Three '50's doll trunks- Part 1

An addictively entertaining resource for identifying old toys and dolls is http://www.wishbookweb.com/. The site's creator has scanned old catalogs from Sears and similar stores. While looking through a 1959 Sears catalog for information about Patty Playpal I came across one of my dolls that I have never been able to identify.

This is an inspiration to open three doll trunks that have been packed away for decades and take photos as I do. This will be fun but I'm concerned about damage. Gold leaf was flaking off the bodice of the Princess's dress so that's no surprise but I've seen damage done by mysterious tiny bugs that destroy natural materials like wool and fur. Let's cross our fingers and see what's inside.

 Ugh! They're dirty and dusty. I'll carefully clean them later.

First, the Princess.

Ah! Wow! The fur looks fine. The metal wires that hold the doll in place have stained the front of her dress but otherwise she looks great! Incredibly, everything shown in the catalog picture-which is very unflattering, by the way- is still there. I'm happy!

Her only marking is a very faint "NEEDA" stamped on her back. A quick search at http://vintagedollcollector.com leads me to believe that this is Uneeda Doll Company's Suzette doll. She has modifications done to the doll during the late '50's- no swivel waist, unpainted nails, no earrings and an oddly short neck. Until now I'd never heard of Suzette. Interesting.

***I examined the Princess more closely later. The elastic in her slip, panties and bra had degraded and all are unwearable. I believe the stain on her dress was a result of this. The clothes have an odd fit, as if they were designed for a slightly smaller doll. Despite the clothing flaws she's still lovely. :)

Next, a trunk that was a Christmas present from a favorite cousin. I was too young to appreciate that the clothes were all handmade.

Eek! It's Marie Antoinette! Her little blond friend seems to be in shock. Instead of examining and photographing the contents I'm going to open the last trunk to check for damage.

Whose leg is that??? Why does the red haired doll have a baby bottle stuck to the top of her head? I'm going to sort through the mess and will resume shortly with Part 2.

Old and dirty

 

What are these and what's inside?

NotPatty

The Patty Playpal doll was introduced in 1959 and was #1 on my Christmas list. She had beautiful long, straight hair and a lovely face and was the same size as a toddler. The ad campaign stressed that Patty could wear human-child clothes. Cool! I couldn't wait!



So. I didn't get Patty. Instead Santa brought me an unattractive clone. Her face was plump and generic. The hair... oh, the hair. Instead of the long silky gorgeousness she had the ugliest poodle perm imaginable. I was disappointed and NotPatty was never one of my favorites. My parents, on the other hand, thought it was hilarious to place the faux-child on the back seat of our car and take her with us on drives.

Not Patty!

When my family moved here NotPatty was sent to the attic and spent 30 years staring at the rafters. I eventually brought her downstairs to see how my cats would react to a small, unfamiliar human. They weren't impressed. However, I felt sorry for NotPatty, gave her a bath, bought her some new clothes and didn't return her to the attic. Now I'm glad that she wasn't discarded because she's the right size to model my childhood clothing and accessories. And... well... she is kind of cute.

But I still don't like her hair.

Poodle perm. Even uglier after 50 years.

Playtime ephemera from the 1950's

In the Big Box o' Stuff mentioned in my previous blog entry I found instructions for two toys.
The first was an ELGO building set that I still remember playing with after almost 60 years. It took hours to assemble buildings from the small red plastic rectangles. ELGO and LEGO made similar products during the 1950's but are not the same company.
Click on each picture to see an enlarged image.


Front and back covers of the instruction booklet.

The Toni doll was introduced in the early 1950's, licensed to the Ideal toy company by Gillette, manufacturer of Toni home permanents. She came with a complete perm kit including harmless sugar-water setting solution and tiny plastic rollers. I still have my Toni doll and the "Play Wave" directions but the accessories disappeared long ago.

I found several boxes of 1950's paper dolls stored on a high closet shelf and forgotten for decades. Rediscovering these old reminders of my childhood was a nostalgic delight.

To me it was a boring task to cut out clothes using a dull pair of metal scissors with rounded safety tips. The results were ragged, to say the least. Small fold-over tabs that were supposed to hold the clothing in place on the doll didn't work well at all. Someone came up with a clever solution...

This is an early version of Milton Bradley's Magic Mary series of paper dolls. Her pre-cut clothes magically! stayed in place without the usual fold-over tabs. A small, flat piece of metal taped to each piece of clothing clung to a magnet embedded in the doll. Over time the tape has stained some of the clothes.

My Sweetie Doll, Honey, was produced by the Whitman Publishing Company. Similar Sweeties named Sugar and Ginger have been sold on Ebay but I haven't been able to find any further information about the dolls. Unfortunately most of Honey's clothes are gone.

I LOVE the vintage clothing styles in this 1950's bridal party set. There were so many different pieces I never finished cutting them out.
  *** I've had a series of silly mishaps while trying to photograph this and will add pictures later. Here's an example of what happened. The problem may not be immediately apparent... I used a terrible background.

Boxful of ephemera

I've been pondering where to start. During these 90+ degree days the attic is ridiculously hot and I'm definitely not going to go up there! Recently I opened a long-forgotten box of my mom's treasures. It has inspired me to begin my blog with some ephemera: paper items of limited use that are usually thrown away or tossed into the recycling bin including catalogs, newspapers, greeting cards, event fliers, and magazines.This box is full of well preserved examples.

The box itself is from Cherry and Webb, a New England women's clothing store, and dates back to the 1950's.

A peek at the contents:

In elementary school exchanging Valentines with everyone in the class was a yearly tradition. In the 1950's these cards generally came in multi-packs with standard envelopes or punch-out books with envelopes that had to be cut out, folded and glued by hand. Here are examples of both.

Yikes! I don't think this Valentine would be considered appropriate nowadays.

Weekly Reader from 1956. The publication is still being distributed as supplemental classroom material.

Also school related... a notepad with lined paper. I was pleasantly surprised when I found this exceptionally well preserved forgotten treasure at the bottom of the box. Gene Autry notepad, 1959.

Sewing patterns booklets from Fall, 1960. Hats and gloves were still standard accessories.

 

And finally, an example of my early artistic talent.

 

Introduction

I always jokingly referred to my mother as a pack-rat but after my father died I realized that he had kept Mom's "collecting" tendencies at a manageable level. While the attic was full of her treasures- household objects that weren't discarded when they went out of style or stopped working, my childhood dolls and toys, outgrown or outdated clothing, and so much more - the living space in the house itself was uncluttered.

After Dad passed away my mother began accumulating trash and treasures. If something was on sale she bought it: books, nicknacks, clothes, small appliances, costume jewelry, etc. She discovered a local antique shop and purchased whatever looked interesting, including three desks that she didn't need. Eventually I inherited it all, as well as my parents' 1940's home, and initially threw away over 200 trash bags full of worthless junk. What I kept is unique to the 1940's through early 1970's.   

Part of my daily routine is looking through vintage blogs, delighting in seeing new pictures of mid-century treasures. I never thought about blogging before but realized that there are others who might enjoy my eclectic collection. Everything was purchased new for household use. If there is a story or memory associated with an item I'll share it with you.

I've been staring at the Publish button for a couple of weeks. OK, let's do this!