Doll-A-Day 2023 #301: Funko Gold Jimi Hendrix

   Today's doll is a figure belonging to AJ. (He probably wouldn't want me to say he owns a doll.) It's Jimi Hendrix.

You may have heard of, or seen the Funko Pop figures. You might have seen the custom ones I made of Emma and AJ. Less known are the Funko Gold figures. 

  Jimi is 5 inches tall.

  He's wearing the outfit he wore when he played the famous Woodstock music festival in 1969.

That includes the fringey  shirt and the red forerunner of the do rag, on his head.

And you can't have Jimi Hendrix without his guitar.

  That's the doll, (Sorry AJ.), for today. Tomorrow we head to Indiana to see Ivy. I'll see what I can do...

Doll-A-Day 2023 #242: Deanna Durbin

   Yesterday we saw some celebrity dolls. And recently you saw this picture. 

Today we're going to concentrate on another celebrity doll that was in that picture. She's Deanna Durbin. That's her on the far right. Deanna Durbin was a child actress and singer, who went on to a successful adult career. She's next to two other child stars: Shirley Temple to her immediate left, and Margaret O'Brian, to Shirley's immediate left.

Deanna Durbin was born Edna Mae Durbin, in Winnipeg Canada, in 1921. She was a singing prodigy and was taking voice lessons by the age of ten. She developed a perfect soprano voice, far beyond her years. She made her first film appearance was in the 1936  movie "Every Sunday". She and Judy Garland were cast in the movie together, as sort of a screen test, so the big wigs at MGM could decide which young singer/actress to keep. Garland was signed, but Durbin's contract option had expired by then. Instead she was signed by Universal, who renamed her Deanna.

  She made many musicals in the 1930's and '40's. Supposedly her movies were so successful that they saved Universal from bankruptcy. She was so popular that there were paper dolls and other products made with her name and image on them. Ideal made several Deanna Durbin dolls. 

You can see that the doll in blue and white still has it's original tag, with Durbin's picture on it.

  The doll is from 1938. She's 21 inches tall, and is wearing her original dress. The smaller doll to the left, in pink and purple, is also a Deanna Durbin doll. As was the practice at the time, the dolls would also have originally had a pin like this one.

The larger doll has six teeth and a felt tongue in her open mouth. Her eyes are sleep eyes with hair lashes.

 

This Deanna Durbin doll, (on the right), also by Ideal, from 1938, is a smaller size, but the dolls also came in several sizes, as large as 24 inches tall.

  The Deanna Durbin doll at the back, left, is very large.

   In 1936, at the age of 15, she auditioned to be the voice of Snow White. She didn't get the role, because Walt Disney thought her voice was 'too old'! It must have been pretty advanced, because that year she was also offered an audition by the Metropolitan Opera. She felt she needed more voice lessons and didn't accept. In 1938 she won a Juvenile Oscar. (You can read my post about Juvenile Oscars HERE. ) She wanted to make more serious movies as she grew older, btu the public preferred her in musicals. In 1946 she was the second highest paid woman in the country, after Bette Davis. She was married three times, and after marrying her third husband she retired in 1949, and moved to a farm in the countryside near Paris. She lived the rest of her life there, and died in 2013, at the age of 91.

  Those are today's doll. See you again tomorrow.

Doll-A-Day 2023 #230: Dolly Parton

   Here's a little preview of the doll show from today. It's a celebration of Dolly Parton. And why? Because it's aways a good time to celebrate Dolly Parton, because she's awesome.

As it says, she is a 12 inch posable doll.

  This Dolly Parton doll was made by Eegee/Goldberger, in 1978. It isn't nearly as pretty as the real thing.

Her outfit is pretty on point though, and typical of the kind of thing Dolly wore around that time.

She has Dolly's signature mole, but the hair isn't nearly big enough.

  In 1978 Dolly was seeing a new popularity, following her first million selling single, and her first pop chart top ten single, Here You Come Again", the previous year. She won a Grammy in 1978 for Best Female Country Vocal Performance for the album "Here You Come Again".

