Another early lifelike doll was Effanbee's "Almost Human" doll called the Dy-Dee Doll.
Effanbee's Dy-Dee Baby was born in 1934. This baby doll was made of rubber, with an enameled hard rubber head fit with glassine sleep eyes, and open rosebud of a mouth, and crowned in curly molded hair. Bernard Lipfert, who designed the doll for Effanbee, is quoted as saying the dolls "had the dumbest face he ever designed." Ouch! But, frankly, it wasn't Dy-Dee's face that made her so special -- or so "almost human". It was her ability to drink and wet, just like a real baby!
When the Dy-Dee dolls nursed water from their bottles, the water went into a tube -- where it stayed until the doll's stomach was pressed. The fact that the water didn't just run out the bottom instantly, or when lifted, made this doll unique. The special drinking and wetting mechanism was an exclusive patented valve invented by Marie Wittam, a teacher in Brooklyn. While the wetting dolls were thought to be vulgar in England, Americans loved the realism of baby dolls which demanded a little mother's care in feeding and diapering.
A 1937 Effanbee catalog, entitled "What Every Young Doll Mother Should Know", was created to sell the lifelike dolls. Modeled off of the brochures dispensed by the US government to help teach new mothers modern baby care, little girls were "warned" that these dolls weren't like other dolls -- Dy-Dee Dolls required a mother who was "ever watchful for the baby's comfort and happiness." And just as the governmental brochures had sections for father, these Dy-Dee Doll brochures included a note to parents which stressed the benefits of these dolls to their children. Unlike "unnatural dolls", the Dy-Dee dolls were realistic and the sales pitch reminded parents that "child psychologists all agree that the best training for a happy adult life is a realistic understanding developed during childhood." Translation: You'd better get your little girl a Dy-Dee doll -- and have her play with it -- or she would never be ready for motherhood!
This was more than a mere sales tactic, however. Ever since President Theodore Roosevelt condemned the nation's trend toward small family size, there were many folks who were blaming the low birth rate on the "decline of mother love." In fact, a lot of doll advertising struck this anxious cultural chord. In 1927, an ad in a toy trade magazine even went so far as to claim that baby dolls were "an antidote to race suicide" -- if you can imagine that!
Dolls were designed to not only be learning tools, but companions; in such small American families, dolls even replaced siblings. And, like the Martha Chase Dolls, Dy-Dee dolls were sold as educational dolls for adult learning. Dy-Dee dolls were promoted as "the perfect doll for pre-natal education, used by nursing classes, by Red Cross, Boards of Education, and Child Care Organizations the World Over."
The "What Every Young Doll Mother Should Know" brochure was written by "Aunt Patsy." Aunt Patsy got her name the same way the Effanbee doll newsletter, The Patsytown News, had: being named after Effanbee's earliest success, the Patsy dolls. Aunt Patsy had a regular column in The Patsytown News and, in 1932, she sent a letter and brochure introducing the Patsy Doll Club. The club was free to join; just mail in a form, or write in, and you'd receive free goodies, such as membership pin-backs, certificates, and the like.
Doll clubs offered the girls a social identity, even if it was based on a line of consumer goods. According to Professor Gary Cross (in "Kid's Stuff: Toys & the Changing World of American Childhood"), girls could "join these pals in the charmed world of the cute and the current. These dolls ingeniously combined an invitation to the joys of a romantic childhood with an appeal to contemporary fashion. And they embodied an ideal of female progress that could be shared by mothers and daughters." Other toy companies had similar clubs. However, while the toy clubs for boys offered boys membership, the Patsy Doll Club invited dolls, not the little girls, to be members. (Well, that's sort of what happens when you become a mother, right? You stop being "you" and are now the mother of little so-and-so!) At its height, the Patsy Doll Club had 270,000 members.
Along with all the print promotions, Effanbee created real "Aunt Patsy" characters to go out and promote dolls in stores and at other events. There were at least 30 women who traveled about playing the role of "Aunt Patsy" of the years. Most of whose names have been lost to history. But there are a few we know about.
The first Aunt Patsy was Beth Hill, a professional entertainer hired by Effanbee in the Fall of 1932. In character, be it photos or at department store promotions, Hill wore a white wig. Photos of her continued to be in Effanbee ads and promotional materials long after she had been replaced by other women.
Peggy Vandegriff, who also wore a white wig in her duties as Aunt Patsy, mainly played the role in southern stores (from her hometown of Atlanta to Richmond). She was also the author of a children's book called "Dy-Dee Doll's Days." The book was published in 1937, by Rand McNally and Company of Chicago, Illinois. The book is the story of Peggy Ann who received a Dy-Dee doll for her third birthday and shows, through the photographs by Lawson Fields, of all the fun the two shared.
Peggy Vandegriff as Aunt Patsy
Bea Orland played a more matronly Aunt Patsy for 15 years. It is said that Bea Orland always wore a nurses costume and followed the educational baby care for new moms route of selling Dy-Dee dolls.
