Hello Dolly!

Sometimes I like to sit back and let life take me where it may. Last weekend, during my trip to Columbus, that's exactly what I did.

I pointed the car toward the part of town that had boutiques and eateries and a Graeter's Ice Cream shop (yum!), and wondered where to park. Turning down a side street, I saw there was two-hour parking and pulled up in front of the Worthington Historical Society and Doll Museum.

During my childhood, I had a couple of dolls. Betsy was my go-to babe, with eyes that opened and closed. Her limbs swung back and forth but didn't bend. Her hair was styled in an auburn bubble cut. I spent many hours playing with her, changing her clothes (many of them hand-made by my mom), and engaging her in riveting conversation.

My Betsy

I've never been a really big doll person. I don't collect them or anything, but since I had agreed to follow where serendipity led, I went into the museum and had a look-see. The dolls were housed in two rooms, not in any particular order. Except for the dolls enacting the Japanese tea ceremony. (They were part of a doll exchange program with a city in Japan whose name escapes me.)

So, there I was, wondering why the muse led me there, when my eyes fell on a doll that totally stole my heart. She was dressed in a peach satin number complete with feathery trim and was wearing lace up booties. She had this amazing face. I wanted to break the glass and run off with her, but I figured they would frown on that sort of thing. Instead, I bent down to read the card: "Madame Alexander, Babs, 1948-1956"Aha.

At the end of my tour, I asked one of the volunteers if they had any literature on the dolls. Nope. Postcards? Nope. They had a gift shop but nothing about the dolls. A lost opportunity. The marketer in me despaired and decided to find out more on my own.

It turns out that Beatrice Alexander was the daughter of Russian immigrants, born in Brooklyn, New York in 1895. Her father had a doll hospital, purportedly the first of its kind in America. In 1923, she started making dolls at her kitchen table, and grew the business that is still in existence today, still in New York.

Ms. Alexander was a pioneer in American dolls. In the 1930's, she created them from movie characters, later making dolls with likenesses to other famous folks, such as Queen Elizabeth and the Dionne Quintuplets. And in 1976, she created first ladies dolls for the Smithsonian. Another fun fact: in the 1940's, she was the first to make dolls with eyes that opened and closed.

Madame A. passed away in 1990 at the age of 95. In 1997, she got her own postage stamp. Her motto, "Dolls are made to be played with and loved," is still espoused by her company, which can now be found on the internet. 

Who knew?

I went on Ebay and started looking for my Babs doll. I didn't find the exact one I fell in love with, but others from the same time period were somewhere in the $250 range. So I guess I won't own one anytime soon.

Maybe I'll email the company and ask if they have any plans to reissue some of the classic Madame Alexander dolls. Specifically, the Babs series.

That would be awesome.

In the meantime, I still have Betsy. Think I'll pull her out of mothballs and have a chat. For old times' sake.