Silken Flame

Vintage Barbie illustrations, built environment, clones and more

The Many Abodes of Barbie, Part IV: 1966

During the Sixties, Americans imported Mini cars and miniskirts from Swinging London, while Barbie innovated a “mini” all her own: the cramped accommodations she and her social circle favored in the second half of the decade. We got our first taste in the 1965 episode with the Sears exclusive “Deluxe” house; in the following year that house came back in a bold new visual scheme, its interior completely redesigned.

Barbie Family Deluxe House

Vintage color photograph of a case that opens up to create a "house." The thicker side of the case remains standing and includes a twin bed beneath a window looking out at (illustrated) deck furniture and pool, with a closet to one side and vanity, mirror, and stool to the other. The slimmer side lies flat, with furniture attached to form a living area (two-seater couch, chair, ottoman, plus round side table with lamp) and breakfast nook (two inverted dome-shaped chairs and round table, all with conical bases. The sofa, easy chair, ottoman, and vanity stool are all in lavender plastic. The kitchen table and chair bases are green, while the chair seats are orange and table top is colored yellow. The living room table has purple base and yellow top. The bed, curtains (illustrated/lithographed), and box exterior are yellow-dominated, and the wallpaper of the closet and vanity is purple with orange. Between the two living areas is a fireplace of green fieldstone, with a roaring fire illustrated.
The redesigned Deluxe Family House in the 1966 Sears Christmas Catalog. Source: Wishbook Web.

The new layout was less constricting, reducing the kitchen, pushing the bedroom to the back wall and separating the remaining space into sitting area and breakfast nook with a divider that doubled as a fireplace, on the living room side, with galley kitchen depicted on the breakfast nook side.

Closeup on vintage example of the fireplace, left, now of blue fieldstone, and the reverse side which shows an over, a mini fridge, and some drawers with daisy-shaped pulls.
The fireplace has a “kitchen” on the opposite face. Source: mill8834 on eBay.

A double-sided fireplace could have been cuter, but Barbie’s got to eat.

Inside the house, mod aesthetics are apparent in the space-age breakfast nook chairs and living room side table; at least one other innovation distinguishes this play set as the start of Barbie’s mod housing arc:

One side of the case exterior is illustrated to show a blonde American Girl Barbie exiting the building through glass double doors, carrying a tray of lemonade and wearing Lunch on the Terrace (sans hat); Francie, in it's a date, seated at a cafe-style table; and Skipper and Tutti frolicking along the bricked walkway to a bright red louvered door. The bulk of the "building" is yellow brick. None of these doors are reflected in the play set interior.
Tutti, Skipper, Barbie and Francie cavort on the exterior of the Family Deluxe House. Source: jll1966 on eBay.

While last year we could see Barbie and Skipper through the “window” on the case exterior, this year the characters are portrayed outside the house, enjoying its outdoor spaces. Thus began a mod-era standard of depicting Barbie and friends recreating on the outsides of their houses, marking yet another intersection of Barbie’s built environment with her illustrations.

It was this mod-flavored ’66 Deluxe House, and not the original ’65 version, that inspired a 2007 Hallmark ornament.

The ornament is shown closed and open in pictures that are analogous to the first and third images in this post. It is a pretty faithful miniature with only minor simplifications to some of the patterns. Also included is a mini Barbie in Lunch on the Terrace, as depicted on the exterior of both play set and ornament; she has a ring on the top of her head to function as a separate ornament.
A 2007 Hallmark ornament commemorates the more-obscure version of the play set. Source: purplesnoopy on eBay.

Francie House

Only Sears had the Family Deluxe House, but any retailer could carry Francie’s House–or “Contemporary Room, completely furnished to meet the needs of these swingin’ dolls,” as the catalog shown below described it–in 1966.

