Tag: 1962
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Deluxe Reading Dream Kitchen (1963)
Barbie’s earliest abodes may suggest that she was not much of a cook: neither the ’62 Dream House nor her ’64 Campus dorm room provided kitchen facilities (predictably, in the latter case); the Go-Together rooms offered a dining room, but no kitchen; and the ’64 New Dream House had a very minimal kitchen in the…
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A chronicle of Barbie shoes, 1959-1967
Recently, while sourcing various, specific vintage shoes for a custom project, I began to realize there were basic facts about Barbie’s early shoes that were not known to me. What year was Barbie’s first pair of closed-toe shoes produced? (The answer surprised me, but maybe you already know.) What were the most common “gold” open-toed…
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When Barbie turned 21
It’s a paradox: she was a teen-age fashion model in 1959, and she turned 21 in 1980. For Barbie, both are true. And in 1980 Barbie held her 21st birthday bash, where else? in a nightclub: “Hurrah” in Manhattan, a “new wave disco,” per the Charlotte Observer. Befittingly, the party was punctuated by a fashion…
sheathsensation
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The Many Abodes of Barbie, Part I: 1962
It’s 1962 and the Teen-Age Fashion Model is moving into her Dream House. One might be surprised to learn that the home of Barbie’s dreams consists of just one room, equipped with a twin bed, an entertainment system and a variety of seating. It’s breathtakingly modest–but then, for a single young woman of the time…
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Visions of After Five
Where to next? Have visions of Solo in the Spotlight; envision After Five one more time in the Keys to Fame board game; or go up to the Table of Contents.
sheathsensation
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Whitman paper dolls (1962-1965)
One of the deepest wells of vintage Barbie fashion sketches must be Whitman paper dolls–if you agree that they have a place alongside all the art that came straight from Mattel. Whitman had paper dolls on many subjects, from Kim Novak to Marlo Thomas to Twiggy and far beyond, and it’s perfectly possible that the…
sheathsensation
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Barbie on TV
When Barbie turns on her TV, it’s usually to watch Barbie. The televisions of the early years are examples of Barbie’s built environment that double as Barbie illustrations. The earliest television we feature comes from the original 1962 Dream House. It is actually a TV-stereo combination, as a panel on the top opens to reveal…
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Jumbo trading cards (1962)
A treasure trove of rare vintage Barbie illustrations lies hidden deep within Joe Blitman’s website, Joe’s List: 67 jumbo trading cards produced by the Dynamic Toy company in 1962. These cards are scarce, but Joe and co. have kindly scanned and uploaded examples of almost all that were manufactured. (I believe–the numbering starts at 141,…
Silken Flame 