Elsie-Cat's Ruthie Pages ...
The Magic Skin Era
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| The Ruthie name dates from the compo era of Horsman dolls. The "classic" Ruthie face dates from the 50's era of Horsman Magic Skin dolls. None of these dolls were called Ruthie, but were different size Magic Skin dolls marketed under various model names. From about 1953-1957, nearly everything Horsman came in Magic Skin aka "Fairyskin"- a one-piece vinyl stuffed doll, sometimes with movable head, sometimes with movable arms and head. There were Magic Skin Cindy fashion dolls, Magic Skin Cindy Strutter sub-Teen dolls, Magic Skin baby dolls of all sizes and descriptions. The Ruthie vinyl head appears first on two types of Magic Skin girls:
More of this content will be developed soon - but for now here are the basics.
As noted before, all of this content is based on my own research of scant available resources and careful observation of my own collection. As always, comments, corrections, are welcome.
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Magic Skin Peggy Petite [ top ]
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| Peggy Petite made her debut in 1953 as a one piece stuffed vinyl bodies with separate heads. Adorable funny butts. Are stamped Horsman on head, and a numbers like 14.
She was 13" - 14" high that year, but in subsequent years, she became even smaller. After 1955 , I don't think they made the larger sizes of her. Horsman then produced only the 8" Peggy Petite size. When Peggy Petite went down to the 8" size, her head was redesigned and she isn't so much "Ruthie-like" then.
They did some really cute things with the tiny Peggy Petite, though.
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| Peggy Petite in all sizes was a real clothes horse. |
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| 13" Ruthie-faced Peggy Petite Magic Skin doll |
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| Cute variations of 8" Peggy Petite. |
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| This is the classic Ruthie head on a 15"-16" Magic Skin body. She came in a whole variety of hair colors and many outfits, but only one size. She was a toddler style doll even though her name implies she is a "baby".
This is my favorite Ruthie type of all.
In 1959, Horsman took this dolly's face and launched a new line of moveable vinyl dolls - for which they resurrected their name from an earlier era - and christened her Ruthie.
To begin Ruthie's earliest incarnation in molded vinyl, continue with Heavy Vinyl I Ruthies.
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| Love Me Baby magic skin dolls. The one in blue dress above in all original includint the VHTF adorable rubber shoes with molded flowers on them. |
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