Vintage color catalog image of a case that opens similarly to the Family Deluxe House. On the standing side is a wardrobe and desk, with shelves and a window looking out on greenery illustrated onto the wall. The "typewriter" embedded in the desk looks similar to an adding machine or large calculator, while the "television" lithographed onto the shelves is all shades of grey. There is a smiling sun with other red-yellow orbs (planets?) illustrated on the windowshade. An unattached record player in blue and black sits next to the keyboard. The walls are in various striped and dotten patterns. Next to the desk sits another cone-dome chair like Barbie had above, this one all in pink. On the flat side is a bed of blue plastic, two easy chairs in yellow and blue, and a lamp table like Barbie's but with an orange surface and yellow shade. Foam pillows in pink, yellow, and blue, a telephone, and two cups with tray, all in yellow plastic, complete the scene. The floor is cream and orange tiles covered in brown scribbles. It looks like a fast food kitchen floor right after the lunch rush, or like maybe it was mopped with murky brown water. It's disgusting.
Francie’s House in the 1966 JC Penney Christmas Catalog. Source: Wishbook Web.

Francie’s furniture was molded in place, including a “typewriter,” centered on the desk, and a kind of uninspiring television represented on the shelves. Fully mobile/removable parts of the set included the desk chair, pillows, telephone, and phonograph (looks like the one that came with the Dance Party ensemble–Francie had so many record players!). The mod trend is evident in the allover bright color scheme and the psychedelic sun decorations around the desk. The floor looks absolutely filthy, but it’s actually meant to suggest funky, tile-patterned shag carpet. In the product image above, there appears to be a little Francie illustration partially hidden in the closet. On closer examination, she may be doing a bit of flat-footed shimmying:

Closeup on the backdrop and floor. The floor is as described above. At left the possible picture of Francie is no longer obscured by clothing. From the waist up she is in a pose resembling The Twist. but her feet are planted flat, facing the same direction, about shoulder-width apart. She wears a pink dress and shoes and light-colored stockings, maybe similar to Dance Party, but it's unclear what's happening with her hair or hat; the image, as printed on the play set, is not distinct. The shelves can also be seen more clearly and include additional sun images, a clock that is half moon face and sun face, book spines that resemble paper art, and a possible Barbie doll in a long white dress or top and full skirt with gold trim near the waist and hem and possibly a long white stole. It has sew-free vibes but doesn't match well any sew-free set I'm aware of.

Details of Francie’s house. Source: Fallsavevintage on Etsy.

The exterior puts this case right on the borderline threshold in terms of rendering the characters outdoors, as Francie is shown standing just inside the doorway, and yet disconcertingly large in proportion to the doorway, almost as if she were closer to the viewer.

Front and back of the case that forms Francie's "house" is as described in the text. On the front, Francie is illustrated standing at a screen door wearing Party Date. Her form occupies the full height of the doorway. The bottom part of the door is a solid panel that says "francie house" in yellow on brown. In small letters below "francie" and impossible to see in this view is also the tagline "Barbie's MODern Cousin." In arched windows there is one blind with vertical red, orange and pink stripes, and one stained glass panel with stylized bird in birdcage beneath. At right, the reverse looks like the front, except Francie is gone--a window of magenta panes outlined in red replaces her, both windows have blinds of vertical aqua, magenta and yellow stripes, one window also showing a pendant lamp with stained glass in a similar scheme, and the "francie house" logo is at top right on a red panel. Flowers and flowering bushes line the bottom of both views.

Front and back views of the “francie house.” Source: Fallsavevintage on Etsy.

The same visual trick was used to chilling effect in Alejandro Amenabar’s 2001 gothic horror masterpiece, The Others… but I digress. Details to appreciate on the package exterior include the Tiffany pendant lamp–auguring things to come–and surfeit of mod daisies, psychedelic striped blinds, and stylized caged bird.

If you read the previous entry and have been waiting with bated breath to find out whose boots we sensed approaching: they were Courreges boots! The mod era is now in full swing; we’ll see further evidence next time.

sheathsensation

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4 responses to “The Many Abodes of Barbie, Part IV: 1966”

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