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The Valentine Doll, Inc. company a
USA manufacturer of hard plastic and vinyl dolls is best known
for it's ballerina dressed dolls of the 1950's which John Landers was
responsible for. Later he founded the Debbie Toy Company along
with partner Shelly Greenburg, which made vinyl dolls by Debbie and a
line of baby items.
Most of Valentine's dolls were sold thru
mail-order catalogs or other jobber sources and they appear to have supplied Sears with
dolls sold under their Happi Time line, as some
dolls have been found with their box and are marked with a Valentine
marking.
Here
are some of the 1950-1960's dolls we have found, listed by height:
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Ballerina,
10 1/2" tall, Sears Exclusive
shipped in a Happi Time marked box, hard plastic body with vinyl
head and rooted hair, arms have a slight bend to simulate a
dancers pose when raised, various styles and colors, sleep eyes,
jointed at neck, shoulders, waist, hips and knees, high
heel feet, usually dressed in a ballerina costume; tutu and
rubber capezio like ballet slippers with ribbon ties, but also
other outfits with high heel shoes were available, some came with a
toe stand with knob so she "danced", others came
without the toe stand, marked on neck:
11VW.
A
similar doll was used as Valentine's Janzen Girl which included
a 26 piece wardrobe, one of which is a ballerina
outfit. Another
10 1/2" Ballerina doll has been seen without
the jointed knees, en point feet with molded on painted pink
slippers, same head mold, unsure who she was, is marked same as
Little Manikin, marked 11 UVW |
Ballerina 10 1/2"
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| Valentina, 10
1/2" tall, (similar to the doll
that Sear's used in their Happi Time line), hard plastic body,
vinyl head with rooted hair, sleep eyes, jointed at neck,
shoulders, waist, hips and knees with high heel feet,
dressed in ballerina costume; tutu with rubber capezio like
ballet slippers, plastic stand that you could place the doll's
toe into and then turn a knob and she "danced", marked on back: 11VW. |
Valentina 10
1/2"
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| 1958 Little Mannikin
or Little Manikin,
10
1/2" tall, hard plastic body with vinyl head and rooted
hair, various styles and colors, sleep eyes, jointed at neck,
shoulders, elbows, wrists, waist, hips and knees with high heel
en point feet, this doll is similar to the bigger Uneeda
19-20" Dollikin, but
without the extra upper arm or ankle joints, doll is
marked: 11VW. |
Little
Manikin 10
1/2"
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| Ballerina,
13 - 15" tall, hard plastic body with vinyl head and rooted
hair, usually with vinyl arms too, various styles and colors
of hair, sleep eyes, jointed at neck,
shoulders, hips, flat feet and some with jointed ankles that
could wear ballet slippers or high heel shoes,
usually dressed in a ballerina tutu with ballet slippers, marked
on back: Made in U.S.A / Pat. Pend. Similar
face as Valentina. |
Ballerina
15"
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| Perfect Patient,
13" tall, vinyl head with rooted hair, hard vinyl jointed
body, sleep eyes, drink wet baby, open
mouth.
