Betsy McCall

Betsy McCall

American Character 8" & 22" ~*~ Ideal 14"
and the magazine Paper Dolls


American Character came out with an 8" version of Betsy McCall in 1958. She was based on the popular paper doll in the McCall's magazine. She has a sweet impish face with bendable knees. She is very thin and delicate. She was available in three hair colors, blonde, tosca, and brunette. Several separate outfits were available for her. She was one of my favorite childhood dolls, next to Ginny of course.




	Missing her ice skates

Ideal's 14" Betsy McCall
	Ideal's Betsy McCall was introduced in 1952. She had a soft vinyl head with a hard plastic body. Her body is marked P-90 just like Ideal's 14" Toni doll. She only came in this dark brunette glued on wig, with brown eyes. Her hair is very coarse which is typical of this doll. I have redressed her in a vintage dress that is of typical school girl style for her. This is a strung doll although a walker was introduced in 1952 as well. Her shoes came with her but I don't know believe they are original. They are not marked and most I've seen on Ideal Betsy's are black.
She has a very sweet expression and lovely coloring. Betsy has what is described as a "watermelon smile". *~~~~**

American Character 22" Betsy McCall
American Character also made a 22" version of Betsy McCall in 1961. She is a very interesting doll in that she is jointed in several places. Both her wrists and ankles are jointed as well as her upper thighs. This allows her to assume several poses. I found this Betsy McCall doll lying nude on a table at a recent doll show. Though this dress is somewhat typical of the style she wore, it is too short-waisted for her. It will have to do for now.

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One of the highlights of my weekly visits to my grandmother's house, was thumbing through her McCall's ladies magazine to find the latest Betsy McCall paper doll, just waiting there to play with me. She appeared throughout the decades starting in 1951 and continued through the1990s, though not consistently. Each issue usually had a Betsy and a couple of outfits (sometimes these outfits represented ones that could be purchased or sewn for real little girls or the 8" doll, too.) For a short time in the early 60s they featured the actual 29" American Character doll, alone or in combination with the paper doll. There was always a little story to allow us to peek inside Betsy's world of fun and adventure.

Over the years Betsy was updated with a "modern" look. Below are a few of the changes the paper doll Betsy made. I'll add more as I find them.

Do any of these examples bring back memories for you?

I do have a few of the Betsy McCall magazine cut out paper doll pages for sale in my online doll shoppe.
Click here to link to that page, if interested.


1953	1957	1959	1960	1963

1966	1967	1969

Betsy McCall as a Paper Doll