Looking for Raggedy Ann and Andy

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Looking for Raggedy Ann and Andy
Host
Gary Presley

I love my wife. She's sweet, smart, and sophisticated. She's also a puzzle. I've never been able to understand why a grown woman would be fascinated with Raggedy Ann and Andy. Good grief, she's earned a Master's degree in microbiology and speaks science like a foreign language.

Yet, she's a Raggedy Ann fanatic. Follow her on any given day, and you might end up at a flea market. If she spots a sign like "Aunt Audrey's Antiques," she'll be through the door quicker than a cop on a SWAT team drill.

"How cute!" she'll exclaim, holding up a doll, a cookie jar, tea set, salt and pepper shakers, a picnic baskets, a lunch pail, or any other object large and small, practical and decorative.

Whatever she has, you can bet your beloved Belindy it's got Raggedy Ann or Andy on it somewhere, and the next sound you'll hear will be the rip of another check flying out of her checkbook.

You won't be surprised then that I know more about Johnny Gruelle's creation than a Real Man ought to admit. The colorful creations with the alliterative monikers have taken over our kitchen, and I don't think there's much hope of saving the rest of our house.

I know, for example, P. F. Volland Company manufactured the original dolls. Maybe she'll find one soon. One of those little red-white-and-blue dandy Ann or Andys by Volland -- a true high dollar collectible -- might allow us to break even.

The story of Raggedy Ann and Andy begins in the love of a father for a daughter. Just after the turn of the century, Gruelle conjured up the magical stories to entertain his daughter, Marcella.

In their imaginary adventures, Raggedy Ann and Andy were joined by Beloved Belindy, Camel with the Wrinkled Knees, Quacky Doodles and Danny Daddles, Snoopwiggy, and a variety of other cheerful and endearing characters.

It is one of fate's melancholy ironies that the impetus for the books - and the dolls and paraphernalia inspired by the charming stories -- was the death of Marcella in 1916. Grief-stricken, Gruelle set out to write away his suffering by sharing the stories with the world.

Eventually Gruelle published 25 Raggedy Ann and Andy stories . Gruelle patented the design for his little character in 1915, and the family still controls the rights.

John Barton Gruelle, a political cartoonist and children's book illustrator, was born in Arcola, Illinois, a town that celebrates its famous native son with a Raggedy Ann and Andy Festival each May.

While P. F. Volland Company made the original dolls, other companies were subsequently authorized to make the popular figures, including the Knickerbocker Toy Company, among others.

Rarest of all would be a doll made by the Exposition Doll and Toy Manufacturing Company, which manufactured Raggedy Ann and Andy toys only in 1935. Authentic Exposition dolls are so scarce that there is no established price for them.

It was during that period a company called Mollye's Doll Outfitters produced Raggedy Ann dolls, apparently without Gruelle's approval. The company's dolls were slightly different -- the shoes were blue instead of black and the now famous "I Love You" heart was inscribed on Raggedy Ann's torso.

Gruelle took the company to court, and a three-year struggle ensued before he was able to stop the unauthorized manufacturing.

Today Simon and Schuster holds the Raggedy Ann and Andy trademark and publish Gruelle's books. Hasbro Company and Applause Toy Company have the rights to manufacture the current generation of the popular characters.

Serious collectors are willing to pay thousands of dollars for rare Raggedy Ann and Andy memorabilia. To my wife, however, and to the many of the other collectors, one of the raggedy dolls, sitting forlorn on the shelf of an antique store, will stir the embers of memory and cry out to be taken home.

Raggedy Ann is most of all a reminder of a happy time and a gentler era. Raggedy Ann speaks to us, and we remember the smell of grandmother's cookies and grandfather's pipe tobacco, quiet times playing with childhood friends, and the warmth of our mother's arms.

Raggedy Ann is link between what has been and what will be.