My Oldest doll is a mystery

Right off the bat I will tell you that we will be revising this doll again sometime soon when I am able to take better pictures. I just really wanted to post something today and she is pretty cool even with the less than stellar photography.

I'm not sure who this doll is or when she came out, but she is definitely from the same era as the first Barbie, so that would put her around 1959. When I first found her I thought she might be a Bild Lilli ( the doll that Barbie was based on) but upon closer inspection I'm leaning towards the idea that she is a Barbie knock off. Someone once suggested she might be a Suzette, but after doing some research I found that Suzette doll were younger looking, with a more rounded face. The name stuck with me and we need to call her something, so let's call her Suzie from now on.

When I found Suzie, many years ago at a thrift store, she was pretty darned disgusting. She was filthy, her face paint had mostly rubbed off and her hair was a knotted mess. I wish I would have takes some pictures for a "before and after" and maybe I did and don't remember, it was a long time ago. I cleaned her and redid her face paint. Her eyebrows are original and I used whatever was left of her eyes as a guideline to repaint them and did her lips completely. I know they are a bit crooked but she was my one of my first repaints so I don't think she came out too bad. The hair was beyond salvaging so I just removed it all and rerooted her with some thin, bright red yarn that makes her look like she has tiny red dreadlocks. I did this mostly because I just happened to have red yarn and why not? 

She was naked when I found her but as you can see, right now I have her wearing a reproduction of Barbie's Solo in the Spotlight outfit. It fits her perfectly, but not the shoes. I have never been able to find shoes that fit her right.

 

By the way, in person the diffence in color between the head and the rest of the body is way less obvious. 

Here are some photos without her dress so you can see what she looks like:

As you can see she has pretty much the same body as a #1 Barbie. She has a hard plastic body with a rubber head and five points of articulation (head, arms and legs).

Here she is next to a Barbie reproduction so you can see what they look like side to side. As you can see Barbie is a bit taller and it;s not just because she has shoes and fluffier hair.

Here a 3/4 profile view.

And lastly, here's Suzie with a stewardess outfit I found at a dollar store. It does a good job of looking like a 1960's stewardess uniform as long as you ignore the velcro closure, the shoes kinda fit her and it even came with a suitcase. Not bad for a dollar!

If anybody has any idea to who this doll might be, I would love to hear about it in the comments.

That's all for now. Next time we see Suzie, I'll take some photos by sunlight so you can get more detail and less blur.