Doll-A-Day 27: Mrs. Beasley,her history, my life long love, and a Yard Sale Tale

  Today's doll is Mrs. Beasley.Beware:this is a long post. If it shows up for you like it does for me, you'll have to click 'read more'.



    Mrs. Beasley has had a very long shelf life, especially considering that she was just a toy on a TV show that only aired for 5 years in the first place, the last of which was 42 years ago. The TV show was "Family Affair". It began in 1966, when I was 4 years old. I looooved Mrs. Beasley and spent my life yearning for one. She was on every Christmas and birthday list until I grew out of her I suppose. (I know you'll catch me saying that about a few things, but it's true. When I want something I REALLY want it!)
  Mrs. Beasley began life as a Rushton "Jill" doll, (as in "Jack and..."). 

Anissa Jones as Buffy with the original Rushton Jill as Mrs. Beasley.

Jack and Jill were part of a line of nursery rhyme dolls, and they all have pretty Beasley influenced faces.

My perfect Beasley. What? Read on.

    Somewhere along the way the doll was changed to the Mrs. Beasley we know and love, made by Mattel. These days Mattel would have to license the look of Rushton's Jill  or get sued.  I guess you could get away with more then!

The original Beasley.

    The full size 21" Mrs. Beasley doll is a pull string talker. She says 11 different phrases, like "Do you want to try on my glasses?" Her voice was by an actress named Georgia Schmidt, who people remember mostly as the first Talosian on Star Trek.

The pull string talking Beasley was produced for several years, beginning in 1967. She actually outlived the show she was from. Mrs. Beasley was so popular that she was sold in several other forms, including paper dolls, a talking rag doll version with yarn hair...
 

As in this 1974 catalog ad.

...and a smaller Beasley that came with a 10" talking Buffy doll.(10" Buffy had the same head as the Mattel Small Talk dolls.)

This is from the 1969 Wards catalog.

   I don't have much interest in the rag doll, but I eventually warmed to the talking Buffy and little Beasley. I also own some loose paper dolls, and the book Buffy and the New Girl.

I didn't know about any of those as a kid except the large talking doll. But I did own the Tutti sized Buffy with the tiny Mrs. Beasley.

This is from a 1968 catalog.

  This is my childhood Buffy and Bease with the 10" talking Buffy and her Bease. My poor Buffy was brought out of storage and her head was turning brown and her socks had  nasty brown stains on them. I removed her head, and found that her neck wires were rusting. I lightened her head by leaving it in the sun for a few weeks, and painted her neck wires with clear nail polish. It took them ages to dry---they stayed sticky for ages---but when they finally dried I put her head back on. She hasn't returned to the advanced brown state she was in when I found her, so, for the moment at least, her disease is contained. ** UPDATE: She started turning brown again. I removed her head, and her wires are rusting again. This time I might try covering them with some Rustoleum that stops rust. **The nail polish keeps the metal wires from coming in contact with her vinyl head, and I guess it stops them from emitting as much of the gases that turn the vinyl dark.

I got tiny Buffy and Beasley one Christmas in place of the talking Mrs. Beasley I had asked for. I was SO disappointed. I'm glad I have them now, and I did enjoy playing with them. They just weren't that Mrs. Beasley I wanted so badly. Buffy is 6" tall and uses the same body as the Mattel Tutti, Todd, and Chris dolls. (Tutti and Todd were Barbie's little twin brother and sister, and Chris was their friend.) I think the face mold may be the same too, but then I'm still trying to decide if the Tutti and Chris molds are the same and just look different because they're painted differently. Buffy's dress and polka dot bloomers are almost identical to Tutti's "Walkin' My Dolly" outfit. The difference is that Tutti's dress is slightly shorter and the skirt is more gathered at the waist so that it flares out more, and the Walking my Dolly dress has a Tutti tag inside.

Non childhood, but better condition Buffy with Walking My Dolly Tutti.

Here are the three together: My childhood Buff, other Buff, and WMD Tutti. Ken shot down my identification information by pointing out that my old Buffy has the short, Tutti style dress. Well, I know it's her original, and that Tutti's has a Tutti tag in it, and besides, it doesn't quite flare out as much as Tutti's, and that's the difference I READ anyway, and...SHUT UP KEN!

  This set was released around the same time as the 3 "Pretty Pairs" sets, and while it could have fit the theme of a doll with her own doll, it wasn't a "Pretty Pairs" set. The pretty pairs also had Tutti's body and included Angie and Tangie, Nan and Fran, and Lori and Rori. The only one I own is Angie, which was our Doll of the Day recently.

