Who doesn’t love a doll in uniform? Since the start of civil aviation, doll manufacturers have been creating pint-size cabin crew. Stewardess dolls have remained popular throughout the years, often vintage-styled to remind us of the golden age of aviation, when air travel was available only to the moneyed few.
Jeff Doung, a collector from Califonia, kindly gave some of his flight attendants the day off so they could appear here. Jeff is a member of BADDD, the San Francisco Bay Area’s preeminent club for doll collectors, you can contact the group by email at rupert-doodles@webtv.net
Doors to manual and cross-check.
Left to right: Small Hong Kong Lilli; 1962 Blonde Bubblecut Barbie in #984 American Airlines Stewardess outfit; 1966 American Girl Barbie in #1678 Pan Am Airways uniform.Left: 1968 TnT Francie in a Sindy uniform from Spain. Right: 1974 Malibu Barbie wearing Mattel United Airlines outfit (flight bag belongs to #2895 American Airlines outfit).Left to right: A light-weight blown vinyl 1960s doll of unknown provenance; Chicken or beef? In this case it’s plastic with a delicious glass of cotton wool milk. An inflight meal tray from the 1960s Tressy/Mary Makeup doll shown below; 1950s Toni Stewardess; Another cheaply-made 1960s flight attendant. Left to right: 1960s American Character’s Tressy/Mary MakeUp in a Sindy uniform; 1960s Breck stewardess doll; 1960s American Character Tressy/Mary MakeUp in her own uniform.Left to right: Braniff Air Hostess Giftset (with lid) by Marx; Jessica (Dawn’s friend) Stewardess by Topper.Left to right: Monsieur Z First Class; Monsieur Z Fly Girl (yellow version); Monsieur Z Fly Girl (orange version). All by Integrity Toys. Mattel The Stewardess Silkstone Barbie Fashion Model Collection boxed doll.Left to right: Integrity Toys Basic Edition (I.T.B.E.) doll wearing To the Fair Poppy Parker outfit; Fashion Royalty doll in a Lilli Lalka Stewardess outfit by Julian Kalinowski; Madame Alexander’s Pan Am Stewardess. Note: These three dolls are not shown to scale, left and middle are 12-inch tall dolls, the doll at right is 16 inches tall.Integrity Toys’ Poppy Parker To the Fair boxed doll.Left to right: Tonner’s Pan Am Shelley Stewardess; Ashton-Drake’s Champagne Flight Gene; Effanbee’s Brenda Starr Airport.AND FINALLY… BLUE SKY THINKING The new collection sees Monty and Vivian embark on a grand European Tour. It looks like the couple had to work their passage by engaging as cabin crew: Vivian as Diamond Air Attendant, circa 1960s, royal blue stewardess uniform in cotton twill trimmed with sky-blue piping; Monty as Diamond Air Captain, circa 1960s, Black twill pilot uniform with black satchel. Chocks away and bon voyage in the new economy!
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2 Comments
Nancy Adamchak · January 29, 2021 at 1:53 pm
I want to buy the Braniff gift hostes set
thebolddoll · January 30, 2021 at 3:16 pm
Me too! I’d love to have one, but they are so hard to come by. Good luck with your search.