August 10, 2025, Meeting

This meeting was a special celebration--the 50th anniversary of the Austin Doll Collectors Society. United Federation of Doll Clubs director for Region 3 Karen Allen attended and awarded the club with this certificate:

Members celebrated with punch, ice cream, and this special, and very appropriate cake (there was a miscommunication and the cake actually says "40th Anniversary," but it was delicious nevertheless). 

Members were asked to bring a doll that started their collecting or had special meaning to them. Jenell Howell brought this "Mabel" doll by Armand Marseille. . .

. . .and this doll by Simon and Halbig. She told the club that the dolls had belonged to her great-aunt. When Jenell was 12-years-old, her great-aunt showed the dolls to her and Jenell was fascinated by the dolls and the family history. She was told that the Halbig was displayed in a store window during WWI, but no one would buy German goods. Jenell's great-grandmother walked by the store window daily and although she admired the doll, she would not buy it. The day armistice was declared, Jenell said that her great-grandmother went to the store and bought the doll. The dolls were both dressed by her great-grandmother.

Myrna Loesch brought two childhood dolls. She got this Horsman Cindy doll for Christmas when she was about 21 months old.

Myrna received this Lissy by Madame Alexander in 1956.

Bette Birdsong shared this china head doll.  Bette told the club that when she was in the 6th grade, she visited some relatives and saw a Minerva metal head doll on a cloth body with china limbs. She declared that she wanted the doll and subsequently received it for her birthday. Years later there was a fire at her parents' house and although the doll's head was lost, Bette was able to salvage the body. Later she found a  beautiful antique china head in an antiques shop and the head fit the body she had saved.

Sylvia MsDonald told the club that this plastic baby by Hollywood Doll Manufacturing Company was the first doll she bought for herself as a child.

This Nancy Ann Storybook Doll was another childhood doll of Sylvia's. The doll portrays Goldilocks and was given to her as a gift.

Jan Irsfeld said that when she was a child she saw a picture of Cissy by Madame Alexander in a catalog and fell in love. Instead, her parents bought her a Dollikin by Uneeda. As an adult, Jan bought and restored this vintage Cissy and made her a dress that was a copy of the one she had seen in the catalog. The flowers on the tulle were all hand painted by Jan.

This composition doll was a childhood doll of Nancy Countryman and wears the dress Nancy made her.

Another childhood doll of Nancy's, inherited from a cousin.

She also brought this vintage Barbie by Mattel. Nancy said that she started to collect Barbie dolls in 1962. However, the first Barbie doll she purchased was a Christmas gift for her five-year-old son. Nancy explained that she was a school teacher and had to work late on Christmas Eve. Most of the stores were already closed and the only toy she could find was a Barbie doll. She bought it for her son, telling him that the doll was for his G.I Joe dolls to date.

Ann Meier shared this Madame Alexander Portrette doll in her original trunk, filled with all sorts of hats and accessories. The doll and trunk are entitled "Mrs. Malloy's Millinery Shop." 

David Craig displayed this Tiny Kitty by Robert Tonner. He told the club that the doll's beautifully-made clothing reflects his love of fashion from the 1950s and 60s.

Elaine Jackson brought her childhood Toni doll.  When she was 10 years old, Elaine's mother told her that Santa could bring her either a new bicycle or a Toni doll.  Elaine could not decide which she wanted and Christmas day found she had a new bike. After Christmas, her mother took her to the store and using money saved from her allowance, Elaine bought her own Toni doll.  Even though the doll was on sale, Elaine did not have enough money, so her mother helped her pay for it, but afterward deducted the debt from Elaine's allowance.  

Elaine had also recently acquired this wooden ballerina carved by Austin artist Nancy Grobe. Grobe, who was once a member of our club, eventually had to give up carving because of arthritis and became a skilled painter. Elaine said that this doll is one of Grobe's early creations.

Pam Hardy shared this Bye-lo baby. She told the club that she had always wanted a Bye-lo and had said that when she finally acquired one she would stop collecting. Instead, she ended up joining our club.

Sharon Weintraub displayed two dolls from her collection. When she was around 10 years old, she went to visit some relatives in Florida, including an aunt who collected a wide variety of antiques, Sharon was fascinated by the aunt's collection and when they left, the aunt gifted her a low brow china doll head. Sharon started checking out books about dolls from the library to learn more. Sadly, later the head was broken when a shelf was moved. The family was going on vacation to Portland, Maine that summer and Sharon's mother said that they would go antiquing and look for a doll to replace the broken head. The little doll in brown by Armand Marseille was found in a Maine antique shop. Shortly afterwards, the great-aunt of a friend of Sharon's was moving into a retirement center and wanted to find someone to take her two childhood dolls, a Simon and Halbig shoulder head doll on a kid body (the doll in the antique black dress) and a Florodora doll by Armand Marseille. These became the second and third antique dolls to join Sharon's collection. 

