Rag Dolls Again Popular

Press, Volume CV, Issue 30962, 19 January 1966, Page 2

Rag Dolls Again Popular

A rag doll would seem an unlikely contender in the popularity stakes for toys, in these days of sophisticated dolls that walk, talk, eat, drink and wear fashionable clothes.

But Pollyanna is a rag doll with a rapidly-growing fan club. She was first marketed in Britain as a simple, colourI ful, “cutout-and-sew-yourself” rag doll by Mr Malcolm Wilcox, a part-time lecturer in graphic design at the Birmingham College of Art and Crafts, and his wife, Joy. They live at Leamington Spa, a few miles from Birmingham and have a three-year-old daughter. Lesley. It was the arrival of Lesley that first turned their thoughts to designing toys. Pollyanna, [one of the first, was so successful that today they have their own business, which ex- ' ports to the United States, Canada. Puerto Rica, Scandinavia, France, Germany, Australia, South Africa and West Africa.

Pollyanna, the first rag doll, was Mrs Wilcox’s idea. Printed in gay colours on tough fabric, it carried simple instructions on how to cut along the dotted lines, sew up the sides, and finally stuff with scraps of material. The doll was made entirely at the Wilcox home. “We hand painted the designs and printed them in the front room. Lesley was always getting hold of the dyes and trying to drink them.” Mrs Wilcox recalls today. The first few examples, shown to the toy buyer at one of London’s leading stores, were snatched up by customers, and within a week there was a repeat order for eight dozen more.

“It was chaos,” Mrs Wilcox says, “and we had to get friends to help us.” Pollyanna was followed by other cut-out rag dolls, and the range now includes a guardsman, cat, clown and large-sized harlequin. Early last year Britain’s Council of Industrial Design gave its first design award for a toy when it placed Mr and Mrs Wilcox among the 1965 winners.

When it became clear that they needed to put their enterprise on to a more business-like footing—the front room could no longer cope with the amount of work —the family formed Sari Fabrics. found a factory’ to undertake manufacture, and a distributor, Goods and Chattels, to do the marketing. In 1964. 39,000 rag dolls were sold in Britain and abroad, and this year’s figures will be even higher. The dolls have been particularly successful in Africa where children have appreciated the gay colours, and, this year Mr and Mrs W’ilcox plan to show all their products at international toy fairs in Europe. The latest additions to the range have been cut-out cushion covers and a colourful toy sack made up in the same way. The sack , rather like a duffle bag with a cord at the top to close it, was Mrs Wilcox’s idea. Children use it to take their toys to nursery school, and use it when they travel.

Mr and Mrs Wilcox first met when they were students at the Croydon Art School near London. They married when they were 21. Before taking his appointment at the Birmingham College of Art and Crafts, Mr and Mrs Wilcox spent a short time as a designer with ’Westward Television.

Both agree that they work well together. “We never quarrel; in fact, we work better together than we do separately,” Mrs Wilcox says.