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!

December 8, 2024, Meeting

Our last meeting of 2024 was our annual holiday party, held at member Jan Irsfeld's beautiful home. She had decked the halls with all sorts of merry and bright holiday cheer.

 

Members brought a number of darling dolls to share. 

Member Myrna Loesch shared this cute composition Santa doll made by Ralph A. Freundlich in the 1930s. She had replaced his original faded cloth outfit and he certainly seems pleased with his new gay apparel. 

Member Jenell Howell displayed this petite Pukipuki BJD she dressed in festive holiday attire.

Member Sylvia McDonald shared this wistful all-bisque baby by doll artist Rebecca Clay Stewart, a gift from Jenell. Stewart was a preschool teacher who also not only made dolls, but also taught doll-making in her studio, for some 20 years. A skilled seamstress, Stewart also dressed her creation. Sylvia named the doll "Becky" after her maker. 

Member Pan Hardy brought this pretty porcelain angel garbed in white and gold. She said that she has had this angel for some 10 to 15 years.

Her Santa was a later acquisition. Pam said that she bought this nifty St. Nick because he matched the angel. 

Member Elaine Jackson shared this interesting ethnic doll in a wooden sleigh. The doll may represent a member of the Sami, an indigenous people found spread across Scandinavia and Russia. Traditionally, the Sami were a nomadic people, surviving by hunting, fishing, and herding reindeer. 

At the last holiday party, Jan had introduced this Madame Alexander Cissy she was dressing in an outfit inspired by the fashions of the early 1900s. The doll's elaborate ensemble is now complete.

Jan also shared these bedazzling bead-encrusted Christmas creations she had made.

Black History Month; Composition Topsy Doll

 Continuing our club's virtual meeting honoring Black History Month, member Michele Thelen shares this composition cutie. Michele says that the 12-inch tall doll is unmarked and is wearing her original outfit. Beginning in the 1910s, a number of American companies began producing dolls out of composition, a mixture of glue and sawdust. The dolls were lighter and not as fragile as their bisque and china counterparts (although not washable!). Composition dolls dominated the American doll market from the 1920s through the early 1950s, when hard plastic dolls began to appear. There were many American companies producing these dolls and unmarked dolls were often sold to jobbers and department stores to dress and sell under their name.

Often Black composition dolls had two or more inserted pigtails of yarn and were marketed as Topsy dolls. Topsy originated as a character in Harriet Beecher Stowe's 1852 anti-slavery novel Uncle Tom's Cabin. In the book, Topsy is a brutalized and neglected child. When first introduced, she is a Black enslaved girl about eight years of age, clad in a filthy ragged dress and carrying the scars on her back of multiple beatings, Topsy has never known love or kindness in her short life; she does not even know who her parents were. All she has experienced are harsh labor and beatings, berated as being wicked and lazy. Topsy is amoral, having learned how to lie and steal in order to survive. The slaveowner Augustine St. Clare cynically purchases Topsy as a gift for his sister, Ophelia, to "educate." Although Topsy is clearly intelligent and resilient, Ophelia harbors prejudice against Black people and has no empathy for the child, treating her with distaste. It is only when Augustine's daughter, Eva, learns that Topsy has never been loved and treats her with true compassion and kindness that Topsy is inspired to learn and improve. In the book, Topsy was a symbol of the degradation and brutality of slavery, which affected not only the enslaved, but tainted the rest of society as well.

So how do we get from this pitiful abused, beaten, and neglected child to the cheerful Topsy dolls? Uncle Tom's Cabin was extremely popular and, thanks in part to lax copyright laws, minstrel shows seized upon Stowe's characters, putting on what became known as "Tom Shows." The shows, typically only very loosely based on the book, stripped out much of Stowe's strong anti-slavery and religious sentiment (there were even pro-slavery versions), although they kept some of the melodramatic scenes, such as Eliza carrying her child as she struggles to cross the icy Ohio River and into freedom just ahead of the slave hunters. For the most part Black characters, typically performed by whites in blackface, were mocked as exaggerated stereotypes and used as comic relief, often breaking into song or dance. In these shows, Topsy became the mischievous mirthful "pickaninny" with a head full of pigtails. Sadly, most of the images the American public has of Uncle Tom's Cabin are drawn from these Tom Shows, working their way into popular culture (including Felix the Cat and Bugs Bunny cartoons some of us watched as children).

October 10, 2021, Meeting

Member Elaine Jackson did a program on the scarce and unusual composition dolls by the Raleigh Doll Company, founded by Jessie McCutcheon Raleigh in 1916. The Raleigh dolls were only produced until 1920, when the factory was sold to the Pollyanna Doll Company. Elaine described Raleigh was an entrepreneur and her first successful venture was a statuette called "The Good Fairy." She hired others to design the statue, which was extremely popular and was produced in a variety of materials. Raleigh started her doll company shortly thereafter with the intent of creating dolls with faces and bodies that resembled real children. She had a special composition formulated for her dolls and used a unique system of spring joints. The dolls are quite heavy for their size and their realistically modeled feet and legs prevent them from standing on their own.

