Doll-A-Day 53: Skipper Saturday: Twist and Turn Skipper

Today's doll is another Twist and Turn Skipper.

She's had a haircut, but I think it's really cute on her.

She has rooted eyelashes and the usual bend legs and twist and turn waist.

.

She's wearing All Over Felt, minus the tights.

Without the tights, All Over Felt consists of a felt dress and jacket, with matching felt hat and purse, and blue shoes.

I have to get the right side of her hair to lay down again.

A variation All Over Felt was made in turquoise felt, rather than the usual light blue.

  For some reason almost all the blonde Twist and Turn Skippers I've managed to acquire have had haircuts. JUST the BLONDES. What is that about?

Doll-A-Day 52: Singing Chatty Cathy, Plus Special Guest Star, Tiny Chatty Baby

  Today's doll is singing Chatty Cathy.

  As far as I can find, she was produced in 1965.She's a pull string singer. Apparently she sang nursery rhymes. Mine is missing her string.
  I rescued this doll at a yard sale run by a very grouchy lady who didn't seem to want to come out of her house. All the stuff was on tables in the yard, and I think it had been out there for more than a couple of days. A lot of it was wet because it has rained. The doll was pretty grungy, but she seemed to need me. She cleaned up pretty well.

She still needs a little work on her eyes.

  She originally came in a red dress with musical notes printed on it in white, white anklets and red shoes. She also had a red ribbon in the right side of her hair. She came as a blonde, or a brunette. You can see my blonde HERE. She's about 17" tall.

It's hard to see them because they have gone gray (Don't we all?!), but she does have freckles.

  As for today's 'special guest star', I came across her while getting Singing Chatty out. I knew where she was, but I forgot I had put Tiny Chatty Baby in the armoir too. So, she should have been in the post with my Tiny Chatty Brother, but better late than never. (Seems to be becoming my slogan...) Anyway, here is Tiny Chatty Baby'

  She's 15" tall, like Tiny Chatty Brother. She has a matching outfit to his, and this one also has the same blonde hair.They were introduced (to the public, not to each other.) in 1962.

This girl seems to have fared better than my Chatty Brother. She must not have been loved as much, poor girl.She is missing her booties. Her hair is silky and she still has all her eye lashes.Unfortunately, she doesn't talk anymore either.

I found her in a junk shop, in this original outfit. She was a whole quarter.

 

She was fairly dirty, but she cleaned up nicely.Her outfit needed laundered too. It could do with a pressing, but I tend to be remiss in that area alot of the time. I don't even iron my own clothes any more.

You know, I like this doll, but looking at these pictures I'm starting to get a Marty Allen thing from her.

Old comedian Marty Allen in the 60's. Apparently he's 91, and still working.

Tiny C. Baby.: "Did you hear what she said about me?!"

Tiny C. Brother: "I may be grungy, but she never said I look like Marty Allen."

Tiny C. Baby: "I can't believe she said that!"

I also promised a size comparison between all the Chatty dolls.

Left to right: Charmin Chatty, Chatty Cathy, Chatty Baby, Singing Chatty Cathy, Tiny Chatty Baby

I kind of expected Singing Chatty to be more the size of regular Chatty Cathy.

And while we're here, another comparison: the difference between soft face and hard face Chatty Cathys.

Soft face Chatty in the middle.

The soft face girl seems to have a bigger head, with chubbier cheeks.

She has held her colour better too.

Let's face it. She's just prettier.

(Shhh. Don't tell the other girls. We're liable to end up with another Marty Allen situation.)
  That concludes Chatty Week. See you tomorrow for another Skipper Saturday.

Doll-A-Day 51: 'Piggy' Chatty Cathy

Today's doll is really two:These are my 'Piggy' Chatty Cathy dolls, so called because they have double ponytails. (I always thought pigtails were supposed to be braided, but that's what this type of Chatty is known as.)

Unfortunately they both have one paled out leg!

The one with the dark hair came in a lot I got online a couple of years ago, along with a couple of Chatty Babies.

Apparently Chatty Cathy's designer sculpted her to look like his daughter.

The red haired one I got at Goodwill for $3 a couple of months ago.

This girl's lips have paled out and I'm debating using some removeable colour on them. Her teeth stick out more than the dark haired girl's, giving her a more buck toothed look.

Both have the double ponytails that make them  'piggys'.You can tell they are true Piggys and not just long haired dolls with their hair pulled into ponytail from the rooted part in the back.

As you can see, they are both missing their string.

The dark haired one isn't strictly brunette. She really has a great combination of dark brown and red hair.

When I got her she had a very dirty, greasy face and her hair was a mess. She cleaned up quite well though. She looks pretty nice.

They both have decal eyes. They also both need their bangs recurled! For some reason their bangs insist on parting in the middle.

The dark haired girl's dress is an original Chatty Cathy dress,with eyelet over blouse and eyelet trimmed half slip. I got it in a huge yard sale haul of Barbie and Thumbelina and Chatty stuff last summer. (The post was last August 5th, and called Fantastic Finds of the Week.)

The red haired girl is wearing a Chatty Cathy dress called Nursery School. I  got it in an auction lot. When I only had this dress and the dark haired girl I was going to put it on her, but I think the red head looks better in Nursery School. The dark haired girl looks better in the blue and white too. 
Both are 'hard face' dolls, and have the same speaker grill.

This is the number 5 body.

