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Goodbye to Dolly Toy
From The Tipp City Independent Voice -
Wednesday, 31 December 2008 00:00
Dolly Toy has closed its doors. Its name and its products, nursery furnishings called
Mother Goose Pin-Ups, were unique in the marketplace and their name was known across
the country.
H.B. Holtvoight started Dolly Toy in Dayton in 1923 as The Dolly Folding Kite Company.
He was later joined in the business by his sons, Hubert G. Sr. and John, as well as his
daughter, Mildred.
However, the kite business didn't prosper, so in an attempt to bolster profits the
company started making toys out of laminated box board. These toys proved successful
and in 1929 the business became The Dolly Folding Kite and Toy Company.
Worthy of note is that during the Great Depression there were more than 30 toy and
novelty manufacturers in Dayton, but only Dolly Folding Kite and Toy survived the era
to continue business.
In 1936 the company acquired the property for $6,000 at 245 North Fourth Street from
the Tippecanoe Knitting Mill, a subsidiary of Atlas Underwear, which had moved to
Piqua. By this time the product lines at Dolly Kite and Toy had expanded to include
seasonal novelties for Easter and Halloween.
While many small towns were dying because of the poor economy during The Depression,
Tippecanoe was on the move. Dolly Folding Kite and Toy was only one of several
companies to start businesses at that time. Joining it were Sun Glow Industries, the
New Tipp Theater, the White Mountain Creamery and several one-man stores. Expansions
were completed to The International Flare Company and to The Sun Glow Furniture
factory. Also opening were a welding shop, a watch and clock shop and a law office
along with considerable growth in housing construction.
As World War II approached, Dolly Kite and Toy began producing various military
components out of laminated box board while expanding into Christmas and Easter
novelties that had traditionally come from Japan. Prior to the late 1930's these
novelties had been produced exclusively in Germany, then in Japan, but now the United
States was the primary supplier.
In 1942 John Holvoight spoke about the problems of meeting the growing demand for
their products. One Dolly Kite and Toy order was for a total of $43,000, all in 3
cent and 5 cent items!
At the end of World War II one of Dolly's artists, Phil Riley, designed a new kind of
wall decoration for nurseries and children's rooms, and the popular Mother Goose
Pin-Ups were born.
Dolly Toy patented the idea and began selling a small number of the Pin-Ups in
department stores in 1948. As repeat orders came in they expanded production. Seeing
their success, competitors tried to copy the idea and undersell with a similar product,
but Dolly Toy initiated a law suit, which they won, and all opoohlampther items were
withdrawn from the market.
Later a costumer line called Tidee-Ups was added, followed by nursery lamps in 1958
and crib mobiles in 1963. Tidee-Ups are decorative pegs for hanging up clothes.
Business continued to grow so the factory was expanded in 1947 and, with continued
growth, a new warehouse was built in 1950. The company name was officially changed to
The Dolly Toy Company in 1951. By 1964 the company had surpassed the million dollar
mark in sales of nursery accessories. Two more expansions followed in 1967 and 1968.
Along with the Pin-ups and mobiles, the company also made over 500,000 toy houses in
1952 - small Toyland villages designed to go under Christmas trees, on fireplace
mantles or in store windows. Several years before they had produced over a million
such villages, but the toy business was fickle and the demand varied each year.
Additional sets in the Christmas village line had slots in the back for small
Christmas lights that glowed through the transparent windows of the houses and
churches. This line, designed by John Holvoight, treasurer of the company, also
included small evergreen trees and snow bases made of Styrofoam.
Carl Moser, the plant manager in 1952, reported that some of the problems producing
these seasonal items included competition from foreign countries with lower worker
wages and with the high freight costs in the United States. Dolly Toy had to pay a
double first class rate to ship because while each box of toys took up space in the
box car, it weighed very little.
Moser said, "This puts a lot of pressure on the profits from a 15 cent item. Profits
are slightly better on the higher priced 29 and 69 cent items in the same category."
Moser ended this 1952 interview by saying, "All items aren't sold in the millions and
profits can be small with the $1.25 an hour assembly line labor cost and the high
freight rates (here in the U.S.), you never know in the toy business what tomorrow
will bring."
What tomorrow brought to Dolly Toy was the closing of its doors this year. The company
will be missed. Dolly Toy Pin-Ups, lamps and other nursery accessories will soon be
considered collectible antiques. The products pictured in this article are available
on E-Bay.
Copyright 2000-2012 Theodore H. Althof,Jr.Except where noted, the contents of this website and all it's pages and submissions therein contained are the intellectual property of Theodore H.Althof,Jr. All rights are reserved. (Background musical selections are,of course, excepted.)
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