By Judith Izen
Photos courtesy of McMasters Harris Apple tree Doll Auction, except where indicated

I remember opening up a big box of hand-me-down clothes that had arrived from my older cousin in Florida. Sitting on top of the expensive clothing was the most beautiful doll I had ever seen. The doll had delicate facial features and hands, as well as a graceful body. Her hair was unlike that of any other doll I’d encoun­tered. She became my favorite doll and remains so to this day. When I grew up and researched her, I found out she is Nancy Lee, a doll made by the Arranbee Doll Company of New York. She has a jointed and strung body made of hard plastic, and her unusual hair is made of floss, not nylon or synthetic hair like the other dolls of the era.

Arranbee produced beautiful Nancy Lee and Nanette hard-plastic dolls that rivaled Madame Alexander’s dolls in quality and fashion. The company made high-quality dolls from 1919 until 1958. William Rothstein (the R) and Berman (the B) founded the Arranbee (R & B) Doll Company in New York City to import bisque dolls. In the mid-1920s, Arranbee started sell­ing composition dolls. During the 1930s and 1940s, their most popular composition dolls were Nancy and Debu’teen.

Introducing Hard Plastic

In 1948, Arranbee started making hard-plastic dolls, and they continued to use the name of their composition doll Nancy. They called their new hard-plastic dolls Nancy Lee and Nanette. It is hard to distinguish between Nancy Lee and Nanette. In fact, Suzanne DeMillar, coauthor of Arranbee Dolls: The Dolls That Sell on Sight, Identification & Value Guide, said: “As to Nancy Lee and Nanette, … most of the time, the only indication (of the doll’s name) is the presence of a wrist tag. Even the company’s original advertisements are confusing at times as I’ve found original-in-box dolls called one name and found them advertised as the other name!”

What we do know is that both Nancy Lee and Nanette came in a strung ver­sion. They were made in 14-inch, 18- inch, and 20-inch sizes. The strung Nancy Lee dolls were marked “R & B” on the head if they were marked at all. Strung Nanette dolls were also ei­ther unmarked or marked “R & B.” Na­nette came in a version that walked, too, which had “R & B” marked on the head.

The dolls’ early wigs were either mo­hair or floss, with the floss hair being one of the distinguishing character­istics of Arranbee dolls. Very few other manufacturers produced hard-plastic dolls with floss hair. Later dolls had Dynel or Saran wigs. In 1950, Arranbee introduced a Dynel wig they advertised as “Curl-Rite Hair” that could be brushed, combed, curled, shampooed, and set. Each Nanette doll had a personal comb, curlers, and an in­struction sheet. Their hair came in colors ranging from blond to red to brunette, and it was styled in updos, braids, pigtails, buns, or curls. All hair­dos beautifully incorporated ribbons or hats.

Arranbee purchased the hard-plastic doll parts from a doll parts manufacturer called Artistic Doll before 1954. In 1954, Arranbee contracted with a plastic molding company called Jamison Plastics to make their own doll parts; this company was located in Freeport, Long Island, New York, and headed by Stanley Binman. The hard-plastic (butyrate or acetate) heads and bodies were made in two halves and then glued together. The seam can be seen along the edges.

Collectors have to contend with even more con­fusion in the identification of the Arranbee hard-plastic dolls. At one point, Arranbee, the American Character Doll Company, and the Madame Alexander Doll Company were in a consortium that bought a plas­tic molding plant to make doll parts. The parts were all manu­factured in the same plant, and then the separate companies would assemble their dolls and dress them in their own designs at their individual factories before selling them under their respective names. As a re­sult, Madame Alexander’s Maggie face dolls, American Character’s Sweet Sue dolls, and Arranbee’s Nancy Lee and Nanette have similar characteristics.

Ernie Breiner set up Arranbee’s finishing plant in Long Island to dress, wig, package, and sell the hard-plastic dolls. Some of Arran­bee’s dolls were designed by the fa­mous doll sculptor Bernard Lipfert, who also designed dolls for other doll companies. This contributed to added similarities between the era’s hard-plastic dolls.

Judith Izen is the author of several books on collectible dolls. You may contact her at jizenres@gmail.com.