They have different right hands though.The red haired girl has the earlier version.

As you can see, as usual my dolls are short on shoes. I do have one blue shoe I got in an auction lot! My friend Connie is looking through her stuff to see if she has any.

Tomorrow we'll finish up Chatty week with Singing Chatty and a size comparison.(I know I said that yesterday, but I got confused, ok? I was thinking today was Friday.)

Doll-A-Day 50: Charmin Chatty

Today's doll is Charmin Chatty.

She's the tallest member of the Chatty Family, and she stands about 25" tall. She was introduced into the line in 1963.
 

  Oddly enough, even though she was produced after Chatty Cathy, Chatty Baby, and the Tiny Chatty's, she had a more primitive talking system in a way. Instead of just pulling a string, she had a slot in her side and spoke when records were inserted into the slot and her string was pulled. It was more primitive in a way, but also more versatile: Charmin' could have more sayings added when you bought another outfit, which came with records that included sayings having to do with the theme of the outfit. For instance her nurse set, tea party set,foreign lands, shopping, birthday party,etc.

  She came with either blonde or red hair.Her original outfit was a white sailor jacket, with a blue skirt with an attached blue and white striped shirt front, red knee socks, and saddle shoes.She also had cute black framed glasses, which unfortunately I don't have...YET!

  This girl has one original sock and one original shoe, which her feet are sharing between them at the moment.I recently got another couple Charmin's, one blonde, and one red head. One of them was wearing a whole pair of saddle shoes! Whee!

I think her blouse and skirt are homemade, but they look cute on her.
  I read something recently that compared Charmin to Skipper's friend Skooter. And you know what? They do look almost exactly alike!

Skooter was introduced after Charmin Chatty, and she looks like somebody shrunk the Charmin mold.

Their profile is exactly the same, only the painting of the facial features is different. (Charmin', what's the deal with those eyebrows?)

  I forgot to look to see if their ears are the same. Maybe I'll reveal the answer to that spine tingling mystery tomorrow. I'm a little busy today, as Emma is coming for dinner and games.
  Tomorrow we'll see a couple of 'Piggy' Chatty Cathy dolls, (They have double ponytails.) , and Singing Chatty,and check out a size comparison of all the Chatty Types.

Doll-A-Day 49: Tiny Chatty Brother

  Due to family goings on I'm a bit late in posting 'today's' doll. But better late than never, and here he is. I'm sharing a favourite of mine with you. This is my Tiny Chatty Brother.

He's a bit worse for wear, but he does have all his original clothes.

He's wearing his original one piece play suit, hat, and booties made to look like shoes and socks.I have been afraid to clean his clothes in case they shrink or fall apart! I'm a lot less cautious with vintage dolls that weren't mine as a kid. If they fall apart, the worst thing is that I've ruined an antique. If anything happened to my childhood dolls I'd be heart broken.

He still has such a cute face.

He's around 15" tall,so he's even smaller than Chatty Baby.He also had a twin,Tiny Chatty Baby. I only seem to ever see Chatty Brother as a blonde, but I think Tiny Chatty Baby was also available as a brunette .

He's lost his top button and most of the lashes on one eye, but that's nothing to what's (not) under his hat!

I got him for my birthday when I was very small.In researching I see that he was supposed to have been introduced in 1962 or 63. I was born in 1962, but I must have gotten him when I was at least a year old. The thing is, I remember the day I got him. We lived out in the country. WAAAYYY out in the country. So we did a lot of catalog shopping, usually Spiegal or Fingerhut or Fosterhouse. Fosterhouse was cheap stuff like Santa Claus Soaps and plastic cup sets. Fingerhut is still around. I'm thinking he was from Spiegal though. That was the big catalog that, as kids, we did most of our Christmas, (and I guess birthday too), wishing with. I don't remember if I picked him out. I do know I was REALLY happy to get him. I think I must have asked for him. The day he came my mom hid his box around the side of the stove. I can remember her grin as I looked around the stove and saw him. I also remember that I was so happy that I grabbed him out of his box and rolled all around the kitchen floor with him in my arms. 

I never had any other clothes that fit him except a white flannel nightgown. It tied in the back, as a lot of doll clothes did back then. It made me think of a hospital gown though. Since it was the only other thing I had for him, he consequently spent a lot of time in 'the hospital'. (The hospital consisted of  the doll cradle with  the toy piano's stool next to it as a bedside table. I doctored him myself.)

I keep seeing this poor guy's brothers wearing dresses because people can't tell the difference between Tiny Chatty Brother and Tiny Chatty Baby.The big way you can tell the difference is, Tiny Chatty Brother has a part in his hair. This guy has more part than hair now.

He was one of my favourite dolls. I loved him to pieces, as you can see from his hair!It's the kind of doll hair that got sort of crispy and breaks off easily.He's missing eye lashes too.That actually started happening after I was grown up.

He has decal eyes, which actually look alot more matching than they appear in this picture! He is missing more of the lashes on his right eye every day.He still has his teeth though, which as a kid I loved to brush!

He did talk at one time, of course. Like Cathy and Chatty Baby he is a pull string talker.I still remember the moment he stopped talking. My cousin dropped him when we were playing and he hasn't spoken since. (Chatty brother that is. Not my cousin.) Maybe someday I'll get him repaired.
  Tomorrow we'll see the big kid of the bunch, Charmin' Chatty.