Shirley Temple - dressed for the ball

 I love playing with these old dolls.  This is her "after" photo.   She is an AE doll, 19" tall.  Ideal made the "real" Shirley Temple dolls in the 1950s, but numerous companies made what were known as "knock-off" dolls.  They looked nearly as good, but cost a whole lot less.  I'm going to guess that we had "knock-off" dolls at our house when we were little girls.

This is what she looked like at the thrifty store when I first saw her.  Quite a difference, huh?

Sometimes, when I turn them over and look at the back of their hair I just put them back.  Almost put this one back, but since I knew she was Shirley, I decided to try to restore her.  She has some pretty good sized bald spots.  But she was another good buy at only $2.99

She took a bit of work, but I think we have her hair back to normal.  One of the ways to tell a "knock-off" doll is that the hair in the front around the face will be long and normal looking while the back will be very short and look mostly like this.  "Real" dolls had long hair in ringlet curls all the way around.

She came dressed in her original dress, panties, shoes and socks.  I added this hat.  It was 79 cents and I added lace, ribbon and flowers to it.

The top is adorned with tiny velvet vintage flowers which add a bit more color to her all cream and pink gown.

For a doll from the 1950s - she is in quite good shape.

I looked these up and they appear to be original to the doll.  So cute.

Here's the whole doll put together.  I added flowers and ribbons at her waist.  Her dress also has a slip.  So for the price - not bad!

She's ready to go to the Marketplace Shops and find a new home!