Photo courtesy of Clinton. |
Perfect
Patient
13"
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| Lu Ann Simms, 14"
tall, hard plastic doll, wigged, sleep eyes, closed mouth. Other versions
of Lu Ann Simms were made by Roberta & Horsman. |
Lu
Ann Simms 14"
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| 1957
Walking Ballerina Holiday, 18" tall, ballerina doll with wardrobe trunk
(shown on right), sold thru Sears, consisted of the
doll with vinyl head & arms, hard plastic jointed body
with jointed knees & ankles, rooted hair usually in a
ponytail or bun style, several different hair colors may have
been available - but brunette is all we have found with paper
flowers in hair, high heel
feet, came in a trunk with blue, white & silver tulle
& nylon tutu, two dresses; a day dress in citrus green
with an imprinted design in the fabric black velvet ribbon
trim, melon short sleeveless evening gown in taffeta with
white trim, matching panties, (backs close with white metal
donut snaps) high heel shoes, pink ballet slippers, flat black
shoes, pink nylon thigh hi's & ankle socks. Marked: 16VW
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1957
Holiday, 18"
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| 1957 Walking
Ballerina Holiday, 18" tall, same doll as above with
a different wardrobe, shown at the top of the ad, came without the suitcase or citrus green dress,
marked: 16VW
Shown on lower right of ad is a Family of four dolls;
1957 Mother & Three children (brother, sister &
a baby doll),
dressed in their Sunday best matching red outfits, which we
think came in blue as well. The Mother doll is
marked: 2 S like the dollikin's. She has a jointed body
including her twist waist, knees & ankles with high heel
feet, sleep eyes and has short curly rooted hair. |
1957
Ballerina 18"
1957
Mother & family |
| Aida Toe Dancing Ballerina
Doll,
18" tall, jointed neck, shoulders, and hips with pointed
"en point feet", came dressed in a tutu,
capezio ballet slippers and flowers pinned in her hair. |
Aida
Ballerina 18" |
| Good Fairy
Ballerina,
19" tall, vinyl head and arms (have found this head on
various dolls so they must have continued to re-use the head
mold or simply redressed the entire doll and gave her another
name, unsure as their is no documentation), rooted hair in an
up-do, hard plastic walker body, jointed at neck, shoulders, elbows, and
hips, en point feet (non-jointed ankles and on pointed toes),
wore a fairy tutu costume, fairy wings, crown, probably came
with a wand too and capezio ballet slippers.
The doll shown is in white with
silver accents but this may have come in other color outfits
too.
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Good
Fairy
19"
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| Concertina &
Doreena, both 20" tall, vinyl head with rooted hair,
sleep eyes closed mouth, hard plastic body jointed at neck shoulders, waist, hips, knees
and ankles, Concertina has a music box inside the body,
dressed in a ballerina tutu with pantyhose & rubber ballet
slippers. Concertina also came on a
music box that played Swan Lake's "Dance, Ballerina,
Dance" song, both are marked: 20HH.
Doreena, besides her ballerina
tutu, was sold along with a wardrobe of
clothing.
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Doreena,
20"
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| Valentina,
20 & 25" tall, hard plastic jointed body with soft
vinyl head, jointed at neck, shoulders, waist,
hips, knees and ankles, rooted hair, sleep eyes, closed
mouth, had pierced ears with pearl earrings. dressed on a
ballerina tutu with pantyhose & capezio marked
ballet slippers, marked: (20" size) 16VW.
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Valentina 20"
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| Manikin or
Mannikin,
20" tall, Uneeda Dollikin competitor, jointed at neck, shoulders, elbows, wrists,
waist, hips, knees
and ankles, doll is unmarked. Uneeda
Dollikin & Belle Toys
Twixie competitor, she even has clothing similar to what was
available for the Dollikin i.e. the Lotus Blossom outfit. |
Photo
N/A
Mannikin 20"
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| Melanie, 20"
tall, electronic walker (used batteries), jointed at neck, shoulders,
hips, knees and ankles and came with a wardrobe.
May have also been available thru Sears in their Happi Time
doll line. Marked: 20HH |
Melanie 20"
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| Queen for a Day,
20" tall, hard plastic body with a vinyl head with rooted hair,
blue sleep eyes, dressed in a beautiful white ball gown with
red velvet full length cape with faux fur trim and jeweled
tiara, jointed at neck, shoulders, hips and high heel feet.
Marked: 20HH
This same doll was also used in
the Holiday series, late 1950's, and came with a
wardrobe of clothing & a trunk, also sold through Sears
& mail order.
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Queen for a
Day
20"
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| Sis-Teen or
Ballerina, 24-25"
tall, jointed at neck, shoulders, hips, knees and ankles,
pierced ears with rhinestone earrings. |
Photo
N/A
Sis-Teen 25"
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