 

Our Little Helper. . .

Earlier, this blog featured a beautiful Bru reproduction by doll artist Lillian Vandermast that the club was sending to the United Federation of Doll Clubs convention in Norfolk, Virginia, as a helper. Well, here is our little helper on display at the convention. She had already garnered a nice number of raffle tickets.

June 8, 2025, Meeting

Member Myrna Loesch did a program on dolls made by Michele-ette, a Mexican doll company.

She told the club that she found this doll at an estate sale labeled as by Madame Alexander. Myrna said that although the doll did resemble the eight-inch Alexanderkins/Wendykins, her facial painting, such as the eyebrows, was different, she had a coarse black wig styled with two long pins, and she was unmarked. 

Some time later, Myrna found this doll on eBay, also dressed in a kimono, with the same facial painting, a coarse wig styled with pins, and no mark. 

Shortly afterwards, Myrna acquired these two similar dolls on eBay, but dressed in Mexican outfits. The dolls still carried their original tags, stating "Michele-ette Hecho en Mexico."

Myrna said that a doll collecting friend in San Antonio also had a pair of Michele-ette dolls, a girl in a traditional Mexican outfit and a boy dressed as a matador. She gave Myrna a copy of a newspaper article from the September 19, 1958, edition of the "Arizona Republic" about Mrs. Philip (Michele) Fauerso, the owner of the Michele-ette doll company in Mexico City. According to the article, Fauerso, at the time the owner of the Barbizon modeling agency and its associated schools, was vacationing in Mexico City, but could not find any canned dogfood for her dog. She started making her own dogfood and soon her neighbors were asking whether they could try some for their pets. Fauerso began selling the dogfood and at the end of her vacation sold the company for $10,000. In 1953, Fauerso was again vacationing in Mexico City with her husband and daughter. She told the newspaper that she dreaded returning to the rush of New York City and was looking for an excuse to stay in Mexico. Fauerso and her daughter noted while shopping that all the dolls they saw were ugly. Inspired, Fauerso took a small doll her daughter had brought with her and repainted and redressed it. Using a horse tail she bought at a slaughter house, she braided a new wig for the doll. Fauerso then took the doll to various shop owners and returned with $16,000 worth of orders. She persuaded her husband to stay in Mexico City and started her doll company.

According to the article, the business got off to a rough start with a single sewing machine and three  employees. They had to fulfill the first order for 24 dolls, but were having difficulty assembling the plastic dolls. Fauerso made a quick trip to the United States and returned with 24 plastic dolls, which were repainted, redressed, and re-wigged. In order to meet other order deadlines, Fauerso had her employees  purchase the dolls and used them the fill subsequent orders. This bought the company time to develop its manufacturing techniques. Another problem was with their employees, but over two years the company developed a trustworthy workforce of women. Fauerso told the reporter that hers was the only factory in Mexico with women bosses. The company had grown from a home business to a factory with 150 employees, 35 sewing machines, and ten injection machines. The article reported that over 200,000 Michele-ette dolls, all dressed in hand made fashions, had been produced.

Myrna speculated that the American dolls first used by Michele-ette may have been Alexanderkins/Wendykins and that the company may have later purchased molds from Madame Alexander, which could explain the resemblance between the Michele-ette dolls and the Alexanders. She noted that Fauerso and Alexander were both woman entrepreneurs from New York City and it may have been possible that they knew each other.

Myrna told the club that articles she found on the Internet in 2019 and 2020 reported that the Museo del Juguete MX  (Museum of Toys Mexico) had an exhibit of Michele-ette dolls from the 1970s. She said that it appears that the dolls are no longer being made.

Member Sylvia McDonald shared this example of an American-made hard plastic eight-inch doll, Muffy created by Nancy Ann Storybook Dolls. 

This is a Ginny doll, which started the trend for eight-inch girl dolls. She belongs to member Jenell Howell and is dressed as Davy Crockett, complete with coonskin cap and rifle.

Jenell also shared her newest BJD creation.

Member Elaine Jackson brought this hand-carved wooden Hitty doll by TC Vollum.

Another wooden doll, belonging to member Sharon Weintraub. She is a vintage "peg wooden" or Grodnertal doll dressed as a pearly queen.  Sharon explained that the "pearlies" are charity groups associated with England's working classes. They are famous for their velvet costumes covered in elaborate designs made from mother-of-pearl buttons. The doll's hand-stitched velvet dress and bonnet are covered in small mother-of-pearl buttons and tiny faux pearl beads.

