June 3, 2019, Meeting

The refreshment table was decorated in red, white, and blue to commemorate Juneteenth.  The holiday, its name a blend of "June" and "nineteenth," commemorates the June 19, 1865, announcement of the abolition of slavery in Texas.

Proudly waving a Juneteenth flag, these two little all-bisque girls celebrate under the watchful eye of an antique cast iron bank.  The taller girl is attributed to the German firm of Gebruder Kuhnlenz and her little sister in her crocheted original outfit and straw hat is a little French all-bisque doll called a Lilliputien.

Holding her Juneteenth flag in one hand and cradling her Lilliputien doll, this all-bisque girl is by the German firm of Simon and Halbig.  She wears her original bathing costume.

Member Brenda Kaye White did a program on Betsy McCall dolls.  She told the club that Betsy began as a paper doll published in McCall's magazine in 1951 as a promotional item.  Although other publications had included paper dolls among their pages, Brenda Kaye explained that Betsy was different as she not only represented a young girl, but each page included a story about Betsy's latest adventure.  Betsy was a huge hit and little girls clamored for their mothers to buy the newest edition of McCall's.  Many fashion designers competed for the honor of designing costumes for Betsy and subsequently patterns were published for recreating Betsy's wardrobe both in doll and child sizes.  Brenda Kaye explained that Betsy's look and fashions in McCall's evolved over the years and her stories became more elaborate with the addition of family members.

This is the magazine that introduced Betsy to the world.

Brenda Kaye said that from 1952 to 1953, Ideal produced the first Betsy as a three-dimensional doll.  The doll was enormously successful.

American Character produced the next generation of Betsy beginning in 1957.  The dolls were made in a wide variety of sizes, from eight inches to a 14-inch doll with flirty eyes to a child-sized 36-inch tall version.  

Brenda Kaye said that these 8-inch Betsy dolls are the type she played with as a child.

In 1964 Uneeda produced Betsy as an 11.5-inch tall teenage doll.  Horsman began producing a doll using the Betsy McCall name beginning in 1971, but the dolls were generic and lacked Betsy's character and features.  The Rothschild Doll Company in 1986 made limited edition Betsy dolls to celebrate her 35th anniversary dolls and today the Robert Tonner Doll Company has reintroduced Betsy.

A number of members brought Betsy dolls from their collections.  Ann Meier shared this Betsy bride doll she received for Christmas when she was around eight or nine years old.

Ann Countryman brought several examples of eight-inch tall vintage Betsy dolls.

Sylvia McDonald had this example of a Rothschild Betsy.  She said she fell in love with the doll's face.

Myrna Loesch said that this 14-inch tall Betsy belonged to another little girl in her hometown and that her mother had later purchased it at an estate sale.

This Betsy was Myrna's childhood doll.  Myrna described how she could purchase outfits for her doll on display cards at the toy store.

This Betsy doll was created for the 2007 Betsy McCall convention held in San Antonio.

Sallie Howard shared several Betsy dolls from her collection.  She said that the nurse is by American Character while the little girl in pink is a limited edition doll by Tonner.

This is an Ideal Betsy.

Tonner made this Irish Betsy with auburn curls and an elaborately embroidered outfit.

This Betsy doll belongs to Anne Campbell.

Beverly Howard brought a batch of Betsy dolls.

She explained that the doll in red and white is not a Betsy McCall, but Sandra Sue, who also fit the patterns made for the Betsy dolls.

Jan Irsfeld brought this Cissy doll she dressed to honor Jillian Mercado, a fashion model who, because of muscular dystrophy, uses a wheelchair use.  The wheelchair is from American Girl and the dress is a copy of one modeled by Jullian.

April 2, 2018, Meeting

Member Betty Birdsong did a program on paper dolls. She said that antique and vintage paper dolls are less expensive than their three-dimensional counterparts, are easy to store and transport, and illustrate both the history of fashion and printing. Bette told the club that prior to the 1800, paper were handmade or engraved and hand colored. Such dolls were sold precut, as scissors were costly. In the 1800's, less expensive printing technology allowed paper dolls to be sold in uncut sheets. In 1863  McLoughlin Brothers, followed by Raphael Tuck and Sons in 1866, began to mass produce paper dolls with a wide variety of colorful costumes, including foreign and and fairytale dolls. By the end of the 1800's, paper dolls were showing up in newspapers and as promotional items on products such as cereal boxes and coffee cans. Children also created their own paper dolls by cutting people out of magazines and drawing their own wardrobes.

McLoughlin and Tuck offered dolls on thicker pasteboard with beautifully printed outfits and accessories.

Bette has this terrific trousseau of early doll dresses, but is still looking for the paper doll that wore them.  

This book by famed illustrator Frances Brundage dates from 1920.

Many women's magazines included pages of paper dolls to encourage sales.  Betty Bonnet appeared in Ladies Home Journal in the 1910s.

McCall's first offered Betsy McCall in 1951.

The Dennison Manufacturing Company prompted its crepe and tissue paper products by selling jointed paper dolls with three-dimensional crepe paper clothing.  This little girl comes with pre-printed outfits, but the dolls were also offered sheets of colorful crepe paper and patterns so that children could create their own costumes.

New printing technology made paper dolls even more affordable.  Stores like F. W. Woolworth offered inexpensive paper dolls books. Companies such as Saalfield Publishing Company, the Werner Publishing Company, and Whitman Publishing created a wide variety of paper dolls. 

By the 1920's, paper doll books began to feature movie stars such as Shirley Temple, as well as celebrities like the Princesses Elizabeth and Margaret. In the 1940's paper dolls of Claudette Colbert, July Garland, Ava Gardner, Betty Gable, Rita Hayworth, and Elizabeth Taylor were popular. However, with the introduction of inexpensive hard plastic dolls in the 1950s and Barbie in 1959, little girls began to lose interest in paper dolls.   Paper dolls were still produced in the 1960s, typically based on television shows such as Dr. Kildare and the Beverly Hillbillies.   A nostalgia craze in the 1970s resulted in reproductions of antique paper dolls, but these copies could not reproduce the high quality of the original printing process.

This delightful paper doll with her dresses of real fabric glued to paper was created by Bette's mother, an art major.  Her mother also made a set for Bette's sister,  Lynda.

Member Elaine Jackson supplemented her March program on Schoenhut dolls.  The standing doll is by Schoenhut, but although the seated doll at first glance also appears to be from this company, it was in fact made in 1919 by Giebeler-Falk Doll Corporation in the United States and has an aluminum head.  Like Schoenhut, Giebeler-Falk advertised its dolls as the unbreakable alternative to fragile bisque doll heads.