  There were other Dolly Parton dolls, made by Goldberger, and other companies. None of them are very good likenesses.

  That's today's doll. Tomorrow we'll look at another one.

Doll-A-Day 2023 #95: Paper Rose Adora Belle Doll

   I went to the house today, but not inside---baby steps! I mowed the yard and picked up trash and raked up all the walnut twigs, (or, as I like to call them, 'walnut whips'.), that fell last Fall while we were out of the country. I am going to try to go inside the house soon. I still can't stand the thought.

 Today's doll is one I got a few years ago at a yard sale. She was brought from The House of Fire, along with some other dolls of mine that were downstairs in the waterlogged room. Some of them were wet and some were even growing some mold.

  I had to wash them. Most of them are fine, but there were a few that were stained by the mold. Merida has red mold stains on her legs and her dress now. I think I can get the stains out of her dress, but her legs may have to stay as they are. At least her dress will cover them.

  Luckily today's doll was dry and fine, because if I had had to wash her, I'm sure I would have ruined her curls. She's the Adora Belle version of Paper Roses. ( You may have seen her when I first got her HERE.)

  I didn't realize it when I bought her, but she's a Marie Osmond doll. You can tell because she has the dark beauty spot by her left eye, like Marie and all her dolls do. 

Funny, but even Marie doesn't seem to have always had the dot. Maybe they used to cover it with make up, but it seems to be getting bigger and darker as the years go by.

Paper Roses, named after one of Osmond's songs, and styled after a dress she wore to perform the song in Las Vegas, came in a couple of different sizes at least. the smallest one was the Adora Belle.

  This doll is small, about 5 inches tall.

  I was really surprised to see that her skirt and blouse close in back with, not snaps even, but hook and eye closures.

Her blouse is black lace, lined with a peachy fabric.

The white thing around her neck is tissue paper. The paper is under her shirt too, to protect her body from stains I suppose.

Her skirt is black satin, with embroidered roses on it.

Yes, she is standing on the kitty litter bucket. Shut up.

There are big roses on the back.

And she has a big head of curls.

Under her skirt she is wearing black fishnet hose, and black Mary Jane shoes.

She has a big rose pinned in her hair.

  

And yes, big head of curly hair.

She has the usual 5 points of articulation, neck, shoulders, and hips. In addition, her head can tilt up and down a little.

The Marie Osmond dolls all kind of look like a child version of Marie, or what it might have looked like if it looked like modern day Marie, and not young, giant tooth Marie. They have round faces and pudgy cheeks, and big brown eyes. And she did look like that when she was young. And of course, they have the dot.

  I think the larger versions of this doll were porcelain, but this one is vinyl.

  That's today's doll. We'll see another one, or maybe more, tomorrow. 

Doll-A-Day 2019 #127: Beyonce'

  Today's doll is this beautiful lady.

 

She is,of course, Beyonce'.

This doll was made by Mattel in 2005.

She was one of three dolls in a series,the other two being the other members of Destiny's Child,Kelly Rowland and Michelle Williams.

This is actually the second Beyonce' doll.
 

The first Beyonce' doll was from the first set of Destiny's Child dolls,made in 2001 by Hasbro.
 

I have to say, the Beyonce' from that first set of dolls doesn't look like her at all. The Beyonce' from the second set of Destiny's Child dolls has a pretty good head sculpt that actually looks like her. I've seen some repaints that are even better. But the other two dolls in the set didn't even get their own head sculpts. 

They just got stuck with a couple of used Barbie head sculpts.

They all have a standard Barbie body of the era,with articulation at the neck, shoulders, and hips,and click bend knees.
 

 

The arms do have a ball joint,so they can swivel and are more posable.
 

My Beyonce' is second hand, and she was missing that fancy pink gown she came in. So she's settling for this right now.

She does have her original earrings though.

Her long hair is made up of multiple shades, for a realistic colour.

She has rooted eyelashes.

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