The Skinny: I'm Sorry, But Have We Met?

Does she look familiar? She should. Meet Bild Lilli, the doll who inspired the creator of Barbie.

dollreference.com

And meet Barbie, the doll who killed Bild Lilli. (Scandal!)

dolls4play.com

Lilli began life as a German comic strip character, and was certainly not intended for children's entertainment. She was a cartoon pinup, a sexy secretary who knew exactly what she wanted and how to manipulate men to get it (and okay, she might have been a hooker, according to some sources). Her weekly adventures became so popular that she was soon put into doll form and marketed to adults (particularly males, as gag gifts). She was commonly sold in tobacco shops.

vintage Lilli strips

The Bild Lilli doll has side glancing eyes (ever so coy!), perfect lips, and a cute little curl in the center of her forehead. She was made with a variety of outfits for any occasion, but since the doll was not intended for children, the outfits were not always sold separately. Her hair was attached to a removable scalp held in place by a metal screw (see? definitely not a toy). She was usually blonde, but brunettes were also available. Lilli even came with a miniature copy of the Hamburg newspaper than ran her comic strip.

chloevanparis.blogspot.com

Eventually, the demand from mothers prompted the company to switch gears, and Lilli became a popular toy for girls. She had a house with furniture (sold separately, of course)! They even made a movie. And then, Ruth Handler, president of Mattel, went to Europe. She bought three dolls, gave one to her daughter Barbara, and kept the other two for product development. She tweaked the design, created a killer marketing campaign, and Barbie was born.

theloveofvintage.wordpress.com

Ruth Handler was no dummy. Under her guidance, Mattel bought all of the rights to the Bild Lilli character (on the cheap, as rumor has it), and consequently, Lilli died in 1964. Mattel continued Handler's brilliant marketing strategy, and Barbie went on to become the gal we still love today. Lilli, on the other hand, was a fallen woman, reduced to walking the streets...--okay, not really. Her molds were sold to various foreign toy companies, and used to make knock-off Barbies. What a way to go....

rosieapplesandfriends.blogspot.com

But still, a real, original Bild Lilli doll, especially one with the clear cylinder package and correct stand, is just as collectible as the first Barbie (and probably much harder to find). Even one without the package sold on eBay for $1400 in 2008.


*information obtained from: dollreference.com; bildlilli.com

The Skinny: Nancy Drew is Eighty-Two!

They are easy to spot--those trademark yellow spines. We see them on a weekly basis, either on our own shopping trips, or in neat little stacks on the front counter of the shop where we work. She may have gotten her start in 1930, but Nancy Drew is clearly still going strong.

wendy-spoileralert.blogspot.com

 From 1930-1961, Nancy's stories (#1-#38) were bound in blue, with a graphic dust jacket. The yellow binding began in 1962. And it's not just the covers that evolved. The plots, characters, even Nancy herself changed through those first 56 books. Initially, Nancy's best friend is Helen Corning. Bess Marvin and George Fayne take over as Nancy's closest crew by book 5, and remain essential characters for the rest of the series. Ned Nickerson is introduced in number 7, but Burt and Dave (beaus of Bess & George) don't enter the group until book 20 of the original series. When the early books were revised, the fellows were written into several of them.

In 1938 and 1939, Warner released four Nancy Drew movies, starring Bonita Granville, which further strengthened the popularity of Ms. Drew and her friends (even if her boyfriend in the movies is Ted instead of Ned).  These films take elements from the books, so the plots are a bit of hodgepodge, but highly entertaining.


Some of the changes throughout the initial series are due to the fact that the author, Carolyn Keene, was at least eight different people, hired as ghost writers. Nancy begins the series as a vivacious, adventurous blonde, and transitions to a cool, perfect girl with more skills than her entire social circle (Nancy can do anything!), and never a reddish-blonde hair out of place. Other changes to the series came in the form of revisions to the early titles, which smoothed out racial issues, updated appropriate social standards, and beefed up, or completely replaced, the original plot lines. For this reason, a side-by-side comparison of Nancy Drew books often yields different cover art, different page and chapter numbers, different internal illustrations, and completely different characters, even though your two books have the same title.

Nancy now has over 500 adventures under her belt, and has been published in at least 26 different languages, but those first 56 books are, without question, THE Nancy Drew series. However, her international popularity cannot be denied, even if many countries have changed her name (the French know her as Alice, and in other nations she is Kitty). The Danish seem to think that she is sexy:

#7, The Clue in the Diary

And, of course, Nancy also tends to be highly collectible in alternative formats:

lobby card for one of the films

Madame Alexander Nancy Drew dolls

Earliest version of the Nancy Drew board game