Talking Dolls

Talking Dolls

 

Dollmakers right from the earliest times have tried to make their dolls talk.
Early attempts with water powered statues and dolls with bellows or rubber bulbs were ok but not what the dollmakers were looking for.

Another mechanism relies on weights and that worked well for a while.
Of course the talking dolls were limited to Mama or Papa so they needed more.
Jumeau was the first dollmaker to put a real talking mechanism into his Bebe dolls.

He used the phonograph mechanism which was invented by Henri Lioret.
The machanism was insde the torso of the doll and was called the Lioretograph Jumeau.

This was an amazing advance since the doll could speak 35 words .It could also sing and tell stories.
The cost of production was prohibitive and the project was dropped after Jumeau joined SFBJ

Further advances in dollmaking brought about the Talking Touslehead Lovums and that also worked but this time on a cylider records and this doll could also say nursery rhymes.

Mattell adapted and earlier system later which was based on the vibration from a pulled string.
Talking dolls are now of course commonplace but to our grandparents they were quite amazing.