When I was making my videos on the OG American Girls (i.e. the Patsy Family dolls) I thought I talked about Mary Lee, but when I played them back I saw I forgot! Sorry! I only get 1 minute per Reel or Short and things slip through the cracks.

As I mentioned in my earlier post, Effanbee debuted their Patsy doll in 1928. This was a 14 inch doll with molded hair and painted features who used the Dainty Baby head mold but on a full composition body, rather than a cloth body like Dainty Baby. Dainty Baby came out in 1912.

Now, Effanbee reproduced all the Patsy family dolls in the 1990s and their packaging inserts at that time claim the Patsy clan started with Rosemary, first Effanbee’s “Christmas Doll”, who became Rosemary (or sometimes Rose-Marie depending on the store selling her) in 1926.

I take objection to this history, however, because obviously Patsy evolved from Dainty Baby ~ she used her head mold! And then there’s Marilee or Mary Lee.

Marilee was released in 1924 as a cloth body doll with composition head and limbs. Some versions had molded hair and others had mohair wigs. All have adorable dimples and an open mouth with teeth. Marilee was a girl, not a baby, doll. She came as a black or white doll.

In 1935 the Marilee head (by then also known as Mary Lee) used on the Patsy-Ann full composition body and had a human hair, not mohair, wig. Because her head is only faintly marked, of marked at all, and the body is clearly marked “Patsy-Ann” some people consider her a different version of Patsy-Ann.

So, I would say Marilee, if any doll, was the true grandmother of the Patsy family, since she is a girl, not a baby, and Effanbee evidently considered Dainty Baby a baby doll. What a large clan it was! According to the Doll Reference website:

“Other Patsy doll family members;  Wee Patsy 6" (Fairy Princess), Baby Tinyette 7", Tinyette Toddler 8", Patsy Babyette 9", Patsyette 9", Patsy Baby or Patsy Babykin 10", Patsykin, Patricia Kin or Patsy Jr. 11", Patsy,  Patricia, or Skippy 14", Patricia or Patsy Joan 16", Patricia or Patsy Ann 19", Patsy Lou 22", Patsy Ruth 27", Patsy Mae 30" tall.”

And then there were so many imitators Doll Reference has a whole page dedicated to those “Patsy-type” dolls!

The reason I call Patsy the OG American Girl is the wide variety of characters allowing any little girl to see a reflection of herself in Patsy. The dolls came as White, Black, Native American, and Asian, specifically Chinese or “Oriental”. Some of the dolls had crying voices in cloth bodies or magnets in their hands enabling them to hold objects. There was even a boy named Skippy who was called Patsy’s “boyfriend”.

They had a wide variety of hairstyles, such as a molded pageboy (and some had head bands or hair ribbons molded into their hair as well), long mohair curls, reminiscent of the earlier Victorian porcelain dolls, very short caracul wigs, or human hair that could be styled all the same ways as any real-life little girl’s hair.

Then, they had a plethora of beautiful clothing. Effanbee was renowned for their exquisite outfits. You could purchase anything from an English-style equestrian get-up to a Chinese duijin (or “Tang suit”) to an aviator costume. And of course all the various footwear and accessories to match!

​So now you know, if you find this rare “Patsy-Ann”, she’s actually Mary Lee! Watch my video of the unrestored doll here: