Play Dolls

Confession time…I play dolls. Really, I have always loved them. I was the little girl caught up in the fantasyland of my own creations. I changed my dolls’ dresses incessantly, creating small worlds of play and scene with little fingers set to the task. Hours of daydreaming...I was forever lost in the wee catalog of “International Dolls” strung to the wrist of my Madame Alexander dolls…. Do you remember these tiny booklets?

They were my sure inspiration for travel and the promise of a world larger than my own. I fantasized for hours about the “traditional dress” shown on those 8” Madame Alexander dolls in that little booklet and I was determined to see if the little figures were telling the truth.

"Gypsy Boots" as my Mom calls them, took me to Germany and Austria on a school trip at 16, I traveled Europe on my own at 19, and somehow got a scholarship trip to Egypt at 21...landing a babysitting job for the chaperone's’s two little ones when we were to return Stateside. (see the tangled web, Thea!).

I aspired to visit 25 countries by the time I was 25. This was not the first bar I set too high! At 38, I am almost there! I attribute this on-going fascination with foreign places to the dolls I collected as a child. And liekwise, I blame those same dolls for awakening my passion for collecting.

There are dolls across my home…art dolls, paper dolls tucked in drawers, yes, a few magic cabinets stuffed with my most treasured Tonner dolls in my bedroom, another trove of all Alice in Wonderland dolls and goodies, and several old suitcases chock full of my Madame Alexander collection, dusty, worn and dormant. Sweet touchstones.

And so in pilgrimage, I have attended the Madame Alexander Premier for 13 years. The gals that gather each year to “play dolls” are absolutely wonderful…Jane Andrea, Sandy, Karen, Julia, Alyssa, Hayley, Charlotte, Angela, Carolyn, and Harriet…you are all a hoot and so very dear to me. I am sure we would have shared endless hours of play together had we known each other in our childhoods.

Here's Harriet, a great gal pal. We met in 1995 drooling on the doll cases in FAO Schwarz…you are the greatest of adventurers Harriet…you must have read those little booklets too!

Here we are at the factory last week in Harlem (Charlotte and Hayley wait to cut the cake). They were celebrating the 85th anniversary of the founding of the Alexander Doll Company.

Not so long ago, the factory encompassed four floors of a former Studebaker car plant on 131st Street. Today, just a few sewing machines and odd bolts of fabric remain. Like many toymakers, production has moved overseas.

Here are more doll pals at this year's "Premier"...

Andrea & Sandy...

Charlotte & Julia...


















Jane & Harriet...

Alyssa & Hayley...

And so the cat is out of the bag. We play dolls.

It's funny to trace the threads...to see how this interest has propelled me. Indeed wihtout that first visit of mine to that first Alexander Premier, I would never have met Maggie. Without Maggie, no Jody, and without Jody Battaglia, I hae said many time, "Earth Angels" would indeed, never have thrived.

And so, thanks to passion, dolls and meeting wonderful friends in the right place at the right time, here we are.

...and now, I am off to play dolls with Charlotte. She managed to leave the factory store with several cuties for her growing doll collection.

xxoo
Jen O’Connor
Earth Angels