Hollywood Cissy

Name:  Hollywood Cissy

Made by and When:  Madame Alexander, 2000

Material:  Soft vinyl face and arms, rigid plastic torso and legs with articulation at the waist and knees

Marks: (Head) Madame Alexander / 1990

Height: 21 inches

Hair, Eyes, Mouth: Long black wavy wigged hair with side parted bangs, brown sleep eyes with attached eyelashes and painted upper and lower lashes, closed mouth with dark red lip color, and a black beauty mark on her left upper cheek. 

Clothes and Accessories: Hollywood Cissy is dressed in a white sleeveless gown that is embellished on the bodice, skirt, and train with pastel sequins.  Beads adorn the V-shaped neckline and top circumference of the train.  Cissy wears a white faux fur cape which has lace, bead, and sequin embellishments, and a white tassel streams from the back.  The jewelry includes faux diamond-encrusted earrings, a multi-string beaded necklace, and a diamond-encrusted hairpin.  Gray cat-eye sunglasses, sheer sparkly stockings, and silver lamé mules complete Hollywood Cissy’s fashion statement. 

Other: The first Cissy by Madame Alexander was released in 1955; however, none of the first dolls were Black/African American. Black versions debuted during the late 1990s. African American Hollywood Cissy is style #26866 as indicated on the bottom end of the doll’s box.  The included certificate of authenticity reads:

This doll has been exquisitely designed and manufactured with love from our 2000 Madame Alexander Couture Collection.  Your doll is from a limited edition and is numbered at 0078/1000. 

Love is in the details.

The certificate is signed by Herbert E. Brown, [the then] Chairman & CEO Alexander Doll Company, Inc.

The names of other Cissys in the Madame Alexander Couture Collection available when this doll was released are listed inside Hollywood Cissy’s hangtag. (See the slideshow image of the hang tag.)

Slideshow

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Published by DeeBeeGee

Doll collector, historian, co-founder of the first e-zine devoted to collecting black dolls; author of black-doll reference books, doll blogs, and doll magazine articles.

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