Doll-A-Day 2023 #265: Ella Cinders

   Today's doll is Ella Cinders.

  Ella Cinders, an obvious transposing of 'Cinderella', started life in 1925, as a comic strip, created by Charles Plumb, Fred Fox, and Roger Armstrong. The comic strip originally followed a similar storyline to "Cinderella", with 'Ella' living with her stepmother and two horrible stepsisters, who constantly gave her work to do, and generally treated her badly. In 1926 the comic strip was made into a movie starring Colleen Moore. Yes. THAT Colleen Moore. The one with the amazing dollhouse which you can still go to see at the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago. Being as it was made in 1926, it's a silent film. You can watch the movie HERE. Colleen Moore had a similar haircut to Ella's anyway, so she was perfect for the part.

  The comic strip ran until 1961. Over the years there were also books, comic books, board games, and of course, dolls, based on the character. The original dolls, made by Horsman, had composition head, arms, and legs, with a stuffed cloth body. This doll is a Horsman reproduction, made in 1996. 

  She has a hard vinyl head, and partial limbs. Her upper arms and legs, and her body, are stuffed cloth. Her arms and legs are jointed though, at the shoulders and hips, so they can be posed a bit and hold the pose.

 

 

  For some reason her shiny plastic head appeals to me.

I also like her freckles and her slightly worried look.

This Ella is 17" tall. There was also a 9" reproduction Ella made the same year, dressed exactly the same as this one.

  She's wearing her original outfit, minus her black Mary Jane shoes.

Her dress is accented with lace and pink buttons.

  

She has a pretty flowered apron that is separate from her dress.

 

Both close in back with Velcro.

Under her dress she's wearing white pantaloons.

 

She's wearing what looks like gym socks! They are elastic knee socks.

Since her hair is painted on, she has two pink bows stuck to the top of her head.

  In spite of her hard plastic head and shiny face, she seems very cuddly. I had had about half an eye on Ella Cinders, after seeing her online. I was excited to find her in an antique mall on our anniversary day out. Ken bought her, and the Gingham Dog and the Calico Cat book for me at the same place. I like Ella even better in person.

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

Doll-A-Day 2019 #330: Chatty Cathy Reproduction

  Today's doll is this girl.

 

She's the Chatty Cathy reproduction doll. Her official box copyright says 1998,but apparently she wasn't sold until 1999.

  We saw this doll at Meijer when Ivy was probably a couple of years old. Ivy was born in 1999,but sometimes Meijer used to get older toys that were no longer available anywhere else. Ivy always wanted to hold the box and look at Chatty Cathy, and hear her talk. So we got her the doll for Christmas. I don't think she ever played with her very much once she got her though.
 

You can tell she's a reproduction of the original because she has the pointing index finger on her right hand. Later Chatty Cathy's didn't.

She's 21 inches tall,just like the original.
 

  This Chatty Cathy has a pull string talk mechanism, just like the original.
 

The reproduction Drowsy,which Ivy also has, changed the original pull sting to a battery operated, belly squeeze mechanism. It was thought that kids could be strangled by the pullstring. I don't know if the company thought Drowsy was for smaller kids, so slightly older kids would be safe with Chatty's pullstring, or if the Chatty repro was more intended for adult collectors.
 

  This Chatty Cathy's voice is by the original Chatty voice actress, June Foray. June Foray,(who passed away in 2017 at just short of 100 years old!), was a voice actress  best known for her portrayal of granny, Tweety Bird's owner,and Bugs Bunny's nemesis Witch Hazel,from the Warner Brothers cartoons,Cindy Lou Who from the original animated  "How the Grinch Stole Christmas",and Rocky the Squirrel from "Bullwinkle". She also voiced Mulan's grandmother in the original "Mulan" movie. I don't know if she rerecorded Cathy's famous phrases, or if the original recordings were used. I do know that the reproduction says the 11 original phrases. Chatty dolls originally only said 11 phrases,which was later added to,so they said 18 phrases. 
  Chatty Cathy was reproduced in a couple of her very first classic outfits. This one includes a red sunsuit, covered with a red jumper dress with built in white apron...
 

...white anklets and red velvet shoes.

Believe me, she was NOT wearing any of this when I found her, and it took some piecing together! I found the clothes one place, a shoe here and a shoe there,one sock,and finally the other. I did not find her red velvet headband. Maybe that would have helped control those bangs!

The other reproduction was a blue eyed doll in the blue dress with white eyelet overblouse.You can see one of my vintage Chatty Cathy dolls wearing that outfit HERE.
  These dolls have a hard plastic torso,and a soft vinyl head with some sort of hard interior structure. Ivy's Chatty Cathy has apparently been under some pressure. Her face has been sort of pressed vertically, leaving her with a strangely shaped face.

 And that's not her only problem! As you will have noticed,her eyes have changed colour! They started out as brown eyes,but have turned purple! The blue eyed reproduction has the same problem, with eyes that turn pink over time.

As you can see, she does have the Chatty Cathy teeth and freckles too. Like a lot of the originals,which have mostly likely turned to that colour,her eyebrows and freckles are painted gray.

 

You can see my comparison of all the different 60's Chatty dolls HERE. And you can see my beautiful mint yard sale Chatty doll that isn't in that post HERE.
There was also a smaller Chatty reproduction, as part of their 'Classic Collection', in 2001. She had a very strange face and looked nothing like the original.
 

She also didn't have a pullstring. She was battery operated and activated by pushing a button in her back.
  Danbury Mint made a 17 inch tall porcelain, battery operated Chatty Cathy reproduction in 2001 that was a pretty good resemblance to the original. Ashton Drake made a reproduction Chatty Cathy in 2003.She was 20 inches tall and looked even more like the original.I think she was a vinyl pullstring doll.
  That's today's doll. See you tomorrow for another one.