Dolls of the AughtS:! ' Campbell Kid: 10", flared composition head, muslin body with inside disc joints at shoulders and hips. $350.00. CAMPBELL KID - One of the best-known and loved dolls of all time is Horsman's Campbell Kid. Artist Grace Gebbie (Wiederseim) Drayton created the original illustrations of the cute and chubby soup-loving youngsters in 1905 for the Joseph Campbell Co. And in 1910, Campbell licensed Horsman to make and sell Campbell Kid dolls. E.l. Horsman Jr., listed on the patent application as the "inventor" of the dolls, instructed his chief designer Helen Fox Trowbridge to turn Drayton's two-dimensional drawings into a sculpted doll head. Later she would remark that since Drayton's illustrations included no profile views, she had to create the Campbell Kid's button nose without help from the artist. There is some evidence that she simply "exaggerated" a nose from one of her bas-relief medallions that she had sculpted of a baby during her pre-doll designing years. Clearly, her work has stood the test of time, and the cute and chubby soup-loving youngsters remain highly popular today. The original Campbell Kids had Can't Break 'Em flange neck composition heads, cork stuffed pink sateen bodies, were jointed at the shoulders and hips and came in a number of different outfits and sizes, from 9Yz" to 16 11, the largest with composition legs. Some versions were wigged, some had painted hair; most had painted eyes that looked straight ahead, a rare few had side-glancing eyes. In 1914, Horsman brought out a head with a shoulder plate, allowing the doll to wear lower necked clothes. An early favorite was the 1912 Campbell Kid Mascot, dressed in striped blazers of the colors of popular colleges. A curved-leg version was the Campbell Kid Baby, dressed in a slip with ribbon in her hair. Over the years, Campbell Kids were dressed in a great many other costumes as well as clothes on which Horsman Jr. had taken out design patents. These included Campbell Dutch Boy and Dutch Girl, Campbell Kid Cowboy, Cowgirl, and Baseball Kid. There was Pocahontas, and her boy companion, Kickapoo, described in Horsman's advertising as "attractive and comical little Indians." They were painted in brown-skin with black hair. Their painted eyes were shaped like hearts on their sides. The Indian dolls wore brown Indian costumes with red trim and red headbands with gaudy feathers. In 1914, a French craze for colored hair was reflected in a number of Horsman dolls, including, of course, the Campbei: Kids. For a brief time, they were available with red, blue. green or yellow wigs, in color-matching costumes and bows. In 1928, another doll maker, American Character acquired the rights to use the Campbell Kid name and design. However. Horsman continued to produce composition dolls that while not identical, greatly resembled their traditional Campbell Kid. but were not identified or advertised as such. Horsman reacquired the licensing rights shortly after World War II anc: again began producing an authorized Campbell Kid doll. 40
ol~~~ of the Aughts Campbell Kid: 10", in original outfit. $350.00. Campbell Kid: 11", side-glancing girl in original tagged dress. $200.00. Courlesy Arlene jensen.
Dolls of the AughtS Campbell Kids: 81//'. Boy and girl pair. $500.00. Courtesy Sue Kinkade. Campbell Kids: 15" (rear) $400; low' (front) $300.00; Pocahontas: 11" (left) $400.00. 42
..: Dolls of the Aughts y._""' ~.- Pocahontas: 11", Campbell Kid with brown-tone complexion. $350.00. Indian Pair: 11", Campbell Kids as Kickapoo and Pocahontas. $700.00. Courtesy McMasters Doll Auction. 43
' Dolls -of the Au@tS.;r-'.. 'l;o"',_;}jj f... ~~ x~ Mascot Boy: 11", Campbell Kid in collegiate outfit. Label on sleeve: "The Campbell Kids I I Trade Mark I I Copyright Campbell Company I I Mfg. By E. Horsman Co." $250.00. Dutch Campbell Kid: 16", in original outfit. $350.00.... Campbell Kid Baby. 44
Dolls of the Aughts Other related Drayton-designed Horsman dolls included Gee Gee Dolly, copyrighted in 1912, a 16 11 cloth doll version with a composition mask face. Late in 1913, this doll was renamed Peek-a-Boo, but it soon evolved in a number of different ways, including all composition and composition-and-cloth versions, with distinctive star-like hands. Peek-A-Boo came in a number of sizes, some as small as 71f2 11 Some of Drayton's cute creations were four-legged. In 1911 and for at least several years after, Horsman sold Puppy Pippin and his feline companion, Pussy Pippin. They were described in Horsman's advertising as 'The Campbell Kids \ of the animal world... having heads of our celebrated Can't Break 'Em material, and bodies of fine velvet matching the head coloring. The legs are jointed." These animals came in two sizes, standard and a smaller 11 11 junior. The compo heads and stuffed tail were sewn to the plush body; Puppy Pippin had a wide collar. - Peek-A-Boo. Peek-A-Boo: 8", jointed only at the shoulders. $95.00. Puppy Pippin and Pussy Pippin. 45
"";. 51,{ Junior Takes Charge Horsman's Campbell Kids got a publicity boost when this kick-line chorus, decked out in doll-like masks and costumes, toured the country performing in the musical comedy, "Merry, Merry." Manryaclun d by License from Joseph ' Ca mpbp [ [ Comp.my Hfwd:. N<~jJroduced frorn Plastic Model Copyrighted JglO,by./.Horsman Co The Jolliest Dolls oe All Helen Trowbridge worked from Drayton's two-dimensional sketches to create the cute and chubby Campbell Kid dolls. :':'.&",--:~ -\