Pretty Pairs Angie.

  The Mrs. Beasley that came with Tutti style Buffy is about 3" tall. Her collar and skirt are removeable, as are her glasses. (The same goes for the slightly larger Beasley that came with the talking Buffy doll. In fact, they are the same glasses. They didn't make different sized glasses for the different sized mini Beasleys.) 
 

Tiny Buffy: "Holy cow! What have you been eating?!"

That removable factor is why you almost NEVER see one of these Beasleys with glasses. The larger ones were hard enough to keep track of, as evidenced by the fact that they are few and far between too. The tiny glasses are the same as the ones that came with a vintage Francie (Barbie's 'MODern cousin') outfit and Skipper's Right in Style.

Tiny Beasley and slightly bigger Beasley: "You're wearing my glasses!" Skipper, in Right in Style, feels trapped. 

Doll-A-Day 13: Pretty Pairs Angie

  Today's doll is Pretty Pairs Angie.

  Angie was part of a series of Tutti size dolls called Pretty Pairs, produced in 1970. The idea was to have a doll, with it's own doll. There were three dolls with their dolls in the series.Angie was paired with her doll Tangie.

Angie and Tangie in their package.

Well, I don't own Tangie. If anybody objects to the picture I borrowed from the internet, please tell me and I'll remove it. I wanted to illustrate Tangie and,pathetically enough, I don't know how to do a link! I'm working on it.
  The Tutti sized Buffy and Mrs. Beasley weren't actually Pretty Pairs dolls, but they could have been.

My poor childhood Buffy and Beasley. Not mint condition, but well loved.

The dolls in Pretty Pairs shared the bendy Tutti body, and I'm not so sure that's not the same head mold.

Buffy on the left, Tutti on the right. Same head, only painted differently? Maybe Tutti smiles a little more.

Angie definitely shares a head with Buffy.

They were advertised as being able to share clothes with Tutti. In fact, Angie's tights are the same ones that came with Tutti's Birthday Beauties fashion.

Tutti Birthday Beauties

 She also used the Tutti shoe mold for her shoes,but Tutti never had any hot pink shoes.Angie came in the one piece play dress, white fishnet tights, and hot pink bow flats. My Angie is missing her hot pink hair ribbon, but otherwise she's fully outfitted.
  She has a similar head to Liddle Kiddle Soapy Siddle, with a side ponytail and big blue eyes, (and again, the same head mold.).

Angie with Soapy Siddle and a Soapy head on a Doctor Doolittle body,otherwise known as the instant Tutti friend!

The easiest way to tell the faces apart are Angie's eyelashes, (Soapy doesn't have any.) and curly ponytail, (Soapy's is straight.)

  Pretty Pairs were only produced in 1970, so they are harder to find and more expensive than Tutti dolls. I got lucky with my Angie, as she was in an auction lot that didn't call her by name,(which might have attracted more attention) and she had some body damage and no tights. I rebodied her with an exact same body and replaced her tights. Voila! Nice Angie for less!
 

Return of the Internet and the Miniature Show

  Well, our modem has been replaced and we have internet again. It's been out since late last week. You have no idea how dependent you have become on the internet until you lose it! We were constantly wanting to research something and remembering that we couldn't! What a pain."Yeah, I'll go look that up.----No I won't!" 
  Anyway, the miniature show was Saturday. Like other doll related shows, it was a lot less busy than previous years. I sold bits and pieces which I did NOT make, and nothing that I did make. Several people looked at my Mrs. Beasley dolls, and one lady asked about the blue fainting couch. But alas, no buyers.

Little Beasley, and yes, she and the other one are poseable, and their glasses are removeable.

Slightly bigger Beasley

That blue fainting couch.

