Doll-A-Day 242: Red Heads Week: Tessie Talk

  Today we're continuing Red Heads Week with Tessie Talk.

Tessie was made by Horsman in 1974.

. I was lucky enough to win this particular doll with an absentee bid in a doll auction, but I have 2 more...

 Tessie came in a plethora of outfits, hair colours, and at least a couple of hair styles.But, as you can see, they are easily identifiable... 

What did you say your name was?

She's actually a ventriloquist doll. (Except without the floppy legs!) She has a string in the back that opens her mouth when it's pulled.

This girl is absolutely mint except for her baggy socks. She even still has her hair net on, which, due to my bad luck with hair, I haven't even removed.

My first Tessie was the girl with the short brown hair. I'm assuming her hair used to be curly like the red haired Tessie.

My second Tessie was obtained at a toy show.

She's my only long haired one, and the only one missing her shoes.

 I have mentioned this before, but when I got this Tessie someone had given her what I refer to as a 'country singer hairdo'. When I was a kid lady 'country and western' singers, (As they were called back then.), used to wear their hair in huge teased and piled up do's. Like this:

 As I said before, I wasted no time in taking that down!

The Tessies are about 18" tall.

 I love their little knobbly knee caps and their turned up noses.

 This week I have been talking about some of the facts and myths about red hair. In doing research I found an interesting fact: Red heads don't smell like other people!Supposedly we have a very distinctive scent to our pheramones. Pheramones are described by Wikepedia as "a secreted or excreted chemical factor that triggers a social response in members of the same species. Pheromones are chemicals capable of acting outside the body of the secreting individual to impact the behavior of the receiving individual." In wild animals pheramones are what attracts the male to the female. Humans can't actually smell pheramones as far as I know, but it would have put poor Charles Darwin's mind to rest if he had known this little tidbit. Apparently he struggled for ages to figure out why red heads continued when they were strictly against his 'survival of the fittest' theory. (Drawing attention to yourself makes you an easier target. He had the same trouble with the peacock!)
  Some research has shown that we have lower levels of adrenalin than people of other hair colours. Adrenaline is a hormone and neurotransmitter, (It sends signal to the brain.),released by the body during moments of stress or strong emotion, causing the heart to beat faster, and thereby increasing the body's oxygen level and giving a burst of strength. Supposedly this makes us less athletic. Ivy would make a good example for this theory! Red heads are, however, "over represented", according to one researcher, in the areas of math, science, philosophy, and  comedy. I guess what we lack in athletic power we make up for in brains. Oh well. I'd rather be smarter anyway.
  We also have less hair than other people. Brunettes have the most, (140,000 hairs), then blondes with 110,000. Red heads have only 90,000. This makes all kinds of sense to me, because I never felt I had enough hair! Supposedly red hair is thicker than other people's hair though. Well, that's where I go astray again. Like my red haired dad, I have very fine hair.
  Speaking of hair,red heads don't go gray like other people either. Most red heads maintain their colour longer than people of other hair colours. In most cases red hair gets more and more sandy coloured until it turns silvery white. This was certainly true with my Dad. His red hair started getting sandy when he was in his 50's, and it didn't really go white until he was in his 70's at least. At 52 I have started getting silver/white hairs in the last couple of years. They aren't very noticeable yet, unless somebody gets close and looks for them. (Thanks Ivy!)On the other side of that coin, the red haired lady across the street from me started going white in her 30s. There's an exception to every rule.

See you tomorrow for another red haired doll.

Doll-A-Day 214: Talkin' 'Bout Boys Week: Otis O'Brien

  As the title says, this week we're talking about boys. Today specifically, Otis O'Brien.

Otis is a ventriloquist dummy, or vent doll, as they are sometimes called.

He was made by Uneeda in 1972.

Otis came wearing the same little girl's bow flats (shoes) as all the other dummies.No wonder there are so many evil dummies! They all have a complex from being made to wear girls shoes! Check out the kid with Otis. Who knew Matt Smith did child modelling?

"What's she talking about? That kid doesn't look anything like me..."

I love his red hair and silly face. I found him at the big doll show a few years ago and couldn't resist.

Ivy thought he looked like Tessie Talk's big brother.

Otis with his 'sister' Tessie Talk.

"Mom! Take the picture!"

Since I didn't know who he was at the time, and he was a bit disheveled,we named him Messie Talk.

Otis is about three feet tall, but of course, being a ventriloquist dummy, known for their dangly legs, he can't stand up.