Elaine explained that the dolls' faces were painted by students from the Chicago Art Institute. She said that the special composition commissioned by Raleigh appears to be more resistant to crazing than that used in other composition dolls. Most Raleigh dolls have molded hair.; this little girl has molded hair under her wig. 

Elaine told the club that the dolls come in a variety of sizes and with several different body types. The dolls are not marked, but their unique faces make them stand out.

Member Myrna Loesch displayed this beautiful bride doll dressed by the very talented Jan Irsfeld. The silk gown was copied from a fashion plate and is fully lined. The doll is a reproduction of a French fashion and was made by former member Mary McKenzie.

Another doll shared by Myrna, "Butch," a composition doll first produced by Madame Alexander in 1936.

Member Elaine McNally displayed examples of the cloth reproduction Izannah Walker that she makes and markets. Elaine told the club that someday she hopes to own an authentic antique Walker doll.

 

A Breath of Spring

With Austin just emerging from a week of unusual ice, snow, and freezing weather, we all need a reminder that spring really is coming. This beautiful Margaret O'Brien doll from member Michele Thelen, so pretty in pink, is dressed for a bright spring day. The doll, which Michele purchased at her first United Federation of Doll Clubs convention in 2019, is by Madame Alexander. The composition doll is 20 inches tall and all original, except for her shoes. Alexander introduced the composition O'Brien dolls beginning in 1946, but in 1948, in an attempt to create a more durable doll, produced a version entirely out of hard plastic. This new medium proved so successful that by the mid-1950s hard plastic dolls had replaced composition.

Born Angela Maxine O'Brien in 1937, O'Brien began her career as a famed child actress at the age of four in the 1941 movie "Babes on Broadway." It was the following year that her role in "Journey for Margaret" won her fame and acclaim. Her name was changed to reflect the success of the movie. She would appear in a number of films, including "Jayne Eyre," "The Canterville Ghost," and "Meet Me in St Louis." In 1944, O'Brien was honored with the Juvenile Academy Award. O'Brien continued

to work in television and film throughout her life.

New Year, New Doll. . . .

Member Jenell Howell rang in the new year with a new doll, an all-original composition "Karen Ballerina" by Madame Alexander.  Jenell said that this is one of the dolls she has been searching for over many years. This delightful dancer with near-mint clothing and hair is 15 inches tall.

According to Jenell, "Karen Ballerina" was produced in 1946 and came in three sizes, 15 inches, 18 inches, and 21 inches. The costume came in blue, pink, green, white, and yellow. The doll also would be made the transition year of 1947, when Madame Alexander moved from using composition to hard plastic.

Karen Balllerina" was influenced by a Margaret O'Brien movie filmed in 1946 and released in 1947, The Unfinished Dance, a movie set in the world of a ballet company

 

January 6, 2020, Meeting

Member Beverly Evans did a program on the history of Madame Alexander dolls.

These dolls belong to Beverly.   Just 5 inches tall, they are part of the Alexander Madame miniature porcelain collection, produced only in 2000.

Member Bette Birdsong brought this composition Princess Margaret.  Pretty in pink, this doll dates from the 1940s.

Member Myrna Loesch  shared this vintage lady in a lacy peignoir.  The doll is Cissy, introduced in 1955.  A sophisticated fashion doll, her shapely female figure caused some consternation.  Member Jan Irsfeld made this sultry sleepwear.  

This is Cissette, a miniature version of Cissy introduced by Madame Alexander in 1957.

Myrna also brought this example of a more contemporary Cissy.  Called "Coquette Cissy," she is 10 inches tall and has painted eyes.

Member Sylvia McDonald brought these Madame Alexander dolls from her childhood.   The doll in yellow is Wendy Ann and Sylvia received her for Christmas in 1949.  Although the doll is wearing the dress she originally came in when she was purchased, the dress is labeled "Polly Pigtails," another Madame Alexander creation.  Sylvia thinks that either there was an error at the factory or the dresses were switched at the store.  The following Christmas brought Sylvia the smaller doll, Beth from the Little Women series. She has the Maggie face mold.  The toddler in green is Little Genius, a gift from Sylvia's parents in 1961.  Sylvia said that her parents told her that this would be her "last doll."  Sylvia has gone on to acquire many dolls since then.

Member Jenell Howell brought this doll, Elise, from the mid-1960s.

This all original vintage 20-inch tall Cissy is one of the dolls in the banner of the club's Facebook page.  She wears Style 2082 from 1956, also known as "pink ribbons and roses."