Dollmaker Berdine Creedy is hoping to charm the American market with her ball-jointed beauties.

The doll world would be devastated if Berdine Creedy spoke differently. “My English is not that great and I have a funny accent,” says the South African teacher, who relocated to Florida in early 1996. “If not for that, I’d still be a school teacher. But the little ones, they can’t take my accent,” she says, laughing. But where some would see sour grapes and disappointment, Creedy has made sweet wine.

Wave good-bye to flying solo! Berdine Creedy and Terri Lee stamp collectors’ wanderlust with brand-new travel dolls that are collectible copilots.

When Clint Eastwood strolled on the Red Carpet, on Oscar Night, 2005, his beautiful wife, TV reporter Dina Ruiz Eastwood, held onto his arm and sparkled in her well-tailored gown and tasteful jewelry. Hidden in Eastwood’s other hand, and visible to the discerning eye, was a colorful, comical paper doll. That’s right—Dirty Harry, the Man with No Name, the fellow who has made millions as a macho, silent desperado, carried a paper doll to the Academy Awards ceremony. The cutout figure is Flat Stanley Lambchop and he is part of a national literacy campaign. The two-di­mensional figure has been sent all over the world for the past decade, stacking up frequent flyer miles and encouraging his sponsoring school classes to write essays on his memorable adventures. Eastwood’s second-grade daughter was the “travel agent” who arranged for Stanley’s Hollywood debut— incidentally, Stanley has also visited the Oval Office, ridden on the space shuttle, and has climbed Mount Rainier. Here is one doll that doesn’t like to be boxed in. Not content to sit on a shelf, Flat Stanley is seeing the world, and the world is seeing him.