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| Bette Davis by CyGuy |
Celebrity dolls, I discovered, have been around for a
long, long time. According to Ellen Tsagaris of Dr. E's Doll Museum blog, the first commemorative doll is more than likely the Venus of Willendorf and other Venus
figures discovered in Europe and said to be between 25,000 and 40,000 years
old. Creation of tribute dolls continued through the ages, but it was during the reign of England's Queen Victoria that the popularity of such dolls surged. Royals, celebrated beauties and military heroes were all commemorated with dolls in their likenesses and prima ballerinas were memorialized as paper dolls.
With the arrival
of movies in the 20th century came the manufacture of dolls based on film stars; the first Chaplin
doll appeared in 1915. The runaway popularity of the Shirley
Temple doll produced by Ideal in 1934 brought the production of more dolls based on popular stars like Sonja Henie, Deanna Durbin and others.
