned and combed well.

  The tear is most often missing when you find one of these dolls. I know mine got lost! I don't know if the tear was supposed to be removeable, or if I just insisted on it because I wanted her to be able to not cry. Maybe my sister did some more of that stuff she did, like when she removed bases from plastic farm animals 'so they could be free', and cut off G.I. Joe scars and opened Beany's mouth (More on that another day!). In any case, my tear came off and went back on. The yard sale one didn't. Maybe her mother had the foresight to glue her tear on. Whatever the case, I wanted to take LMNN to school in first grade. My mom kept telling me that if I took her to school with her tear on I would lose it. I kept insisting I wouldn't. (This was 1968 or 69, so I had managed to not lose the tear for about 3 years. ) But, listen to your mom kids. She knows what she's talking about. Of course I lost the tear!

Look at that! Now she can't even cry any more! It just keeps getting sadder!

  UPDATE: I forgot to mention that my tear had a tiny 'stem' on it, which fitted into the hole under her left eye. That's how I could take it on and off.

When I found yard sale girl she was naked. I thought these were her original underwear when I found them at a different yard sale, because they are very similar to my doll's. (Almost said, 'similar to mine'! I do not have any underwear like these.) In comparison though, they are a bit different. Longer for one thing.

Not quite sure what they were going for with the hand molds. I get the begging hand, but what's the other hand supposed to be for? One armed marching? Or maybe it's to slap you with if you don't cough up when she begs.

My girl's undies.

.LMNN's hair is the sort that gets crispy with age and breaks very easily. I'm sure my girl used to have longer hair.

Yard sale girl's hair is much longer than my my doll's.

Her hair looks so nice. As you can see, I haven't restored my own doll's hair. I was kind of afraid to. Since this girl's hair turned out so well, I may try. She could do with a face washing too. Hey, that's the dirt of love.

Little Miss No Name was almost the only doll I had who didn't come with extra clothes, that ever had clothes bought for her. (The only others were the one Barbie outfit and one Ken outfit I had, and Satin Supper I bought for Francie.).She has a red winter coat and a blue dress. She's also the only doll I had that my mom ever made clothes for. Mom made her a green and peach plaid dress with a matching bonnet. I wanted LMNN to have things. I wanted her to be happy.

 

She's all cozied in a pink fuzzy doll blanket.

   You can watch the commercial for Little Miss No Name HERE.

 

  Margaret Keane's story has a sad/happy ending little twist to it. Her husband was taking credit for her paintings. She took him to court, and to prove she was the real artist she offered to paint a painting for the judge in the court room. She proceeded to do an entire painting, and Walter, when it was his turn, claimed a sore shoulder and didn't paint. Margaret won the case, divorced her husband, (In 1965.), and moved to Hawaii. She later remarried, found religion, and started painting happier paintings. She's still around, and still painting.
UPDATE: The movie :Bigeye", based on Margaret Keane's life, was released in  2014.