The spirit of Christmas glows deep in the hearts of the
men in our armed forces, no matter where they may be. In
the frigid outposts of the land of the midnight sun Yuletide
is being celebrated. It is Christmas, too, for our boys in the
steaming jungles of the South Pacific, in Africa, China, Britain
Ml a a a
—inese women
i
-
By ADELAIDE KERR
AP Features Writer
When Beatrice Alexander was
a little girl she never owned a
doll.
Since then she has owned a
million.
Now, as one of the country’s
leading doll manufacturers, Mme.
Alexander is one of Santa Claus’
first assistants. And this year
she is working overtime to ful
fill her contracts for the dolls
which Santa needs for Christmas
stockings and trees. For now she
must work under wartime re
strictions.
‘'You should have seen us
looking for a substitute for
rubber bands/' she said with a 1
reminiscent chuckle as she
checked through a pile of
blonde beauties in her New
York studio. '‘We have to have
rubber bands to give stretch to
the arm and leg mechanisms.
So we cut up the hollow arms
and legs of some of our rub
ber dolls to get them. Instead
of a metal weight to move he
eyes, we now use plasic. And
the chemists had to find sub
stitutes for critical chemicals j
in enamels.’'
But war restrictions or no/
Madame Alexander’s dolls still i
have the qualities that have
made them famous — character
and glamor. Her most famous
have been the Dionne Quintup
lets, Sonja Henie, Scarlett
O’Hara and the Alice in Wonder
land dolls, all dressed to repre
sent the characters for which they
are named. This year her Christ
mas favorites are the bride doll,
the United Nations dolls and
"The Little Shaver’’—a wartime
doll made entirely of fabric from
head to heels.
wi'wwi'iii ^wwwjuyyjwwwwww—JMirai yit—Manwi
BEATRICE ALEXANDER
. . . Never owned a doll.
When Mme. Alexander walks
into a room, she is a sight to
make anybody sit up. Her dark
eyes dance. Her face, which
makes no pretention of being
wholly unlined, lights with a ra
diant smile. She has beautiful
feet and ankles, likes frivolous
red shoes. Mme. Alexander says
that she is a grandmother in her
late forties. Would that more
grandmothers looked the same!
Beatrice Alexander has lived
with dolls all her life. Her father,
a Russian, and her mother, an
Austrian, met on the boat enroute
to America, were married in New
York and took a small flat in
Grand Street. There her father
who had worked with a doll re
pairman in Germany, onened a
doll’s hospital and there—among
; doll heads, arms and legs—Beat
rice Alexander was born. Even
tually, her father began to sell
dolls, which were then virtually
all imported from Europe. There
1 were dolls all over the place.
After her high school days she
married Philip Behrman. She
might never have thought much
of dolls again, if World War I
had not cut off the imported
supply of dolls to America and j
thus cut off her parents’ liveli-!
hood. Something had to be done.
So she got out her needle and
thread and made her first all
fabric dolls—a Red Cross nurse
and an infant. Her father put
them on sale and they sold so
fast that their maker went into
business for herself. Two years
later her husband joined her.
Subscribe to The Nugget.
SHORTS ON THE PAN
MONAHANS, Tex. —fAP)—
Women in shorts on the streets of
this community are sent home
promptly. Under terms of a new
“emergency ordinance, women
appearing downtown in shorts or
bare midrifs, are asked to “go
home and get some clothes on.*’
There have been no arrests, and
no woman has had to be warned
more than once.
^e&soi\s (jreetii\<s
. . . YES, the holiday Season is a fleeting
celebration, yet it is a time for letting others
know our true feelings toward them . . . We
have enjoyed good patronage throughout
past months and wish to thank you with the
wish that your entire year will reflect the joy
and pleasures of these Happy Holidays.
Northern Commercial
Company
ALASKA’S PIONEER MERCHANTS