July 3, 2017, Meeting

In honor of the upcoming Fourth of July, the refreshments were as American as apple pie. 

Member Beverly Evans gave a program on the history of boy dolls.  In the 1800s there were few male dolls, most simply a doll dressed as a man or boy and often serving as the groom for a bride doll or dressed as a soldier or sailor.  The introduction of character dolls by German manufacturers resulted in dolls modeled to be specifically boys. 

Beverly brought many examples of antique and contemporary boy dolls from her collection.

Dolls dressed as brother and sister pairs have long been popular.

Members also brought boy dolls to share.

Brenda Kaye White introduces Logan, the first boy doll created by American Girl.

Sallie Howard displays two boy dolls from Mattel.

Elaine Jackson brought this boy doll by pioneering doll artist Emma Clear.   Clear operated the Humpty Dumpty Doll Clinic in Los Angeles, where she repaired and restored dolls.  Unable to find parts for antique dolls, she began to reproducing her own, and started in the 1930s offering a variety of reproduction bisque and china dolls.  Although Clear is best known for her reproduction dolls, she also created her own character dolls, like this handsome boy.

Myrna Loesch shares Cotton Joe, an early Black character doll by Horsman.

Jennell Howell told us about Buddy Lee, an advertising doll manufactured  for the H. D. Lee Company, the maker of Lee Jeans from the 1920s though the early 1960s.  Buddy Lee dolls came dressed in detailed miniatures of Lee garments representing a variety of occupations.