Throwback Thursday review: another Effanbee doll

I dang near never got this review done, what with a certain pair of furballs getting underfoot.  LOL, Tommy and Sir Lancelot are about as different from Eddard and Arya as night is from day.  Eddie and Arya were content to go wrestle each other in the living room while I swept or worked on the blog or fed my bearded dragon, but Tommy and Sir Lancelot want in my lap, under my feet, in my face, as close to me as they can get...and for that matter Bobbie does too.  Here I was worried that Bobbie and I might never become friends, but now she sleeps on my bed.

Constantly tripping over these three gets annoying (my other cats don't do this), but they're so cute that I forgive them.  I did almost kill Sir Lancelot Monday night; he ran under my feet in a dark hallway and I stepped on him!  He screamed bloody murder, crippled around for half an hour, and acted pissed, and then he was fine again, but it scared the crap out of me.  He cried so loud when I did it that I thought "Oh God, I've killed him!  I don't want to lose another one!"  But thank God, no.  Mama and I joke that Tommy and Sir Lancelot should've been named "Death" and "Wish," as they're always trying to kill themselves, each other, or me.

Critter chatter over, I think today's doll makes the third one I've got named some variant of Cindy...no, it's the FIFTH!  One by Marx, one by Hasbro, one Barbie who bears a passing resemblance to Cyndi Lauper, my big Deluxe Reading girl, and this young lady.  She is a Dewees Cochran reproduction by Effanbee.

These dolls popped up during my adolescence in an issue of Doll Reader, and oh, I've been dying for years to talk about these dolls!  I probably could've talked about them without a doll, but what good is a blog post without pictures???   A lady named Ella Dewees Cochran started this all in the mid-thirties with "portrait dolls," dolls that looked like the little girls who owned them, and she later partnered with Effanbee to create Look-a-Like dolls.  In a sense these old dolls are the precursor of My Twinn, as the two lines' main selling point was the same.  Like the Twinns, Look-a-Likes had different head molds, and each mold had a name.  The Look-a-Likes had six molds (Abigail, Cynthia, Deborah, Jezebel, Lisa, and Melanie), and while that doesn't sound like a lot compared to the forty-nine heads utilized by My Twinn, it was a significant number back in the 1930s.  According to the old Time Magazine article, Ms. Dewees Cochran's first two clients were the daughters of Irving Berlin, which probably gives y'all an idea of who could (and couldn't) afford a portrait doll like this during the Great Depression.  Indeed, Effanbee's Look-a-Likes were twenty-five dollars in 1939, while the portrait dolls were eighty-five dollars (these prices would equal $462.68 and $1,573.11 in July 2020 dollars).  Cindy didn't make an appearance until after World War II, and she was made by a crew called Molded Latex Company.  According to sources only a thousand or so were made before Ms. Dewees Cochran decided she didn't like the quality of the work and ended her partnership with Molded Latex.  BUT...Molded Latex continued to make unmarked versions of Cindy anyway, making a Dewees Cochran-marked Cindy a real treasure for any dolly owner.  Ella Dewees Cochran continued to make dolls after Cindy came and went, with Grow Up dolls becoming a thing during the 1950s.  These dolls were a particular character (usually a character that Ella made up herself), and said character would "age" as the years went by, in the form of a larger, differently dressed doll.  The girl characters (Susan Stormalong, Angela Appleseed, and Belinda Bunyan) came in ages five, seven, eleven, sixteen, and twenty, while the boys (Peter Ponsette and Jeffery Jones) came in ages five, fourteen, and twenty-three.  The Grow Ups lasted from 1952 to 1958, and later Effanbee made replicas of Susan, Angela, and Belinda.  Oddly, I haven't seen reproductions of the boys, which is a bit of a bummer as they were just as nice as the girls.  As a last little addendum, each of the Grow Ups had a nickname.  Susan, Angela, and Belinda were called "Stormy," "Angel," and "Bunnie," while Peter and Jeffery bore the more unoriginal "Pete" and "Jeff," not to be confused with Mutt and Jeff.  Just thought I'd throw that out there, because nicknames can sometimes make searches confusing.

Today Dewees Cochran dolls of any sort are hard to find at affordable prices (just as they were in the '30s), but the Effanbee reproductions are another story entirely.  They can be found for fairly reasonable prices on eBay and on Etsy, and that's what my doll is...I think I said that once, LOL.  Notice that my doll is very shiny, like my reproduction Patsy Joan is.

Cindy and Patsy Joan are made of the same high-gloss hard vinyl, which suits me just fine, though Mama did ask once if Cindy was crying due to the light clusters under her eyes.  While I love a good antique doll as much as the next collector, in Cindy's case I prefer the reproduction and her sturdy composition-style vinyl.  The original Cindy dolls had bodies made of latex, and latex does not usually age well.  Remember Tommy, one of my Creepy Babies?