A lot of people are freaked out by ventriloquist dummies. The movies that have been made about evil dummies don't help. Two of the best are "Magic", with Anthony Hopkins, and "Dead of Night", a 1945 British movie made up of several stories. The dummy story stars Micheal Redgrave.

Anthony Hopkins, when he was still a hot babe,and his creepy dummy "Fats" in "Magic", from 1978. He learned ventriloquism for the part.Thirteen years later he became creepy himself, as Hannibal Lector in "Silence of the Lambs". Apparently the director and writer wanted Gene Wilder for the part of 'Corky', the shy magician and ventriloquist with a problem. (Hopkins was actually too old to play the character, and Wilder was even older.) But the producer didn't "want any comedians in" the movie. "Magic" had the world's creepiest commercial too. People who never saw the movie still remember it with a shiver. Watch it HERE. I saw the movie at the drive in with my Mom after begging her to take me.

Micheal Redgrave with his creepy dummy, Hugo, in "Dead of Night", 1945. Sir Micheal Redgrave was the father of actresses Vanessa and Lynn Redgrave. The sequence with Redgrave and Hugo is probably the most memorable one from the movie, but there are several others and they are all excellent. The theme of a ventriloquist who loses himself  in his aggressive dummy is a popular one, and has been used many times: the idea that someone who essentially has to be two people could one day actually think he is...  

I've never had a fear of dummies, and I love both of those movies. I highly recommend them both. "Magic" is R rated, and not for children, but "Dead of Night", which features at least one story that I read a version of in one of the books of scary short stories I have from when I was a kid, could be enjoyed by older kids. It makes a great Halloween movie! (Pre-watch it. You know what your kids can deal with.Some of the stories are scarier than others, and one is even a humorous ghost story.)

See you tomorrow for another 'boy'.

Anniversary Presents

  So Monday was our anniversary. One of my gifts to Ken was agreeing to eat out for lunch and dinner. After my lunch of a grilled cheese sandwich, tomato soup and garlic mashed potatoes at Applebees I was ready to pop. I'm really only good for one decent sized meal a day, and he knows it. So when I ate a dinner of a salad,Parmesan asparagus, some bread,and about three little stuffed mushrooms for dinner I was really about to explode. Absolutely miserable. Ken wanted everybody to share a brownie sundae so we could all have at least a taste of dessert, but the girls were too full to have any, and I couldn't eat more than three small bites. You KNOW I was full when I leave a brownie behind! For a fat lady it doesn't take much to fill me up. I'm like a reverse Tardis. I'm bigger on the outside.
  Ken's gifts to me included this Merida.

  I had been hinting...ok. Outright saying that the Merida dolls were on sale for $5 at Meijers, (and then having to again explain, "The 'Brave' girl!") so he bought me one...and promptly left it out where I found it.So I actually had it early, but I didn't open it until the day had passed. I also wanted to compare this one to the Disney Store one I got in June. So I'll be posting a full review of her tomorrow.
  If you read this blog last week you'll remember that I left an absentee bid on an Elizabeth Taylor as Cleopatra doll. Well, I didn't win her. Neither did I win the box of 1920's German dollhouse dolls,or the 1930's doll. But I did win the box containing this girl.

Tessie Talk. Her shoes make her feet look invisible, but they are in fact black.

  She's not everybody's cup of tea, but I think she's so cute! She is, as her collar says, a Tessie Talk ventriloquist doll, made by Horsman. I've always had an infatuation with puppets and ventriloquist dummies anyway,and red haired dolls,and I love Tessie Talk. This is actually my third. They all have different original outfits, which makes me think there must have been a lot of combinations of hair and clothes available.My first has a brown  version of this girl's hair, and my second has long red hair. When I bought her it was in what I always call a 'country singer hairdo', since I grew up in the era when lady 'country and western' singers, as they were called then, had big hair. Like Loretta Lynn...

 ...and Dolly Parton...

Dolly seems to be a pretty nice lady, but that hair! Please! Can you imagine poor Tessie Talk with that hair?! That 'do came down as soon as I got home from the toy show!
    Ken also indulged my love of treasure hunting and we stopped at several thrift shops while we were in the Big City waiting for Emma to get off work and join us for dinner. I found these girls for .59 cents each!

Nancy Ann Storybook dolls. These are the later, plastic ones. They could do with a trip to the hairdresser, but they're pretty nice.

  Ken also bought me this pumpkin headed fellow made by  Gathered Traditions, and designed by  Joe Spencer.     .

There is a girl to match, and bigger size. This reminds me that I need to haul out the Halloween decorations soon. Until next time...