April 13, 2025, Meeting

Member Jenell Howell did a program on Margaret Mitchell, author of Gone with the Wind, and the Madame Alexander dolls inspired by her book. She gave the club a brief biography of Mitchell, who was born into a wealthy family on November 8, 1900. Her father was a lawyer and her mother was a suffragist. There were a number of Confederate veterans in her family, so she heard lots of stories about the Civil War. When she was six years old, her mother took her on a tour of burned plantations. Mitchell stated that she was 12 years old when she discovered that the Confederacy did not win the Civil War.  At 22,  Mitchell became a journalist. She injured her ankle at the age of 26 and her husband encouraged her to write a novel while she was recuperating. Ten years later in 1936, Gone with the Wind was published. The novel was an immediate success and won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction. The novel resonated with those who were prosperous in the 1920s and suffering in the Great Depression. In 1939, the Gone with the Wind movie was released.  Mitchell was struck by a car on August 11, 1949, as she was walking to the movies with her husband and passed away five days later due to her injuries. 

Jenell discussed the novel and the movie. She said that the novel was controversial due to the inherent racism throughout: Black people were portrayed as inferior; Yankee soldiers were portrayed as corrupt and mean; and, freed slaves were portrayed as lacking direction and prone to base instincts. The novel also had a strong female protagonist in Scarlett O’Hara. Themes of resilience, survival, and struggling to maintain an identity amidst societal upheaval are found throughout the novel. 

Galley proofs of the novel were provided to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, Warner Brothers, and RKO studios prior to the novel’s release, but they all rejected the idea of making a film version. The proofs were also offered to producer David O. Selznick. He initially turned the offer down as he felt it was too much for his small independent company. However, when book was released and sold 176,000 copies in the first three months, Selznick paid $50,000 for the movie rights.

Jenell told the club that Madame Alexander read the novel when it was published in 1936. and immediately contacted Mitchell to secure the rights to make dolls based on the characters in the novel. The first Scarlett dolls produced by Madame Alexander were identified as Southern Girl. Madame Alexander created and sold Scarlett/Southern Girl dolls based on the novel from late 1936 through the release of the movie in 1939. Some of these early Scarletts may have had blue eyes instead of green as the novel did not specify the color of her eyes. Madame Alexander designed Southern belle doll clothes that were later reflected in the movie. 

Jenell said that after the movie came out, Alexander created dolls based on Vivien Leigh's portrayal of Scarlett, with green eyes, black hair, and dresses with full skirts. These dolls ranged in size from nine to 21 inches. Jenell showed a wide variety of early composition Madame Alexander Scarletts to the club. She pointed out one that was particularly special. Jenell told the club that she had obtained the doll at the Theriault’s auction of Jane Withers’s dolls. Jane Withers was a contemporary of Shirley Temple and they frequently starred together, with Jane playing the “brat.” Jenell indicated she was thrilled to have been the high bid and was even more thrilled to discover that Jane Withers had signed the back of the doll. 

Jenell said that Alexander continued to make dolls based on Scarlett and other characters in the novel and movie for many years. She displayed a hard-plastic Maggie-faced Bonnie Blue doll, representing the daughter of Scarlett and her husband, Rhett Butler; the doll had her original costuming and gold Madame Alexander wrist tag. Jenell stated she had not been able to find any mention of this doll, so it appears that she is rare. In the 1990s, Alexander produced a series of characters using 8-inch Alexander-kins dolls, like this "Mammy."

Jenell noted that other doll companies sought to capitalize on the "Gone with the Wind" craze, creating dolls identified as Southern lady or belle, as Madame Alexander had the rights to create dolls based on the characters in the novel. This doll by Nancy Ann Storybook Dolls is called “Southern Belle.”

Jenell also shared this vintage Vogue Ginny doll she had recently acquired

Other members shared their "Gone with the Wind" character dolls. This Alexander Cissy as Scarlett, dressed in scandalous scarlet, belongs to Jan Irsfeld.

Pam Hardy shared this Alexander Scarlett in a white ruffled gown, 

as well as this creation by Avon known as Southern belle. 

She also brought this sweet antique bisque German doll.

Sylvia McDonald displayed these Alexander Alexander-kins dolls dressed as Mammy, Scarlett, and Rhett. 

Nancy Countryman shared three versions of Scarlett, a Alexander Scarlett portrait doll in a floral gown, 

another gowned in green and white,

and an early composition version, as well as 

this vinyl Rhett.

David Craig brought this resin ball-jointed doll by JAMIEshow USA, wearing a dress from a Franklin Mint Scarlett doll. 

Big thanks to Ann Meier for the pictures and Myrna Loesch for her notes!