Gonna Buy Me a Paper Doll

Vintage Paper Dolls – Fashion

 Doris Day – courtesy Carla at Home

Paper Dolls go back a long long way. Children, always creative,  love to play dress up.
By the 1930’s and 1940’s it was a golden age for paper dolls, they were cheap, often came within fashion magazines, and were a great resource for girls planning their wardrobe to match their favourite Hollywood star.

Image courtesy Spare Tome for Sewing

The big studios effectively owned their stars, so they were merchandised ! Its unlikely that Doris Day or anyone else actually made any money from being sold as dolls, but what the heck – they were rich glamourous stars, so why complain !

I’m gonna buy a Paper Doll that I can call my own
A doll that other fellows cannot steal
And then the flirty, flirty guys with their flirty, flirty eyes
Will have to flirt with dollies that are real

When I come home at night she will be waiting
She’ll be the truest doll in all this world
I’d rather have a Paper Doll to call my own
Than have a fickle-minded real live girl

Paper Doll – By Johnny Slack and performed by The Mills Brothers

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4 thoughts on “Gonna Buy Me a Paper Doll”

  1. I definitely remember paper dolls when I was a child, and that was the early eighties. It was such fun swapping outfits around! Not quite as glam as the paper dolls pictured though. x

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