I had planned to take a day off yesterday, because I have been working steadily for the last couple of weeks on Emma's bridal shower cake and gifts. I'll show those to you soon. But on to the post.
Today's dolls are movie stars. They're Hansel and Gretel.
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| Gretel kind of looks like actress June Lockhart. |
The dolls are 15 inches tall. They have vinyl heads with sleep eyes, lashes, and rooted hair, and hard plastic bodies. They are jointed at the neck, shoulders and hips with 'pin joints', which are a type of hinged joint.
These dolls of Hansel and his sister Gretel were made in 1954 by Horsman. They were sold as either Montgomery Ward or Sears exclusives, I believe. The dolls were made to look like the characters in the "Hansel and Gretel" movie released that year.
The movie, made by RKO, was a musical, based on the opera by Engelbert Humperdink. (No. Not that Englebert Humperdink. The original composer, born in 1854.) It was a stop motion film, using puppets called Kinemins. Advertsing for the movie called the Kinemins "lifelike little people" that "walk,..dance...sing...they almost breathe!"
This was before all the wonderful Rankin and Bass stop motion specials, like "Rudolph" and "Santa Claus is Coming to Town". In fact, "Hansel and Gretel" was the first American feature length animated film not using traditional animation, (In other words, cartoon type animation.) It was also the first American feature length animated film not made by Disney since 1941.
RKO put a lot into pushing the film, since they were about to lose their distribution deal with Disney, who had already created their own distribution company, Buena Vista. Lots of movie tie ins were licensed, including Nabisco's Hansel and Gretel cookies, colouring books, (as seen above, with the dolls), puzzles by Jaymar, etc.
The movie features detailed sets designed by Evalds Dajevskis for Myerberg Productions. Unfortunately they were only made of paper mache and applied paper cutouts, and after the movie's production they were sold to an amusement park, where they were put on display. I don't think they still exist. The daughter of the lady who sang the part of the Dew Drop Fairy says that she and her brothers were given the witch's house, and played with it until it fell apart. So that is definitely gone. The Kinemins themselves are also gone. The year after the film was released, the animation studio was broken into and looted, and the puppets were destroyed, apparently except for the witch at least, who was still around at least until 1999.
There's a good article on the film HERE. You can watch a clip from the movie HERE.
See you tomorrow for more dolls.
