Fridays at Auction Finds are readers’ questions day. I try to guide readers to resources for them to determine the value of the items that they own. I’m not able to appraise their treasures, but I can do some preliminary research to get them started.
I get questions pretty often about black dolls, and that’s what we’re looking at this week:
Question:
I am looking for a Tamu doll. She used to belong to my daughter in 1971 or 1972. She was made by Shindana and she had an afro and she talked. She said things like “I’m cool like you.” We took Tamu everywhere we went for years. I can’t find one now anywhere.
Answer:
The Tamu doll was manufactured by a Los-Angeles-based African-American-owned company named Shindana Toys, which was formed in 1968. Its first doll was named Nancy, but she was not as popular as its second, Tamu (whose name translates into “sweet” in Swahili), which was selling for the first time around 1970. Click on doll above for a full view.
The company itself grew out of the 1965 Watts riots that engulfed South Central Los Angeles, and the founders wanted to help rebuild the neighborhood. Called Operation Bootstrap Inc., the company was founded by Louis S. Smith II and Robert Hall, with financial backing from Chase Manhattan Capital Corp., the Mattel Toy Co. and other companies, according to one account.
The 16-inch-tall Tamu had a cloth body and vinyl hands and head, with a black rooted afro. She came equipped with a pull string that compelled her to speak 18 short phrases. Little girls could hear what I now would describe as quaint 1970s black-speak: “Cool it baby,” “Can you dig it.” Other statements included “My name is Tamu” and “Tell me a Story.”
I found the doll and several made by Shindana – including the Rodney Allen Rippy and the J.J. Walker dolls – featured in ads in Ebony magazine. A 1974 ad noted that Tamu was the company’s most wanted talking doll, and a 1975 story about Christmas toys mentioned that the company made 17 dolls.
It seems that a lot of little girls loved the Tamu doll – which was retailing for around $9.95 – because I came across several inquiries about how to locate one. I found five of them sold on eBay for prices ranging from $5 to $61. The lower-priced dolls had nonworking voice boxes. Dolls that still talked, as usual, brought in the higher prices. I found a restored Tamu selling on a doll-repair site for $52.
EBay is a good first place to look for a doll or any other item to buy or just to gauge the price. Next, try the web to see what the doll or other item is selling for there.
Question:
I am totally and absolutely addicted to black doll collecting. I have a doll by the Terri Lee company that I found at a goodwill store and it has 1980 at the neckline and the name Terri Lee. Was there a reproduction of the old Terri Lee around that time? Her eyes are glancing to the left as I have read the originals did. I have found some great dolls at thrift stores, flea markets and yard sales.
Answer:
I could find no Terri Lee doll made in 1980. You didn’t send a photo and didn’t mention specifically if the doll was a black doll, so I’m not sure what your doll looks like.
The Terri Lee company made dolls from 1946 to 1961, including several black dolls. African American cartoonist Jackie Ormes came up with a black version of the doll in the 1940s based on her newspaper comic strip character Patty-Jo.
Another company made a talking Terri Lee in the mid-1960s.
The Knickerbocker Toy Co. (better known for its Raggedy Anns and Andys, and Disney characters) reproduced Terri Lee dolls from 1999 to 2001 until the family of the original owner took over and started reproductions of its own, along with some new lines. The black repros included a Patty-Jo Holiday Party in 2002 in a limited edition of 300 dolls using the original mold.
Sunday Best Benjie & Bonnie Lou dolls (along with a tiny version of the two) were reproduced in 2003, and a solo Bonnie Lou doll in 2007. Another Patty-Jo seemed to also have been made in 2007.
The black Terri Lee dolls seem to be hard to find and sold very well on eBay, with the top priced at more than $600.
I had the original Tamu doll from 1970 with the blue dress that had yellow flowers. Her hair was was amazing, more realistic than most doll hair, and her voice was so cute. I loved that she said “Cool it, baby!” and “Can you dig it?” in addition to typical doll phrases like “Pick me up” and “I’m sleepy.”
I wish I still had her but I gave her to my mom for her kindergarten class, where she was well-loved for many years. Loved to pieces, in fact.