Doll-A-Day 2017 #12: Poor Pitiful Pearl

  Today's doll is Poor Pitiful Pearl.

This particular Pearl doll was made by Horsman, and is all original.

When I got Pearl out to photograph her she had developed a cloudy eye. Her eyes are plastic, and the cloudiness isn't on the surface,so I don't know what the problem is.

 

Poor Pitiful Pearl was made by Tristar in 1955 and by The Brookglad Corporation in 1958.

 I have even seen photos of a mask faced, cloth body version of Pearl,(or at least a Pearl rip off.),described as a late 1940's doll from Poland.
 In 1963 she began to be made by Horsman.  As I said, that's who made my doll.

In a box like this. 'Make her neat and pretty'. There was also a set that came with a pink party dress for Pearl.

Pearl was supposed to be a poor girl. She has a patch on her dress.

Pearl's creator modeled her on Pearl Bimblick, the daughter of a Jewish seamstress, who was his best friend when they were twelve. According to a Look magazine article, printed just before Pearl's Christmas 1956 release, he wanted her owners to see Pearl as "a spirited and resourceful girl who has fun and knows how to work out a good life for herself...I thought there ought to be in the doll world, not only glamorous dolls to be regarded with wonder, and baby dolls to be mothered, but, a plain, unfortunate doll on which kids could exercise their ready compassion for those in any sort of trouble."

And who was Pearl's creator? Keep reading...

She's all vinyl, and has sleep eyes with 'real' lashes.

Pearl has long, rooted hair with bangs.

The tape goes all the way around her head. I'm not sure if it's original, but I'm almost afraid to remove it.

She has the standard articulation: neck, shoulders, and hips.

The Horsman Pearl came in two sizes, 12" and 17". My girl is 17" tall.

Pearl was remade in 1973, but apparently those dolls have the 1963 markings. I suspect mine my be one of those.

Her clothes are leaving dust all over her. I think the age is getting to them.

She's marked on the back of her head too, but I couldn't get it to show up.

I got my Pearl at an auction for something like $5, because no one else wanted to bid on her!

  Pearl was the creation of author and illustrator William Steig.

Steig was best known for his New Yorker covers...

...and the children's books Sylvester and the Magic Pebble...

...and The Amazing Bone...

..until one of his children's books was made into a movie in 2001...

And the rest is history!

 The Horsman Pearl is from the same era as Little Miss No Name.

 

In fact, a while back I had to convince my friend Lori that the doll she had as a kid was Little Miss No Name, and NOT Poor Pitiful Pearl, as she always thought. She may have called it Poor Pitiful Pearl, but the burlap dress and plastic tear gave her away.

I got this girl at a yard sale for a quarter. I lost my tear when I took my LMNN, with her detachable tear, to school in first grade, even though Mom told me not to, because I would lose it. Umm...  You can see and read about my LMNN HERE.

Pearl didn't have the big eyes of the Keane paintings that inspired Little Miss No Name, but she was decidedly pitiful.

She's supposed to have her right sock falling down, but it has been up for so many years it didn't want to go. I was afraid of ruining that old elastic by forcing it.

 I didn't know about Poor Pitiful Pearl as a kid, or I would most certainly have wanted her. 

Not as much as I wanted my Little Miss No Name, but she still would have drawn me to her because she looked like she needed love.

While researching for this post I came across this picture on Pintrest:

The scarf was made for her and was not original.

 **NOTE: I often use pictures of dolls in box, or packaging of some sort, for reference purposes. But I don't like to use anybody's artistic pictures, or just pictures of loose dolls/items, because I consider that to be stealing somebody's work. However, this is a real conundrum, so I'm doing it. **
The picture was pinned from Worthpoint, and they got it from an old Ebay auction. Their auction said they had seen a doll just like theirs on Ebay earlier, being sold as Pearl's cousin. They called her  'Poor Pitiful Suzie'. She is supposed to be 17" tall and have a stuffed vinyl body.

Looks like a Magic Skin body. Did they even make Pearl dolls like this?

 

Who is this doll? She looks very Pearlesque, and she's wearing Pearlesque clothes. But she's not Pearl. Anybody know anything about her? To go to the Worthpoint page and see other pictures of her, and read the description, you can go HERE.
 

  I also once saw an auction for an advertising doll for a gas station or some related thing, which was obviously made from the Pearl molds, only she had red hair and was wearing gas station coveralls or some such thing. I can't remember the name of the gas station. I think it was a man's name, like Gus's or something.
Anybody know anything about these dolls?

 

  You can see photos of creator William Steig and the original Pearl, and read an article from the time on the Vintage Doll Collector blog,  HERE.  

To close on a serious note, any prayers, good vibes, or positive energy, or whatever you believe in that could be sent out for our niece in law Carly would be deeply appreciated. Carly and her husband, our nephew Chris are only 30 years old, and have been together since they were 15. Recently we learned that Carly is battling cancer. Today she updated her prognosis, and things, although not impossible, don't look good. Any and all positivity coming Carly's way couldn't hurt. For those of you who think it inappropriate for me to stick this serious message on the end of a doll post instead of giving it a separate post of it's own: to be quite blunt, more people will read this one.
  See you tomorrow.