The Patels Plan a Party in their Plasco rancher...

Saturday morning finds Rashmi Patel watering the peonies she planted in the window boxes of the new house that her wonderful husband Praket bought for their family. Praket doesn't like to work in the yard, but just for her, he planted some cedar bushes and boxwoods in the small alcove in front.
Rashmi loves her new ranch style house and how she has it decorated. She is thinking how wonderful it would be if a home magazine would ask to do a photo shoot .....

She can picture it now..................

Later she joins Praket lounging under their covered patio.

"Praket, my dear," says Rashmi, "We have lived here several months, and I think it is time to have a party in our new home!"

"That's a very good idea, my sweet wife," says Praket.

Rashmi asks, "What kind of party do you think we should have?"

"If you plan it, I will enjoy it!" answers Praket.

While little Sajani Patel plays on the patio with her dolly, and Praket watches the news on their new Plasco TV, Rashmi is deciding what to serve at the big party she is planning. Should she have cake or cookies, fresh fruit or......decisions, decisions, decisions! What kind of party is she planning?

LOOK! It's a birthday party for little Sajani who is turning 4 today! Papa Praket holds baby Naija so mommy can light the candles on the cake she made for the party. I see the Nielsens and the Blakelys have joined their children to help little Sajani celebrate....and also for a little crowd control. Oh, there is little Rueben Gonzalez standing on a chair. I hope he doesn't fall.

Little Sajani has her best bud Lars sit at the table with her while she blows out her candles. She hopes he doesn't blow the candles out for her like her friend Drew did for his big sister Jill. And where are the other two candles that should be on her cake? Did Lars take them while she wasn't looking? He's a jokester, that Lars!

While Sajani is opening presents from her little friends, her mom and dad bring in the best gift of all....her very own Keystone of Boston dollhouse!

WOW! Won't she and her friends have fun with it!

Dollhouse manufactured by Plastic Art Toy Corporation (Plasco) around 1950. This one is missing it's TV antenna and front porch. All the furniture, with the exception of the lamps in the bedroom, was made by Plasco. The Keystone dollhouse was made by Keystone Mfg late 1940's for "trains sets, floor and table, and Xmas trees". Did you notice that the Patel and Nielsen adult dolls are the same, just different coloring and clothes? Most likely an import from 70's era.

Sunshine award~~~thank you, Victoria!

Victoria of Little Boxes, http://vika-m.blogspot.com/, honored me yesterday with this Sunshine Award..........I'm to share it with 6 other bloggers who bring sunshine to my life.



Hard task! I follow many blogs that make my days much brighter, but here are some that I always find enjoyable.....
The very first dollhouse blog I discovered last summer was http://rebeccascollections.blogspot.com . Rebecca has a great collection of vintage dolls houses from many countries and shares so much information...plus her little stories are very entertaining!
Nicola at http://pueppilottchens-spielzeug-blog.blogspot.com loves Lundby houses, Caco people, and Kathy Kruse dolls, but her blog heading sums it up for all of us with "she's still playing"!
http://diepuppenstubensammlerin.blogspot.com has a very unique blog with her collection of 1950-70's German dollhouses that are new to me and totally fascinating.
Liz at http://thedollshousediaries.blogspot.com has a wonderful collection of vintage English houses...she doesn't blog often, but when she does, it is well worth the wait.
From Canada is Susan, http://susanshouses.blogspot.com , whose joy with her little houses spills over into every blog she posts.
And I can't forget Amy at http://amysminiaturesandsmalls.blogspot.com who is fairly new to blogging but always makes us laugh at her little "peeps" that live on Lundby Lane.
AND, if you haven't checked out Victoria's Little Boxes, please do. She is building a traditional Russian style dolls house with the most exquisite windows ever seen! Thank you, Victoria, for sharing this award with me. :)

Return to childhood...

Santa brought my first dollhouse in 1948 when I was 4 1/2. It was a Keystone of Boston tudor style dollhouse. It looked just like this one below. :)

I looked like this in Spring, 1949. That's my big sister Charlene on the left and my wonderful mom who picked out this great dollhouse and all of the furnishings for her two girls. Even though it was a gift for both of us, it was always considered my dollhouse.

