This is my dollhouse, an 1880’s style house handmade by a finish carpenter in Gloucester, Massachusetts in 1906. The carpenter was Jim Tobin, who married my grandmother after my grandfather died. The dollhouse was made for my mother and her sisters and given to me by my aunt Sue. We brought it to Pittsburgh in 1965, shortly after my daughter Elaine was born, and began to restore it and add furnishings. The dollhouse is typical of houses of this period. Notice the similarity to the house painted by Edward Hopper in the 1920’s titled, Anderson’s House, Gloucester. This stately yellow Italianate house can be found in Gloucester today, just up Western Avenue from Stacy Boulevard.
In 1944 I received a 10 in. Little Shaver mask-face cloth doll. This doll was just too perfect so I never changed her outfit, even though it had snaps. Her little friend is a figurine in her image found recently.
This is the 8 in. Tiny Betty (1943) I received in the 1940s. By using different hair and clothes, this doll mold was used to make many cute characters like Carmen Miranda. Can you see the resemblance?
I went on to receive additional Madame Alexander composition dolls. One was a 14 in. Alice in Wonderland (1946). Her blue dress has faded a little over the years.
In the 1940s, my sisters gave me two 13 in. composition dolls McGuffey Ana and Flora McFlimsey, with wardrobe. These dolls were so beautifully dressed that I kept them that way. Both had human hair wigs. Flora was a redhead with freckles.
Madame Beatrice Alexander 1895-1990 was primarily a fashion designer and her doll clothes were perfection. To this day the Madame Alexander label means excellence.
Sometime in the 1940s I received three Madame Alexander dolls. My brother, soon to be drafted into the Army, gave me a 7 in. composition Carmen Miranda doll. The real Carmen was a popular singer, dancer, and comedienne in the movies.
Returning now to that 1939 Christmas, the doll my other sister gave me was a 17 in. Debu Teen doll with composition head, arms, and legs and a stuffed cloth body. It was made by the Arranbee Toy Co. I don’t remember what she was wearing at the time but I read recently that she came in a pink evening gown like a debutante might wear. My sister made her a rayon lounging suit with blue glass buttons. Her mohair wig became thin and mousy so I gave her a modern wig to cover it.
More recently, I found an 18 in. composition Shirley Temple doll from Ideal, circa 1940, at a flea market. She was wearing only a housecoat. Again, the original mohair wig was hard to style. I’ve heard that the real Shirley Temple had 55 curls. Could that be true?
