This is my beloved Toni doll. Do not worry about the scratch on her neck....she did not try to off herself.My best friend, Leslie, had a Toni doll, too. They used to write each other letters when I was away for the summer at Bay Ridge. Of course, when Leslie came to visit, her Toni came too. We tried making clothes for them out of old rags. Sometimes they got in fights over boys....even though we had no boy dolls our imaginations were fertile....no not that fertile.
These are some of my Toni's clothes. See the plaid thingy in the back. It was like a big dress bag for doll dresses. When I got my allowance I was off to Murphy's Five and Dime Store to buy clothes for my doll.
I found this pic below of two Toni dolls with a background. The dolls are around 8 inches tall so they wouldn't fit in a regular doll house. Here you see the blond and the brunette versions of the dolls. My Toni started out a brunette. The big selling point of Toni dolls was that you could give them home permanents......like the Toni permanents for adults. They came with rollers and permanent wave solution. The manufacturer gave you the recipe so you could make more solution when you ran out......not like today's manufacturers who would send you back to the store for a refill that would cost more than the original doll.However, the solution formula was very technical.......sugar + water.....no danger there right? Wrong Donnamo laid Toni out on the driveway in the sun to dry her hair while the perm did its magic. It was magic alright....when I went back she was bald!!! Ants had eaten her hair! I probably still have issues due to this trauma.....but my resourceful Mama found a "doll hospital" and had her fixed....and I got Toni the blonde hair I always wanted my Toni and me to have. It took about 10 years before I got my own blonde hair but that is another story for another day.
4 comments:
I enjoyed this nostalgic post. I love that you and your friend had your dolls write letters to each other. How cute!
I loved your post on the Toni Doll.
My Toni doll was the first doll I remember having. I remember the little pink rollers. I dont know what happened to my Toni doll whose name was Toni by the way. So last year I went on line and bought another toni doll so I could remember my doll.
I have to laugh because that doll is the one that used to creep my children out at night upstairs in your house.
I think it's a special feeling all little girls share about their favorite doll.
The American Girl dolls now don't have perms, but they sure have everything else!
Oh, I love the ant story! That must have been horrifying, but now you must laugh every time you think of it!
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