When I was 13, my dollhouse went to live with some other little girls; I hope they enjoyed it as much as my sister and I did. Mom kept 3 items from our little house....I have 2 of them in this house. Look for the Renwal sewing machine in the bedroom and the pink and blue chair in the nursery. I remember picking out the chair at Woolworths before I started to school; they came in several color combinations, but I liked the pink and blue the best. The other item Mom kept was the Renwal radio; my sister has that. :)

The furniture in this little house is just like I had in my little house. I've added accessories, but otherwise it's just like the dollhouse I played with 60 years ago.

In this house live the Ballou family....Mr. Ballou, Mrs. Ballou, Buddy Ballou, Gail Ballou and little Sweetness Ballou (so named to counter-act Evil Baby who lives on Lundby Lane in Amy's Miniatures and Smalls blog).

I see that Mrs. Ballou set the table for dinner before she rushed off to the store to get milk for Baby Sweetness.

Mr. Ballou is sitting by the fire listening to the radio. He wants to have a talk with his son so he calls out, "Buddy! Buddy! I need to talk with you before dinner. I'm in the living room. Buddy! Come now!" Wonder where Buddy is.....

He's not in the nursery with Gail and Baby Sweetness.......

He's not in the bathroom either..........

He's not in his parent's bedroom, but their dog Pug is there. Pug has his ears up. Did he hear mom opening a bottle of milk....better go down and check that out.

Oh look, Buddy is there talking with Dad. Dad tells him, "Son, I don't ever want to see you wearing a lime green suit again! Especially with a red tie!"

Yes, there is Mrs. Ballou warming milk for Baby Sweetness.....and Pug hoping he will get lucky!

Mrs. Ballou hears the doorbell ring and wonders who could be coming to visit. She calls out to Mr. Ballou asking him to answer the door. Wonder who is there....

OMG, it's President Obama!! It's their lucky day!!

Radios....I have radios, lots and lots of radios!

Children of my generation learned to use their imaginations well because, before TV, the most dominant home entertainment medium was the radio. I remember lying on the floor in front of the radio listening to concerts, musical shows, dramas, comedies, and one that threatened to "catch you in the jaws of a vise". My imagination always made me worry about that one.

These radios were made by Strombecker. All radios on the back row are 1" scale; from the left, the dates of production were 1936, 1938, and 1931. The art deco blue radio, part of their "Modern Design" line, was first marketed in 1938. The table radio was listed in their catalog in 1934.

Other dollhouse radios marketed during that period and later were...

first on the back row left is the US Menasha Woodenware radio from 1934;

US Converse produced this radio as part of their "Realy Truly" dollhouse furniture starting in 1931; the radio last radio on this row was made by UK Barton around 1957.

On the front row is a radio made by US Nancy Forbes circa 1940; US Kage made the second radio from 1938 to 1948; the last radio was  made by US Strombecker in 1942.

Plastic dollhouse furniture became popular after World War II. The 3 radios grouped on the left were made by Renwal. The open drawer housed the phonograph...this is almost an exact replica of the Philco radio that my family had in our living room. I remember when I was old enough to play my colorful cardboard records on the phonograph without supervision. I sometimes see old cardboard records on eBay. :)

The next two radios are almost duplicates...the dark radio was made by US Ideal and the brown one by Canadian Reliable. The only difference is each radio has their brand name posted on the front above the dial. In Zillner's Furnished Dollhouses 1880-1980 she says that "Reliable was licensed by the Ideal Toy Co. to copy some of Ideal's products." That explains the identical radios. The last radio was made by Jaydon during World War II.

Not only did Renwal have a phonograph in the opening drawer, they also had radio tubes and speakers as seen from the back!

Between radios and TVs...there were combos

Combination TV/radio/phonographs were popular starting in the 1950's. Some units had only the radio/record player available, but as the popularity of television grew, many units had all three built into one cabinet. Here are some of the ones I am lucky enough to have in my doll houses....

The console on the left is a German music box that plays Kerzenwalzer, or Auld Lang Syne. On today's blog, http://diepuppenstubensammlerin.blogspot.com/ has a catalog picture of Bodo Hennig furniture showing this radio, so it's possible this is a Bodo Hennig product. On the right is a radio made by Lynnfield-Blockhouse during the late 1940's or early 1950's.

