Betsy McCall Doll Patterns Opened New Worlds

Enlarge Image Image Gallery Within the pages of McCall's magazine, little Betsy McCall experienced numerous adventures, sharing them with girls like Cynthia. courtesy Cynthia Curry

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When I was 6, my family’s home was in the middle of a farm in the middle of Missouri in the middle of the United States. Many people might have thought we lived in the middle of nowhere.

On Halloween of 1957, I was proudly dressed as a bumblebee. My sister, who was a mere 13 months younger, dressed as a clown. Since we lived in a rural area, there weren’t many houses around, so pickings that year were going to be slim at best. We were as likely to get fruit, homemade honey or toothbrushes as we were candy.

There was one house where, although the lights were on, no one answered our first or even our second knock. Just as we were about to walk away, a woman wearing a suit and high heels opened the door. She looked surprised to see us.

“Trick or Treat!” we gamely shouted, keeping our fingers crossed in hopes that she had candy and not an apple.

“Oh, my, is it Halloween?” she asked, looking very distressed.

My hopes plummeted. Not only would we not get candy, we probably wouldn’t even get fruit. She looked at my mother, who was walking with us that night.

“Please,” the woman beckoned, “come in. I’m sure I have something for the girls.”

We went in, grudgingly because we didn’t want to waste valuable candy-collecting time with someone who didn’t even know it was Halloween. She even offered Mom coffee. She asked us to wait in the kitchen, while Mom sipped her coffee. The woman re-entered the kitchen with a huge stack of magazines.

She opened one and said “Voila!” I’d never heard that word before, but I tucked it away to use myself someday; it sounded exciting. I knew this woman must be rich, since she lived in this large house with no children, wore a suit, used fancy words and had lots of magazines. I wanted to be just like her.

She pulled a page out of the magazine and handed it to me. On the page was the most wonderful paper doll I had ever seen. “It’s a Betsy McCall paper doll,” she told me. “You see, there’s a story about her and her outfits for the month. You cut them out and dress her up. You can even act out the story. I have dozens of them! They come in each of these magazines.” She looked anxiously at us, as if it were important that we liked her gift.

I looked at Mom, wondering if this was OK. She nodded her head, smiling. I think Mom knew what was coming.

The woman started ripping pages out of all the magazines, doling them out between my sister and me; March for me, April for my sister, May for me, June for my sister. Soon, we were holding a stack of magazine pages – paper dolls galore! I had forgotten all about candy. I couldn’t wait to get home and carefully cut out the dolls and their wonderful clothes. I was so excited.

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