Click on the post for a story of Prof. Althouse on "The Ginny Doll."
Recently we had a Big Band Bash as the Evansville High School where the Evansville Jazz Band played two sets of wonderful tunes from the 30's and 40's. I mentioned in the article on this that I wished that we could also have a special week of oldies where we did the movies too. Now, Prof. Althouse has written about the dolls of old---The Ginny Doll. Another bit to add color to the picture of life in the 1930's, 40's and 50's.
One of the inner secrets of The Observer, is that one Christmas many, many years ago, to earn some extra cash, I actually did work in the packing line of the famous doll company of Middleton, The Pleasant Company. One of my observations was that with the price tags of the dolls and the added clothes that were purchased, it would be hard for a parent to purchase several for a child to set at a table and play or talk to each other. Yes, some multimillionaires did. But then I observed where most of the orders came from----California and New York. The Prairie Home Companion Doll it was not.
Prof Althouse points to a time when dolls were affordable and not just collectable, and kids did make the clothes for them. Do any of you out there remember this?
The Evansville Observer Archive: The unofficial history of Evansville, Wisconsin from 2005-2013: Thousands of Video and Audio and Articles; Free: To Search scroll to the Search this Blog line and enter name of person, topic, or issue. Then scroll up to see all articles. Or use Google Search by topic. Enjoy.
Along with the price of the dolls at the Pleasant Company, a business i have done work with for a few years now. When Pleasant Roland (former owner) sold her business to Mattel a bonus to all the full timers was a percentage of their yearly income. If you were there for 6 years you received 60%, 3 years 30% and so on. This was given to all employees on a one-time check.
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