Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, December 11, 1994 TAG: 9412120005
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B12 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JULIE CARRICK DALTON DAILY PRESS
DATELINE: CHESAPEAKE (AP) LENGTH: Medium
``Most people who collect dolls do it because it reminds them of when they were young, or of someone they knew,'' said Goldman, a lifetime Chesapeake resident. ``All the little girls I used to play with are gone now, but the dolls are still here.''
Goldman, 64, recently sold most of her collection. Although she was attached to her ``babies,'' she said the 300-doll collection had grown too large to display.
``This is the kind of doll I used to play with,'' she said, cradling a 1933 Effanbee Dy Dee doll.
Goldman said she remembered feeling like a princess when she got the doll. It was a gift from a wealthy relative during the Depression, when her family could afford few luxuries.
The doll came with a glass bottle and a white cloth diaper. ``I used to feed it all day,'' she said.
The doll's hard rubber body and molded rubber hair give away its age, Goldman said. Based on coloring, hair styles and the materials from which they are made, Goldman can date most 20th-century American dolls.
Volumes of price guides and doll encyclopedias stand in piles in Goldman's parlor in her home where she shows her dolls, posed in chairs, by the fireplace and in an antique bassinet.
``Dolls are as much an indicator of history as architecture,'' she said.
Before rubber, dolls were made of composition, a material of rubberized plaster, with a duller finish than its successors.
Picking up a 1926 composition doll named Patsy, Goldman demonstrated the difference between the dolls of the 1920s and those of the 1930s.
Patsy's dark hair and eyes make her a rare and valuable example of her time period. Until the 1960s, most dolls had fair complexions, light hair and blue eyes, Goldman said.
Dolls of the 1920s had an almost surreal quality, said Goldman, stroking Patsy's head, her perfect features almost ``too pretty.''
Goldman said she remembers cleaning composition dolls, which cannot get wet, with cold cream and a dash of castor oil to brighten their glass eyes.
In the 1930s, doll makers were influenced by the movie industry, most notably by Shirley Temple. ``We all wanted to be like Shirley. We dressed like her, curled our hair like her and bought dolls like her,'' Goldman said. The original Shirley Temple dolls, which cost $1.98, now sell for as much as $700 with original clothes and shoes.
After World War II, when manufacturers began making plastic dolls with realistic features and rooted hair, the United States overtook Europe as the leader in doll-making, she said.
In 1945, Sears, Roebuck and Co. began selling what is believed to be the first widely marketed black doll. The 10-inch baby with brown skin and mohair pigtails sold for 89 cents.
Goldman's own copy of the doll, still dressed in the original clothes, is chipped, and the painted skin is peeling because manufacturers used low-quality materials. Originally marketed for black children, the dolls became popular with white children as well, Goldman said.
Keeping up with social movements and technology, dolls became more sophisticated. In the 1960s, Mattel introduced Chatty Cathy, a talking doll.
As fashions changed, so did the dolls, Goldman said. Even the Jackie Kennedy look trickled down from glamour magazines to doll clothes.
Other than a collection of celebrity dolls, including Sonny and Cher and Michael Jackson, Goldman said she is not as familiar with the dolls being made today.
``Collectors like to live in the past,'' she said.
by CNB