So. All that stuff is going on Ebay or Etsy. I keep getting told that I just need to give it time, to keep doing shows until people decide they can't live without my stuff, or figure out what they can use it for. But doing shows is so expensive. The tables at the miniature show are $110! Luckily I know a lady I share with, so that makes it an almost affordable $55. But there are other costs too. The gas it takes to get to the shows is one. Some people come an awfully long way. I drove a little over an hour myself. (Ivy and I made it worth it by doing some shopping while we were there, but she still didn't find a winter coat she likes.)Think how much you have to sell to make up the costs, let alone make a profit. And then of course, at dolls shows, (but not so much at the miniature shows), people ask you if you will take less than you have the stuff priced for! I sold alot of very small stuff, which I have to say I had at amazing prices.But that means I have to sell even more to make any money. I don't think I did more than make my table cost. (And less than that when you consider that the stuff I sold had to be paid for originally too.) If I were selling bigger ticket items, like the stuff I made, I would actually make some money.Oh well. We shall see. It may not be worth continuing this business.The lady I shared my table with suggested I make more dolls. I said I didn't know if I wanted to waste my time making more dolls I'm not selling.Still, I sold all the dolls I put on Etsy, so maybe that's the way I need to go with this thing.I am noticing that my hands are getting sore from doing alot of the stuff. I may have left it too long to start this stuff now. I may be getting too old and arthritic!

Variety is the spice of life

  So my back is on the mend and I feel less stiff and I can do normal every day things without screaming! I don't think I want to try bending and lifting much yet though, so I'm still putting off the post on my childhood dolls. To fill in, so you don't forget me, I am posting some random pictures of SOME of my doll and toy collection which I took last week. There isn't much of a theme to my collecting,other than my Skippers and Tuttis. I have a little of everything.So, here is a look at my glass case and those who dwell on top of it.

  This is obviously on top of the case.While it is heavy on the 60's, which is my childhood era, there are some more recent dolls.Seen here (Top row,left to right): Effanbee's Dorothy,and a couple of dolls from Russia,middle row: Baby First Step,Crissy,Shopping Sheryl,Tessie Talk,and a  Babysitter's Club doll,Bottom row: Effanbee Georgina?Georgette?,another Russian doll,a 60's doll whose name escapes me at the moment,a Ratti doll,Baby Small Talk Goldilocks,Baby Cheryl,and Baby See N Say. In the background you can see my 1/6 dollhouse, which will be renovated when I get the chance.

  Another case of 'a little of everything'.Playin' Jane and a vintage Valentine on the left,a Chatty Baby a couple of compo dolls,a couple of Tonner Elves,a couple of pressed felt faced dolls,Dianna Effner's Goldilocks,a Nancy Ann Storybook doll with a Patsy wanna be behind her, and a vintage Old Maid card game in front of Goldilocks. Oh, and an Ideal Shirley Temple behind her.

Another Chatty,Cathy this time. Another Shirley, Gene, Willow,Casper,Buffy and Mrs. Beasley,Moxie Girls Alice in Wonderland, some German dolls,etc.

  More of the same, plus Sister Belle(without her apron. It's here somewhere.)Matty Mattel,(His clothes are somewhere too. My son had Matty and his clothes in his room when he was younger and he can't find them!)  Drowsy,Cindy Lou Who, some corn husk dolls,and more.And yes, my glass case is WAY over crowded!

  Here is a small portion of my Skipper,(and Ricky and Scooter), and Tutti collections,(including Ivy's naked European Chris, awaiting clothes, and a Soapy Siddle Kiddle head on a Tutti body, and a Sizzly Friddle head on a tutti body.),Night Night Seep Tight Tutti is holding a cute little yarn doll. On the left is the Paul McCartney I talked about in a previous post,my two nice Larry the Lions are on the right, (New Larry is borrowing the Barbie Suzy Goose vanity bench to prop his head up.)Plus Betsy McCall, (She has a story you'll be hearing soon.),a couple of Penny Brite dolls,a wonderful handmade doll whose artist I don't know,unfortunately.She's called The Garden Nymph. Also some German dollhouse dolls, some really cute vintage doll gloves,(One red one, and a pair of white ones.), and a couple of vintage dolls made from sea shells and pipe cleaners.You also get a better view of a doll from the previous picture that I didn't mention before. She's a giant rag doll with a pressed cloth face,red yarn hair, and sort of a bobble head.Her neck is on some kind of mechanism. It's hard to explain, but if it sounds familiar to anybody I'd love to know what she is. She's on the lower shelf next to Cindy Lou Who. In the plastic bags are a red haired Tiny Town girl and an old cloth dollhouse doll. The bags were due to fear of moths, but I have lavender in the case now.Next to Paul there is a tiny old fashioned couple made of thread and cloth.
   I love the little tricycle.I wanted it very badly and Ken bought it for me for some occasion...then forgot to give it to me for ages.The same goes for the little German guy in the brown shorts. He tends to do that.
  So there you are. Something to look at while I'm gone.