Presumably, the in-store promotional activities were based on what the specific "Aunt Patsy" could do and which dolls which were to be most promoted. Along with the nurse version of Aunt Patsy, there were the some billed as storytellers or entertainers, while others facilitated fashion shows and motion picture shows.
The Dy-Dee dolls were offered in five sizes, each with it's own special name (just as they had done for the Patsy Family of dolls). The sizes were the 9 inch (22.9cm) Dy-Dee-Wee, the 11 inch (27.9cm) Dy-Dee-ette, the 13 inch (33cm) Dy-Dee-Kin, the 15 inch (38.1cm) Dy-Dee Baby, and the 20 inch (50.8cm) Dy-Dee-Lou.
All the rubber-bodied Dy-Dee dolls are well marked on their bodies. The earliest markings were: (A) "EFF AN BEE//DY-DEE BABY//PAT. NO. 1 859 485//OTHER PAT. PEND." As the other patents were registered, they were added to the information on the Dy-Dee's backs. They read: (B) "EFF AN BEE//DY-DEE BABY//U.S. PAT. 1 859 485//ENGLAND 380 960// FRANCE 732 980//GERMANY 585647// OTHER PAT. PENDING." Still later dolls are marked: (C) "EFF AN BEE//DY-DEE BABY//U.S. PAT. 1 859 485//ENGLAND 380 960//FRANCE 723 980//GERMANY 585 647//U.S. 2 007 784//U.S. RE 21539// OTHER PAT. PENDING."
Each Dy-Dee baby doll could be purchased individually or in a variety of cases with layettes. The layettes could also be purchased separately, as could a number of other outfits and accessories. Even as other manufacturers rushed to compete with Effanbee, such as Ideal with Betsy Wetsy, the vast number of fashions and accoutrement for the Dy-Dee dolls kept Dy-Dee in first place. But there were improvements and changes to the dolls themselves too.
In 1940, Effanbee added soft and flexible rubber ears to Dy-Dee dolls so that little mothers could clean them with a Q-tip. At this time, the dolls also were given "the cutest turned-up noses with nostrils that are open and need cleaning too." Also in the 1940s, Dy-Dee came with the option of molded straight hair or lamb's wool wigs on their hard rubber heads. The enamel finish on these Dy-Dee doll heads is so shiny and hard that it can easily be mistaken for early hard plastic.
In 1948, a "cryer-pacifier" was added an an Dy-Dee accessories that came with Dy-Dee. It worked similar to the bubble pipe to blow soap bubbles; insert the pacifier in Dy-Dee's mouth. Press her tummy, she could now cry. She could also blow soap bubbles, using a bubble pipe, as could the earlier Dy-Dee.
In 1950, American Character introduced its Tiny Tears dolls which could cry "real tears." Eventually, Effanbee would also added the tear holes to their Dy-Dee dolls so they could cry wet tears too.
The rubber bodies on Dy-Dee dolls remain unchanged until the newer flexible vinyl plastics swept the doll industry in the 1960s. The all-vinyl Dy-Dees had several different face, hair, and body styles which bore little resemblance to the earlier Dy-Dee dolls. Black versions were also offered. She came in several sizes: 14 inch (35.6cm), 16 inch (40.6cm), 17inch (43.2cm), and 18 inch(45.7cm), depending on the particular issue. Many were no longer marked on their bodies and were only identified by the heart-shaped paper wrist tags they wore. And by 1974, Effanbee was also producing at least one other drink and wet baby doll, the 15 inch Twinkie doll. For all these reasons, dolls are not easily identified once they have lost their tags.
The 1970s large version of the all vinyl Dy-Dee doll measures 21 inches (53.3cm) and is a heavy, sturdily built doll, with even more realistic features. The legs and arms are jointed and the well-molded ears have openings into the head.
In 1973, Montgomery Ward celebrated their 100th Anniversary with a Dy-Dee doll among its anniversary reissues. This doll was a 17 inch (43.2cm), all vinyl doll, with molded hair. The doll was dressed in a white jacket and diaper set, and was tied into a matching blanket.
The most recent Dy-Dee dolls, made by Tonner, are based on designs first used in the 1960s. They are marked "Effanbee//56 71" on the head and "Effanbee//1967" on the back. Again, only the paper wrist tag identified the dolls as Dy-Dee Baby.
Over the years there have been a number of other Dy-Dee items that collectors seek. Among these are a large paper Dy-Dee doll book by Queen Holden, from the 1930s. And there have been numerous fashion sewing patterns. The earliest seems to be a 1937 McCall printed pattern (number 513) of baby clothes for Dy-Dee dolls. The 1982 Simplicity pattern (number 5615) for 17 inch (43.2cm) to 18 inch (45.7cm) dolls shows the clothes modeled by a modern Dy-Dee Baby. And collectors like to find items that celebrate appearance of the Dy-Dees at the New York World's Fair in 1939 -- there Dy-Dee Lou was presented with the keys to the World's Fair in a special ceremony at the League of Nations as the "Wonder Doll of the Day."
