The Ideal Toy Corporation began production of their teenage doll, Tammy, in 1962. Like the many other teenage fashion dolls of that time, Tammy had many outfits and accessories. The high quality outfits depicted the styles of the early 1960's . The 12" dolls had vinyl heads (rooted hair), legs and arms with plastic bodies. The dolls resembled the "girl next door" with a more "girlish figure" than the very popular Mattel's Barbie. It has been said that the movie "Tammy and the Batchelor" starring Debbie Reynolds may have influenced Ideal to name the new doll Tammy and also that they designed her face to resemble the movie star, Sandra Dee. The dolls could have blonde, light brown, tosca or brunette hair color and came dressed in a blue and white one-piece playsuit and sneakers. Later variations of the doll were Posn' Tammy, Grown UP Tammy and Posn' Tammy and Her Telephone Booth. My photo shows her little sister Pepper. Other dolls in the Tammy family include Pepper (sister), Tammy's Mom, Tammy's Dad, Brother Ted, Misty (best friend), Bud (Tammy's boyfriend), Pete (Tammy's little brother), Dodi, and Salty (Pepper's friends). These dolls very popular in the 60's and have become very collectible today.

The Vogue Doll Company discontinued manufacturing their popular all hard plastic Jill doll in 1960 (see article in category 1950's). Because the doll company subsequently received so much criticism, they decided to create an "All New Jill" teenage doll in 1962. She was an all vinyl doll with rooted hair and sleep eyes with molded lashes and three painted on lashes on the outside of the eyes. She had soft blush cheeks and pale pink lipstick. Her hair was styled in an angel bob in auburn, brunette and platinum. The back of her head was marked VOGUE, which was her only identifying mark. She was sold for $3.00 with chemise underwear or dressed in one of the ten outfits that were available that year. Outfits were also sold separately. In 1963, Vogue manufactured the same all vinyl doll that also came with a beehive hair style. She was known as "Sweetheart Jill" and had eight outfits. Some outfits also matched her little sister Ginny that year. There was no Jill in 1964 and in 1965, Vogue created a "Vogue Dolls from History Land" series. The same Jill was used in this series which consisted of Colonial Days, Revolutionary Days, Frontier Days, Southern Belle, Victorian Era, and Gibson Girl. Since these dolls from the 1960's are getting very difficult to find in mint condition, they are now becoming very collectible.

In a previous article, I discussed a very rare 1960's Black Ginnette doll. This article shows the more common white version of the same doll manufactured by the Vogue Doll Co. in the mid 1960's. She was redesigned from the 1950's doll. Her size was the same, but her sleep eyes looked a bit larger (her head may be somewhat smaller) and her eyebrows were there in the mold, but not painted nicely as the earlier doll. She was marked Vogue Dolls Inc on her backside and she also was a drink and wet doll. Her outfits were simpler and not as many. The quality and the popularity of the dolls during this period seemed to be diminishing. It is still fun to find one of these dolls in excellent condition to add to a collection.

In the early 1960's, Georgene Novelties lost the license to produce their Johnny Gruelle authorized version of the very famous Raggedy Ann and Andy dolls. For a decade or so, Georgene Novelties had to tolerate many Raggedy "look-alike" dolls that were produced by numerous smaller companies. Now it was their turn to produce a doll that resembled the popular Raggedy Ann doll. In 1964 Georgene manufactured their last cloth dolls and named them "Georgene" and "George". These all cloth dolls were 15" and 19" tall and had yarn hair. The bodies were the same as the earlier Georgene Raggedies. The face was all printed with a round nose and cute smile. The legs were solid red or blue. If Ann had red legs, her dress was blue and vise versa. If Andy had blue legs, his pants were red and vise versa. These dolls failed to capture the popularity of the licensed Johnny Gruelle's Raggedy dolls so it wasn't long before the latest Georgene dolls and the company itself disappeared from the doll world.

In 1960 the Vogue Doll Company created a very different Ginny Doll called "Wee Imp". She was a Bent Knee Walker doll with molded lash green sleep eyes, freckles and straight red "carrot-top" hair. During this early 1960 era, some regular Ginnys also had freckles, lighter lip color and the usual flip styled wig. Wee Imp had four outfits. A blue jumper with red sail boat and hat, red and white striped pj's with matching nightcap, blue jeans and red checked shirt with a straw hat and a turquoise and white polkadot pinafore dress. She is a very cute, unusual, little doll who was marketed as the "mischievous friend" of Ginny. This doll's value remains high due to her rarity.

These are some of the variations of cotton floral prints used by the Knickerbocker Toy Co. in the 1960's. I constantly search for more examples of the unusual early prints and sometimes have to purchase a doll in fair condition just to have her dress!! See the article about the Knickerbocker Anns that follows.

Due to the popularity of the Raggedy Ann and Andy dolls of the 1940's and 1950's, the very established Knickerbocker Toy Co. of New York City began producing many non-doll items such as pajama bags, vinyl toys, puppets, sewing kits, etc. in 1960. Sales of these items increased the popularity of Raggedy Ann so much that Myrtle Gruelle decided to give Knickerbocker Co. (larger than Georgene) the exclusive rights to manufacture the Raggedy Ann dolls in 1962. This began an era that lasted until 1982. Almost every little girl during this period owned a Raggedy Ann doll! For the next twenty years, these dolls were mass produced in many different countries (Japan, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Malaysia etc.). Sizes varied from 8" to very large 36". The most popular sizes were 15" and 18". I have enjoyed collecting the Anns with many different dress prints of the 1960's. Some of the very early dress prints are very hard to find. The Raggedy Anns of the 1970's had the very common pink, blue and green flowered print. The last Raggedys had a print that featured larger pink "rose" flowers. The first pictured Raggedy Ann and Andy are a pair from the early 1960's. The second pair features the very common dress print from the 1970's. My next article will feature pictures of some of the different early dress patterns.