Horsman Jody Doll
1960's big Cuddly Jody babydoll by Horsman - Blonde Beauty
This is a very lovely example of Horsman's Jody babydoll from the 1960's. These dolls were also sold as Softee babydolls. They are foam-stuffed so they were favorites with little girls because they are so cuddly.
She is a used doll that was gently played with and is still in good condition. Vinyl head with 3/4 vinyl arms and legs stitched to a cloth body and stuffed with cuddly foam shreds. Jody was made with many haircolors, including white blonde, yellow blonde, dark blonde and auburn. This doll still has all her yellow blonde hair (no bald spots from missing plugs.) Her hair has been styled again so she has the pretty neck curls and a little sausage curl on top of her head.
The cloth body does have some spots and stains but overall is still fairly clean. She has one of those red bulb rubber squeakers and it still works, which is amazing. Her eyes and open and close properly. She has full lashes but a few of them are a little sparse. Eyes are a lovely aqua blue color, and they're not cloudy.
She has been redressed in an outfit that is approximately the same vintage as she is.
She is 23 or 24 inches long if you measure from the top of the head to the knee, and then from the knee to the bottom of the foot. (That has been the traditional way to measure these old babydolls which have a deep bend in the knee
) If you just measure top of head to the bottom of the foot then she's shorter (approx 21"), but the doll does wear 22-24 inch size doll clothes. She's a full size doll that can also wear newborn size clothing.
This face was introduced early, around 1962. She was one of the Horsman Softee babydolls, which had several different faces during the 1960's. My own childhood Softee doll came with a tag that said her name was Jody, but I think most of them were simply sold as Softee babies. The name referred to the soft shredded foam stuffings that made them especially huggable. The Softee dolls were sold in every size starting with 14 inch on up to 24 inches. The 18-21 inch sizes were probably the most common.