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July 28, 2005
Ginny - Her Story!
We just received a wonderful new shipment of copies of vintage Ginny Dolls and thought you'd like to learn more about Ginny Dolls in the early years!
Ginny actually began in 1922 when Jennie Adler Graves established Ye Olde Vogue Doll Shoppe in her home in Massachusetts. The story is that a "friend", who knew of Jennie's skill in sewing children's clothes, asked her to dress some dolls for a charity event. Actually, the "friend" was selling the dolls instead of giving them to charity! Jennie Graves then began to dress and sell imported German dolls to Jordan Marsh, a well-known Boston department store.
Things went very well until a sales dip in 1948 inspired Mrs. Graves to introduce an 8" plastic doll, the forerunner to Ginny. Everyone loved the new doll and Ginny was officially born in 1951. She was named after Jennie's daughter Virginia. In 1949 Vogue needed a 15,000 square foot warehouse and employed 50 regular workers plus from 100 to 200 home sewers and brought in a sales volume of $239,000 a year; by 1953, Vogue's annual volume reached $2,113,904.
Ginny was selling so well, that many doll companies tried to copy the popular 8" dolls. By 1957, Ginny had reached over five million dollars per year in sales, and was a beloved fixture in most American households.
Mrs. Graves retired in 1960; her daughter Mrs. Virginia Carlson and son-in-law Edwin Nelson continued to lead the company until Virginia's retirement in 1966. The company was then run entirely by Mr. Nelson until 1972 when the Vogue name was sold to Tonka Corporation. Between 1977 and 1995 Ginny had a succession of three more owners. Each company, in its own way, added significantly to Ginny’s history.
In 1995 Ginny was reunited with new owners and The Vogue Doll Company name - they promised to restore Ginny to her deserved place in the modern doll era and have been been producing the wonderful dolls seen on our pages.
Historical information from Collector's Encyclopedia by Carol Stover and Judith Izen.
Posted by dollcloset at July 28, 2005 09:03 PM