Doll News Fall 2016 - 137

This picture shows all of the Mary Hoyer dolls including "Becky (far right)." quarters and dimes and buy accessories, and mothers and grandmothers would buy the dolls! On Mondays in Reading, Mr. Hoyer would load up his turquoise-blue station wagon, filled with dolls and drive to New Jersey where they would all be sold by the next weekend. In 1965, the company that made the hard plastic for the original "Mary Hoyer" doll was no longer in business, and the Hoyers did not choose to buy back the molds. Vinyl was the new plastic, so the Hoyers purchased a doll already being produced and named her the "Becky" doll. Mary Hoyer's heart was not in that last doll. The main seamstress she had used for years had retired, and the fashions of the 1960s did not inspire Mrs. Hoyer. Doll sales ended around 1970, and the Penn Street store in Reading became a dress shop, run by their daughter Arlene Hess. In 1973, the Hoyers sold their home in Reading and moved to Florida. At age 98, a widowed Mary Hoyer returned to Pennsylvania where she remained until her death in 2002 at the age of 101. Mary Hoyer collectors remained loyal and sentimental about the dolls they had loved as children. So the anticipation was great when in 1990, Mary Lynne Saunders revived her grandmother's company and vision. Living in Loma Linda, California, at the time, Fred and Mary Lynne Saunders were not in the doll business, but in 1984, Fred was actually the one who thought it would be a good idea to restart the company. Both Mary Lynne and Fred were doctors. Mary Lynne was practicing as a pediatric neurologist and Fred was a gastroenterologist. At NEWS * u c. rg o DO fd schedule, there were times when the salesmen selling their wares would visit when only Mr. Hoyer was present. One day he met a salesman who was selling an 18-inch doll he described as a larger version of the Mary Hoyer doll. It was actually the same mold as the Nancy Ann Style Show doll but with the bellybutton eliminated and a slightly larger eye opening. Mr. Hoyer ordered 500 dolls. His wife was not pleased when she found out. Mrs. Hoyer never particularly cared for this doll, now named Gigi; she felt it was not "her doll creation." "Gigi" was one dollar more than the 14-inch doll which was substantial for a doll in the 1950s and was less popular with children. (This is one reason that "Gigi" dolls today are often in wonderful condition: they were displayed and not played with.) The Hoyers discontinued it in only a few years. No one knows how many marked "Gigi" dolls there are. The number 2000 which appears in Mary Hoyer's book Mary Hoyer and her Dolls is considered a guess. "Nana never really knew the number, " says her granddaughter. In 1946, as part of a much-needed pause from her hectic schedule, Mary Hoyer and her daughter, Arlene, went to the New Jersey sea resort, Ocean City. While walking on the boardwalk, Mrs. Hoyer saw a store for rent at 12th and the Boardwalk and decided to open a second doll shop for the summer seasons. She operated the shop, later moved to 714 Boardwalk, from 1946 to 1960. The store was hugely successful. Young girls "down the shore" for a week would bring in their LL A vintage Mary Hoyer "Gigi" doll wears a new dress designed by Mary Lynne Saunders. 137 http://www.ufdc.org

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Doll News Fall 2016