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 #98: Flowerkins Black Eyed Suzie

   I'm embarrassed to say that the dealer told me who this doll is and I forgot! And I can't find her online at all.

UPDATE: She's from a series called Flowerkins. They all were named after flowers and had hats shaped like upturned, (downturned?), flowers. This particular doll represented the black eyed Susan flower, and her name is Black Eyed Suzie. She would have originally had an orange felt flower hat and orange felt shoes with cardboard soles. I swear the dealer gave me some other name for her, because this is nothing like the vague memory I have of the type of name. They were wring I guess, because I have seen pictures of the whole series of six of these dolls together, and with their hang tags and hats and shoes. So there you are. More updates throughout the post, below.

Her sleeves had gathers abive the wrist. You can still see the stitches, but they aren't gathered any more.

  I got her at a doll show recently for only $5. I thought she was so cute that I couldn't resist.

Not all of the dolls in the series had the same head sculpt, but at least three of them had this one.

She's 16 inches tall.

She's marked Eegee on her head, and Goldberger on her body. That's because they were the same company.

  She was made in 1963. That makes this little girl 60 years old!

She has the standard five points of articulation: neck, shoulders, and hips.  This allows her to sit down.

She has a cute, goofy smile, and a little double chin.

  She has big brown sleep eyes and brush lashes.

And funny high dimples and a watermelon smile.

There's that double chin again.

  I don't know if any of her clothes are original. I think the dress might be.

The orange skirt is a separate piece.

But the tights are short and sewn to her underwear because they can't be pulled up all the way.

  She also has cute little kid hands.

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

Doll-A-Day 2023 #52: Miss Sunbeam

   Yesterday I showed you the Linda Williams doll, and her supposed twin, Miss Sunbeam. Today we're looking at Miss Sunbeam herself.

This Miss Sunbeam supposedly has the same head sculpt as Linda Williams, but obvious differences include Miss Sunbeam's dimples and her open mouth. Look at Linda for comparison.

No dimples and her teeth take up the whole opening of her mouth.

They are both about 14 inches tall.

Miss Sunbeam is obviously an advertising doll. Her sponsor, so to speak, was Sunbeam bread.

As you can see, Sunbeam wanted you to know she represented them. 

Ellen Barbara Segner was commissioned by the makers of Sunbeam bread in 1942 to create the  marketing symbol for Sunbeam bread, based on a young child. After sketching characters for six months, Segner finally found a little girl in Indiana who was the perfect model. There have been several dolls based on the image Segner created. The one we're looking at today was produced by Eegee in the 1950's.

  That's today's doll. It was short and sweet, due to my having a lot of wet mildewing stuff to clean and dry out from the fire, today. See you tomorrow.

  

Doll-A-Day 2023 #51: Linda Williams

   Today's doll is Linda Williams.

The doll is very simple, only jointed at the neck, shoulders and hips. 

  I've had this post written ahead for ages, but couldn't locate my Linda Williams doll. I photographed this doll at the doll show today. She's not mine, but she is in better shape than mine, so, you're good.

  Linda stands about 14" tall. She has rooted hair and inset eyes with 'real' lashes, and molded and painted teeth.

This doll is wearing her original dress.

Linda is based on the character Linda Williams, from The Danny Thomas Show, (originally called "Make Room for Daddy"), which ran from 1953 to 1964. It starred Danny Thomas, perhaps best known these days as the father of actress Marlo Thomas and the founder of Saint Jude's Children's Hospital.        'Linda' was the stepdaughter of the Danny Thomas character, and first appeared in the fourth season of the show. In that season she was played by Lelani Sorenson.

The doll was advertised in 1960 catalogs and  available through a promotion on Post Toasties Corn Flakes cereal boxes. For $2.00 and two box tops from the cereal, you could have your own Linda Williams doll.

This ad, from the back of the Post Toasties cereal box shows Lelani Sorenson, and a doll that looks like her. I don't think this version of the doll was ever made. It looks like the doll's face is actually a drawing of Sorenson, and not a real doll. Notice the ad mentions the doll's 'big blue eyes'. It doesn't look like Lelani Sorenson had blue eyes, and the actress who replaced her as Linda Williams certainly doesn't. 

   The doll came with a fashion booklet that showed outfits that could be ordered for your Linda Williams doll.

1960 catalog.

  The dolls came in a few sizes, including the 14" doll by PMA (Plastic Molded Arts), and 20", and 30" dolls by The Natural Doll Company. The 30" doll was a walker.

  After the first season with the character, Linda was played by child actress Angela Cartwright.

