Recently I was thumbing through a Herschners catalogue, and I spotted a cute Christmas stocking and ornament section devoted to Raggedy Ann and Andy, in celebration of their 95th Anniversary. I was totally shocked. For some reason this is one doll that I have never researched, and apparently I have over-looked a real treasure. Sorry Anne.
So on the Internet I went, and indeed it was their 95th Anniversary or better yet - Birthday last year.
Raggedy Ann was created by a writer - no surprise there! A fellow by the name of Johnny Gruelle had a daughter Marcella who had an old hand-made rag doll on which he drew a face. The character we know and love with the red hair and triangle nose was created as a doll in 1915, and was introduced to the public in 1918 in a book called Raggedy Ann Stories. The doll was marketed along with the book with great success. The sequel, Raggedy Andy Stories published in 1920 introduced the character of her brother Andy, dressed in his sailor suit and hat.
Sadly Gruelle's daughter Marcella died at the age of 13 after being vaccinated at school for smallpox. Her parents had not consented to the vaccination, and blamed the vaccination for her death, even though it was thought the child might have had a heart defect. Johnny Gruelle became an opponent of vaccination and Raggedy Ann was used as a symbol by the anti-vaccination movement for quite a few years.
Ann dolls were made by hand and have been manufactured by many companies from the 1920's to present day.
McCalls' patterns issued many different pattern versions of these dolls from 1940 - 1982.
The 1940 pattern # 820 was for a 19 inch doll with a cape.
The 1945 pattern #914 was for an Awake/Asleep doll plus a camel with wrinkled knees.
The 1958 pattern #820 - was only slightly modified with no significant change.
1963 pattern #6941 - Ann has lost her cape, and now comes in three sizes.
1970 pattern #2531 - dolls are in three sizes, different hair and face, embroidery pattern and no more button eyes.
Also in the early 1970's a new pattern for a 35 inch doll plus a child-sized apron.
Raggedy Mania - struck around 1977 - I actually remember this as I was working in a toy store part-time while going to school. We stocked these dolls weekly, and were always running out of them. I think this may be around the time, when my mother and I made the pair I still own. In celebration of the renewed interest in these dolls, McCall's issued a new pattern, #5713 which was actually identical to the 1970 pattern, but just had a different cover,
1982 McCall's pattern #8077 - was a re-issue of previous patterns, with a new cover and a doll with a different hair color.
Simplicity also released Ann patterns - it was a different design of doll in 4 sizes.
Both McCall's and Simplicity patterns are available today.
I hope you have enjoyed this little trip down Raggedy's past. I'm sure the creator of these two dolls, never for one moment imagined that they would still be a popular item 96 years later.
Happy Birthday Raggedy!
Interesting news Dale. My Mom loved these dolls-I was more of a Barbiedoll kid, but I do remember making my oldest GD a dress with these characters on it-we still have it somewhere!!
ReplyDelete