Buddy Lee Dolls or Gem Chubby Kid Dolls 1920+ USA

Buddy Lee dolls were made for the H. D. Lee Company Inc. (Lee Jeans), a garment manufacturer in Kansas City, Missouri, originally from 1920-1962 as an advertising doll an in-store display doll dressed in Lee clothing. 

Buddy Lee dolls can be of composition and made in 1920 to 1948, are 12 1/2″ tall or made of hard plastic in 1949 to 1962 and are 13″ tall. Buddy Lee dolls are all composition one piece head and chubby body, lightly molded blonde hair, side glancing painted eyes, painted eyelashes, closed slightly smiling watermelon mouth, jointed at shoulders, with black painted boots, doll mark Buddy Lee inside a triangle on back and came dressed in original Lee clothes depicting various occupations. Buddy Lee clothing should have a Lee cloth label tag.

Buddy Lee Dolls Identified

You can identify a composition Buddy Lee doll by the mark on his back Buddy Lee inside a triangle or unmarked with Lee labeled clothing and hard plastic dolls are marked in raised letters Buddy Lee.

ca. 1920s+ Buddy Lee doll 12 1/2″ tall, all composition one piece head and chubby body, shown unclothed, doll mark Buddy Lee inside a triangle on back.

ca. 1920s+ Buddy Lee Gandy Dancer black doll 12 1/2″ railroad worker in Lee blue jean hat, shirt, jeans, doll mark Buddy Lee.

ca. 1920s+ Buddy Lee Jiffy Steamer doll 12 1/2″, green or tan Jiffy Steamer Lee jumpsuit, doll mark Buddy Lee.

ca. 1920s+ Buddy Lee cowboy dolls in Lee blue jeans, felt hats, long sleeve shirts, doll mark Buddy Lee.

Some of the Buddy Lee doll clothes outfits; Coca Cola white with red stripes outfit, Football Players, Gas Station attendant, Phillips 66, John Deere outfit, The Genuine Jiffy Steamer Company, Train Engineer, Railroad worker (a Gandy Dancer), Union Pacific Railroad, U.S. Army Finance Corps cowboy,  Baseball Player and there were surely others.   Black Magic Buddy Lee doll, is a composition black doll with Black Magic embroidered in red or on a label along with a Lee Jeans label on his denim hat.

If the doll is unmarked, wigged, without Lee labeled clothing, long painted eye lashes, its probably a Gem Chubby Kid doll or a similar carnival novelty doll.

In the 1990’s a reproduction Buddy Lee doll was dressed in a Coca Cola uniform in white with a green stripes and possibly other outfits.

Please Note – August 2008 – The H. D. Lee company never made or dressed a female doll, per Jean a historian for the HD Lee company.  

There is no such thing as a Betty Lee doll, sister to the Buddy Lee doll, sold by the H D. Lee Company in composition or hard plastic.  However, there are Chubby Kid dolls made by Gem Toy Company (1913-1931), as shown above left, dolls are unmarked with a paper label on bottom of the foot, usually wearing a mohair wig, dressed in unlabeled female attire and one doll has been found with the embossed triangle mark Buddy Lee on its back, with the paper label sticker on its foot Gem Chubby Kid.   

We believe that explains where the H.D. Lee – Buddy Lee dolls originated, probably bought from the Gem Toy Company.  The marked Buddy Lee doll was probably old stock Gem used up, dressed and sold as one of Gems dolls.  The Chubby Kid dolls are just as cute as Buddy Lee dolls, indeed they are the same doll, just don’t fall for the Betty Lee doll myth.