Talking Tamu and Kelly

Recent doll gifts: Talking Tamu, Eatin' Fun Kelly, and a cloth craft doll

I received the above shown dolls from their previous owner (the same person who sent her Baby Nancy to me recently). In this package were Talking Tamu, Eatin' Fun Kelly, a white cloth doll to customize, and a heart-print fabric swatch, which is not shown. 

Eatin' Fun Kelly

Eatin' Fun Kelly is from 1997.

Barbie's little sister, Eatin' Kelly, a 4-1/2-inch vinyl doll, has dark-brown rooted hair styled in two side pigtails with bangs. Her bangs were not lying flat when she arrived, so I placed an elastic band around her head to "train" the bangs.

Kelly wears a white bib, a red top with ruffled sleeves and a cherry-print fabric bodice with light blue food-print pants and red shoes. She has a white high chair, a sippy cup, and a spoon. Her divided bowl is missing.

  

This is a close-up of Kelly's sippy cup and spoon.

Extra Goodies

These three doll dresses were also in the gift package. 

Talking Tamu

Talking Tamu, upon arrival, wore a red floral-print dress.

Talking Tamu arrived wearing the floral-print dress illustrated above, but at some point, she wore the packaged turquoise dress, so I redressed her in it because her original dress was also turquoise.

Tamu's body, arms, and legs were originally a bright yellow, which has faded over the years. I covered these with white cuffs to freshen her appearance.

Before redressing Tamu in the turquoise dress, I created arm and leg cuffs using a white knit scrunchie. I cut the scrunchie into four pieces to fit the length of Tamu's arms and legs, and I removed the elastic from the inside. After the cuffs were in place, I folded under the raw edges of each to prevent raveling—no sewing required.

Talking Tamu wears the turquoise dress from the doll clothes package I received.

Feeling at home, Talking Tamu is surrounded by two Baby Nancy dolls, Shindana Little Friends dolls, and others.

My new-to-me Talking Tamu was first seen here in 2019, along with a video of the 17 phrases she still says when her string is pulled. Although I have an NRFB Talking Tamu, that one is mute, so this one that still talks is very special to me. 

Thank you again, AIS, for your generosity.

Related Links

Saving Baby Nancy

__________

All photos and text are copyrighted and cannot be used elsewhere unless permission is granted by the author.

©Black Doll Collecting/dbg

There are countless items to collect and write about. Black dolls chose me.
__________

Thank you for reading. Comments that are not spam are appreciated. Spam comments will not be published. To contact me directly, go to the About page (visible in the web view mode); find and use the email link.

Visit and follow DeeBeeGee's Virtual Black Doll Museum for detailed installations of antique, vintage, modern, and one-of-a-kind black dolls. http://virtualblackdollmuseum.com

Talking Tamu

Tamu is shown as illustrated, described, and valued in The Definitive Guide to Collecting Black Dolls (Hobby House Press, 2003).

Talking Tamu by Shindana Toys, a Division of Operation Bootstrap, has the copyright year of 1970.  The doll was reintroduced in the company's 1973 catalog.  I acquired my doll (shown in the above photo from my first book) in the 1990s/early 2000s.  My doll, as I have lovingly described her, is mute but cute!  The option to have her talking mechanism repaired has never entered my mind because to do so would tamper with her never-removed-from-box state.  I prefer to keep her almost exactly as she was when the hands of the Shindana dollmakers created her during the 1970s.  If she still talked, she would be exactly as she was when she left the Shindana Toys doll factory in Watts, California.

I recently had the pleasure of communicating online with @dollstoyscomics, who has a Talking Tamu that does talk!  The 17 sweet phrases (and/or sounds) that Tamu recites were kindly shared with me by @dollstoyscomics, who also shared the above photo of the little doll behind the sweet voice.

Listen to what Tamu says in the following YouTube audio:




Talking Tamu's voice is quite clear after all these years.  Below is a transcript of what she says in the YouTube audio:

 1.  Tell me a story.
 2.  Tamu means sweet.
 3.  Pick me up.
 4.  My name is Tamu.
 5.  Let's play house.
 6.  Lay me down.
 7.  I'm proud like you.
 8.  Can you dig it?
 9.  Cool it baby.
10. (Crying sound)
11.  Do you like my dress?
12.  (Laughs)
13.  Give me a kiss.
14.  Hold me tight.
15.  I love you.
16.  I'm hungry.
17.  I'm sleepy.

One of Tamu's biggest fans

Felicia Ann Beaty at around age 5 is shown with Talking Tamu, her favorite doll as a child.

It's no doubt that countless 1970s little girls enjoyed their Talking Tamu dolls.  Felicia Ann Betty of Morristown, NJ said,  "That was my favorite doll as a child!"  She has the picture to prove it as indicated above in a photo taken in 1970 or 1971 when she was around 5 years old.

Thank you again @dollstoyscomics for sharing Talking Tamu's sweet voice with me and for giving me permission to share here.

~~~~~~~~~~

If you have not watched KCET.net's 26-minute Shindana Toys documentary you can do so below.


Additionally, to promote KCET.net's documentary on the Shindana Toy Company, there are two very interesting articles about Shindana Toys and Operation Bootstrap published on their website that Shindana doll enthusiasts and doll historians will enjoy.  Links to these articles, written by Nadra Nittle and Yolanda Hester, respectively, are included below:

Operation Bootstrap:  Empowering the African American Community Through Entrepreneurship

Shindana Toys:  Dolls That Made a Difference

dbg


There are countless items to collect and write about. Black dolls chose me.
__________
Thank you for following, commenting, and sharing using the share button below.

Check out what I am selling here. 
Check out my eBay listings here.
Please follow my sister blog Ebony-Essence of Dolls in Black.
Donate here to support this blog. Thank you!