Vintage Molly’es Cloth Doll
The Vintage Molly-‘es Cloth Doll Features
This doll wore a braided human hair wig with a floral coronet made of fabric. Her vintage organdy fabric dress had blue felt trimmings and a double layered skirt. The front of the face is a different fabric than the back of the head, so I think some doll collectors call this a mask type face.
Molly-‘es Costume Designer
The name Molly-’es on the tag reminded me of the first time I had seen the brand name on a pink doll coat worn by a vintage Ideal Shirley Temple doll. Then I also saw the brand name in a doll reference book. Tonya Bervaldi-Camaratta has photos of vintage composition Shirley Temple dolls wearing dresses made by Molly-‘es in her book “The Complete guide Shirley Temple Dolls and Collectibles Identification & Value Guide.” She dedicated a whole section of pages to Molly-es outfits in chapter 5. Molly-‘es dresses usually had tags inside them that said “Created by Molly-‘es.”
Vintage Molly’es Cloth Doll History
In 1937 John B. Gruelle sued Molly’es Outfitters for “trade-mark infringement and unfair competition.” If I understand the case right, Gruelle had designed a Raggedy-Ann doll and the registered patent expired in 1929. Then in 1935 Mollye Goldman filed a registration for a patent for a male doll that resembled Gruelle’s Raggedy-Ann and called it Raggedy-Andy. You can see images of the Molly-‘es Raggedy-Andy doll found and sold on ebay in the past few years on Worthpoint.
Of course there is more to the case than that, but after reading the summary of the case, it looks like Molly-‘es Outfitters indeed stole someone’s design.
Evening star (Washington, D.C.), November 13, 1931, Page B-5 / Library of Congress, Chronicling America
The more I look into the history of the doll making world, the more I realize the gross amount of struggles between business owners, copyrights, patents, and lawsuits that exist. This lawsuit between Gruelle and Goldman lasted three years!!
Molly-‘es Outfitters made some great doll clothes and having her name in the Shirley Temple doll books leaves a nice legacy. This cute doll I found gives a sweet impression as well, so I guess I can get past the negative implications of the lawsuit since it’s long over and past.