His arms and legs are made of latex and they're very fragile.  I love the way they feel (they're still soft and smooth to the touch), but over time the latex has discolored and developed holes and cracks and black patches.  See?  He looks like he has a nuclear tan.

Luckily, this source suggests that the latex used by the Look-a-Like dolls was something special, a combination of latex, porcelain powder, and other odds and ends called...Vultex???  Was there a vulcanization process in there somewhere?  I'm not sure, but the stuff was apparently considered a good covering for mattresses and pillows at one time.  Either way it looks like Vultex (not to be confused with Vulpix) was better stuff than the regular latex that Tommy is made of, because the doll in the link ("Smokey") is faring much better than he is.  The same source attests that Cindy was made of yet another critter I've not heard of called Kaysam, which was another latex mixture apparently sometimes used for the soles of shoes.  But my Cindy is not made of any of those things.  Indeed, I'd love to know if Effanbee had a special name for this high-gloss vinyl that mimics composition so well.  Maybe it's just regular old hard vinyl, buffed and polished so that it shines.

Regarding size, Cindy is shorter than her cousin Patsy Joan, at fourteen inches.  

It's weird...I know what fourteen inches looks like, but I'm used to fourteen-inch dolls having huge noggins, like Camille and Velvet do.

Hmmm...Camille seems to have developed wry neck.  For humans wry neck can be a bad sign, but for dolls it's merely a "where did that come from?" sign.  Anyway, Cindy is the same height as Camille and Velvet, but her proportions are more realistic like those on a ball-jointed doll like Delilah Noir.

Indeed, Delilah and Cindy favor each other quite a bit, being blonde and brown-eyed with delicate facial features.  Cindy's hair is longer and is curled up into a loose flip, but the fibers feel the same as Delilah's.

Fake mohair, I assume.  Dewees Cochran dolls had/have human hair wigs rather than mohair, but fake mohair does a good job of emulating both real mohair and human hair.  At first I couldn't tell if Cindy was wearing a nice wig or if Effanbee had managed to root her hair...

...but a closer look revealed a well-concealed wig cap, thus confirming that this is indeed a wig.  Rooting this hair would've been a nightmare with vinyl this hard, so good call on Effanbee's part.  The fibers do feel a little dry, but I can let that slide since I figure a real Cindy would have dry hair too by now.  Human hair and mohair wigs tend to do that as time passes.

Here's Cindy's face.  Due to the shine of her vinyl it's hard to get a good picture, but I'll try anyway.

Yeah, that's the one thing I didn't like about Patsy Joan, but again I'll let the matter drop because brand-new composition also was capable of shining like this (as is restored old composition, LOL).  In certain lights both Cindy and Patsy Joan look like they're made of wax, which I like since I like wax dolls.  According to sources Cindy was supposed to represent a child between seven and ten years of age, but she looks older than that to me.  She looks like she could be anywhere from ten to fourteen.  Her eyes are brown (I love it when blonde dolls have brown eyes!), and they appear to be lopsided!

Normally I'd ream the quality control department for that, but if one looks close one can see that Cindy's eyewells are lopsided.  Interesting...I wonder if the original Cindy has this feature?  The lower part of Cindy's face appears to be symmetrical, with a realistic nose and brick-red lips in a neutral-happy expression.

The paint job looks a little kludgy up close, but from a normal distance it's fine.  Cindy sports single-stroke eyebrows that match her eyes but not her hair, and her lips are separated by a darker line that I assume is supposed to look like shadowing.  This line is the part that looks weird up close; my Tonner dolls have this line too, and I noted the same during their review.  However, with all three dolls the line looks fine from a normal distance.  If I had any critiques about this paint it would be Cindy's lower lip; lower lips that are narrower than upper lips look weird to me.  I first noticed this when I got a good look at Clementine, from the A Girl For All Time line.  Cindy's lip isn't as odd looking as Clementine's, but it's odd enough.  Since Cindy is a smaller doll than Clementine this isn't as noticeable, but I thought I'd mention it anyway.  By the way, I've always thought Clementine was the weakest of the AGFAT dolls regarding appearance.  Her narrow face and odd mouth do not catch my eye like the softer faces of Elinor and Lydia do.  That's just my opinion, though, and I appear to be among the minority because lots of folks like Clementine.

Right then, back to Cindy!  Cindy's body is made of the same shiny vinyl, and she has five strung joints (shoulders, hips, and neck).

First off, Cindy is marked on both her upper back...

...and her neck.

Cindy's build lowers her age somewhat, as it is solidly a child's body.  I note this because I estimated Cindy's age to be between ten and fourteen.  Now she looks like she should be eleven at the very oldest, and maybe not even that old.  Her posing is fair to partly cloudy, as her stiff clothes hold her back somewhat.  When she's in less restrictive clothes Cindy can hold her arms in just about any position (I chose up and out as an example).