The dolls came in several sizes. Neither of these dolls Angela Cartwright is posing with look like the dolls actually sold as the Linda Williams doll.

That's the right one. Although I don't think the big one had the same face.

I don't think the doll actually looks like either girl who played Linda Williams.

  I'm not sure if the PMA doll was also 'a natural doll'.

    Angela went on to greater fame, and screen immortality when she played Birgitta, one of the daughters of Captain Von Trapp in "The Sound of Music".

Angela front and center.

She's also well known as Penny Robinson, on the original "Lost in Space" TV series, which ran from 1965 to 1968.

Angela, far left.

  Her sister, Veronica Cartwright is also an actress, whose two most famous roles are as the child lead in Alfred Hitchcock's "The Birds", and the wife of The Cigarette Smoking Man, on The X-Files.

Veronica on the left, Angela on the right. Why are those candelabrum so small?!

    During the run of the show there were a lot of products made in connection with the Linda Williams character and Angela Cartwright.

Here is Angela posing with just some of them.

   These days Angela Cartwright is a photographer and artist, with a studio in Los Angeles.

  Several other dolls were made from the same mold as the Linda Williams doll, including Dolly Ann, Pippi Longstocking, and a Sunbeam Bread advertising doll. The Sunbeam doll was made by EEGEE, so I'm not sure who owned the mold. This Sunbeam doll is close, but not the same sculpt as Linda Williams.

This picture is borrowed from the internet, and I will be glad to remove it if asked.

   

  There also was a doll called Kissin Kuzzins Dazee Mae, who was 'A Beautiful Virga doll made by Beehler Arts of Amityville, New York', who looked very like the Linda Williams doll.
Tomorrow we'll see another doll.

Another Free Doll Up For Grabs! And Another Virtual Doll Show

   I have another 'free but for the shipping' doll if someone wants her. She's been featured on the blog, and she's been on the sales page for a while. She was made by Eegee, and as far as I can tell, she's wearing her original dress and shoes.

Recently I came across her and somehow she has gotten her arm hole broken. She's old plastic, and somehow the plastic has shattered around one arm. Her arm went back on, and it's staying, helped by her dress. She could be repaired, but I'm not going to do it. There is a page that shows how to repair plastic dolls HERE. If anybody wants to take her on, she's free other than shipping costs.

  I put a few more dolls on the sales page too, so you might want to have a look and see if any of your favourite dolls from the blog have ended up there.

  Other than the sales page, if you're missing shopping for dolls, there's  the Holiday 2020 Showcase Event, a virtual Doll Show of sorts, being held November 27th through the 30th. You can find out the details HERE.

Doll-A-Day 2019 #267: Eegee Girl

  Today's doll is yet another mystery girl.

She's this tall drink of water.

She was made by Eegee, but that's all I know about her.

 

She's about 20 or 22 inches tall. To be honest, I was so busy trying to get posts lined up before we left on vacation, that I forgot to measure her. But from so many years of dealing with dolls, I am pretty good at judging size by eye alone.

This is probably her original dress.

She has sleep eyes and a bottle mouth. I didn't think to look, but because of the bottle mouth,(There's a hole there for giving her real water), I would say she must have a hole elsewhere for the 'pee' to come out.

If anybody knows who she is, please let me know.
  That's the doll for today. We'll be back from vacation soon! We'll be back here for another doll tomorrow.

Doll-A-Day 2019 #250: Eegee Doll

  Today's doll is this young lady.

Actually,she's not young. She's probably from the 60's or maybe early 70's. I don't know her name, so if anybody can identify her,I'd appreciate it.

She looks a bit shy.

She's an Eegee doll.

Does that say 1967?

This isn't her original dress. It's homemade,(not by me!).
 

She stands about 17 inches tall.

She has the standard articulation,at the neck,shoulders, and hips.

Like yesterday's doll,she has big brown eyes...
 

 ...and they're sleep eyes with 'real' lashes.

In fact,there's more of a similarity between them than just the eyes. They have almost the same head!

I mean almost exactly the same head.

 

The differences seem to be that today's doll doesn't have eyes that tilt up as much at the outside corners. Other than that the small differences are the eyebrows,lip colour,and yesterday's doll had blue eye shadow. The sculpt is so similar. So what is the connection between Eegee,(today's doll),and Uneeda,(yesterday's doll)?
  Like yesterday's doll,she is a leftover from an auction or something. In fact, they probably came together. They are like sisters. The taller one is obviously older and old enough to wear makeup.

 

  That's the doll for today. Tomorrow we'll see a doll who doesn't look like these two!