On the back row left is a Barton radio/phonograph console circa 1970's. Skipping the blonde model, the small dark plastic TV/radio unit was made by Plasco, 1948. The large dark plastic console on the end was made by Ideal for their Young Decorator series in 1951. Marx made the 2 red units, 3/4 and 1/2 scale, while the aqua console is Canadian Eagle. In front is a Lundby radio/phonograph.

In 1947, the Ideal Company produced and sold this dollhouse console as one of their specialty pieces.

The door on the left opens and the phonograph flips down; in the middle the TV flips up; and on the right the door opens to reveal the radio.

...and TVs for the younger set!

For you youngsters under 60 who never lived in a house without a TV, here are a few of the sets that furnish my little houses.....

All of these TVs are made of wood with stickers or plastic parts.
Back row from left, a 1970s TV from Hall's Lifetime Toys; white TV from Strombecker circa 1960; large cabinet TV made in Germany and imported by the toy store FAO Schwarz in 1966; this next TV came with Dol Toi furniture, but one very similar is shown in Marion Osborne's book, Barton's "Model Homes", circa 1959; last, unsure of maker but could be Barton or Dol Toi.

Front row on left also shown in Marion's book as being made by Barton 1970s; unknown maker on this TV, made of plastic with wood veneer strip casing.  UPDATE: Thanks to Sue Freebern who helped identify this last little TV as a Lundby product from 1960!

Marion has written 3 very informative dolls house books; in addition to the Barton book, she has Lines & Triang Dolls Houses and 1914-1941 A-Z of Dolls Houses. Information on purchasing these books can be found on the http://dollshousespastandpresent.webs.com magazine website.


I'm sure everyone recognizes the Lundby TV in the middle of the back row. The white TV on legs was made by Marx for their Little Hostess line. The tiny TV in front belongs to a 6" wide Japanese house that came free, room by room, with a soup/sauce mix.

Now to get all these little radios and TVs back into the right little houses.....

Villa Hogarin re-do

This 1970's dollhouse from Spain is known as Villa Hogarin. One of my new year's resolutions was to arrange the furniture inside....Most of the furniture came with the house, and also 5 ceiling lamps!

Robert, one of my co-workers who happens to have dual US/Mexican citizenship, was nice enough to suggest names for my little Hogarin dolls.

El gato likes to sun himself on the veranda, right under the bird house, of course. The porch set and the potting sink are both Hogarin/Modisa products.

This is the back of the Villa Hogarin house....furnished as a bedroom and a bathroom. Notice the ceiling lights in each room; they are connected to a battery pack underneath the roof, but the off-on switch is missing. Batteries were left in the pack, leaked and left the connections corroded, so I haven't been able to check the lights...looks like a fix-it job for my son.

Abuelito Felipe is retired and likes to hang out with Consuela Hidalgo who comes in to help Abuelita Rigoberta with the housework. Abuelita thinks he bothers Consuela much too much. Consuela thinks Abuelito has money.
The two cabinet sets are Modella; the small table with the green knobs is Hogarin/Modisa. The table/chair set may be Hogarin/Modisa.

Abuelita Rigoberta is so happy to have their daughter Talina and granddaughter Rocio visit. Talina wants to take a picture of them together in Abuelita's newly redecorated living room.

This bedroom set was made by Modella. I have seen the same beds being sold under the Hogarin/Modisa brand. The brightly colored bed cover came with the bedroom set...totally 70's!

Abuelita Rigoberta is asking little Rocio to sing her favorite song, "Wow Wow Wubsy" so she can record Rocio on her reel-to-reel tape-recorder (from the same era as Abuelita's boufant hairdo). Consuela has decided to have a cup of coffee and visit with Senor Felipe.

I found a bath set like this on the net in a box labled Hogarin. It's not easy for me to tell Modella from some Hogarin pieces.

Busted! "Quit bothering Consuela!" says Abuelita.

Uh-oh....Abuelita Rigoberta is chasing Abuelito Felipe with her broom while Consuela cheers him on with "Run! Abuelito, run!"

I found pictures of two other Villa Hogarin houses on the net.........

This one was labeld Casa Hogar.

Need doors?

I have a pair of doors that match the ones on the 2 story Hogarin houses. One door is cracked, but all fitting pegs are still intact. If you are in need of a set, please contact me!

Update: A very nice person in Spain contacted me and now she has two new doors on her Villa Hogarin!

Oh, dear, look who's back in the kitchen with Consuela.......