She can also sit, though as with many of my dolls her sitting is not very graceful.  She IS sitting all the way down, though; her rear is hanging a little off my storage unit here and thus makes her look like she's popping up a bit.

For what it's worth Cindy can also do splits, though as I've noted in the past that I rarely if ever pose my doll in a split.

Cindy's torso is smooth all over, but her hands have some molded details like dimples and creases.  The nails are also very nicely painted.  Her stubby little fingers remind me a bit of Little Miss Revlon hands for some reason, though stubby fingers make more sense in this case because Cindy is a child.

The feet did not receive this kind of attention.  The molding is good but not super-detailed, and Cindy's toenails are not painted.

I guess that makes sense given the kind of footwear Cindy has, but it still would've been a nice touch to have painted toenails.  But then again, were painted toenails as common in Cindy's day as they are now?  Barbie and Little Miss Revlon all had painted toenails, but they were supposed to be fashion dolls.  Cindy is not.

Time for clothes now.  As with Patsy Joan, I think I got the most common outfit, as most of the Cindy dolls I see are wearing this rather complicated ensemble.

This outfit closely matches one that the original Cindy wore.  The skirt, jacket, and hat are all made of this thick gray tweed material that has a nice herringbone pattern to it.

This fabric has no stretch, and since it's thick it also has very little drape to it.  As a result the jacket looks a little boxy on Cindy...but then again, name a coat that DOESN'T look boxy!  On the plus side, the fabric holds its shape well, especially in the skirt.

It probably helps that the pleats are sewn in, but even so they're not easily crushed.  For the most part these tweed pieces are in good shape...except for the top button on the jacket.  It appears to be at least partially torn loose, and I don't know how to mend that.

If the button had a shank I'd just sew it back on and call it a day, but the button doesn't have a shank.  I may have to resort to fabric glue to keep that bad boy stable.  The absolute last thing I want is for it to tear loose completely.  It probably is obvious by now that these buttons are functional, by the way.

Strangely, the buttons on Cindy's sleeves are NOT functional.  Not that it matters much as the sleeves slide over her hands with no fuss.

The hat is a little loose, so I have to pin it to Cindy's head.

Even then it wants to fall over her eyes.  Overall the hat is a little annoying, but it looks better than the pancake-flat hats that the original Cindy wore with this outfit. 

Underneath her jacket and skirt Cindy wears a white blouse and little white panties...my mistake, Cindy is NOT wearing panties!  She wears a plain white bodysuit under everything.

I'm not terribly impressed with the quality of that bodysuit, as the fabric is thin.  It snaps closed in back, and because the snaps are tight I was afraid I'd tear the fabric.

That's unfortunate, especially considering the nice quality of the rest of Cindy's clothes.  Dolly undergarments are all too often regarded as an afterthought.  I will note that the hems are finished, though.  It's a good thing too, since the raw edges are kinda raggy.

The blouse looks like it's made from the same fabric as the underthing, but it feels nicer and doesn't look quite as transparent.  It appears to have yellowed some.

The sleeves are wrinkled too, from being stuffed into that jacket.

Nothing a light steaming and some Oxy-Clean won't cure.  I was all set to have a fit over this loose end...

...but it turned out to be just a stray thread.  I blew it away and all was good.

On her feet Cindy wears black faux leather shoes and white knitted knee socks.

The socks are...thick white socks, not terribly unlike what I'm wearing right now.  Nice and comfy.  The shoes have thick ankle straps with metal snaps, and I nearly took off a thumbnail trying to get the snaps undone.  They are VERY tight.

I like these shoes, though.  They're made of black leatherette and they're soft to the touch.  They look very much like the mary-jane shoes that girls of Cindy's era would've worn, and they also remind me of those shoes that Irish dancers wear (I always thought those were neat).  So far they show no signs of age or wear, though I'll be watching them closely for said signs.

I can't think of anything else to say, so good stuff/bad stuff time!

BAD
*Face is shiny, so photography might be an issue if you like to take pictures of your dolls.
*Clothes are showing some signs of wear, especially around the buttons. 
*Snaps are tight.  I don't think this doll was meant to be undressed much.

GOOD
*Uh...I just like this doll!

It would've been awesome to have reviewed the real deal for y'all, but given the prices of a real Dewees Cochran doll a reproduction fits the bill fine.  Cindy's enclave will probably be with Delilah, Johnny, Alistair, and my other ball-jointed dolls due to her scaling.  She's NOT a ball-jointed doll, mind y'all, but she'll fit in just fine there.  The handful of problems I found with her are either age-related or just can't be helped, or they can be potentially mended like that torn button.  If you've ever taken a shine to Dewees Cochran dolls but can't afford the real deal then Cindy will do you just fine, or Susan or Angela or Belinda, if you fancy a face with more character.  You're out of luck if you want one of the boys, though!  Darn it.

Love always,
RagingMoon1987