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The story of Raggedy Ann begins in a unique way for a toy – not in a company’s R&D department, but by a little girl in an attic. Legend says that little Marcella Gruelle found an old doll in her grandmother’s attic, soiled and without a face. Her father Johnny was a political cartoonist and a freelance illustrator for other writers' cartoon strips, and he picked up his pen and drew a face on the doll. Her grandmother sewed on button eyes. Then her father came up with a name by drawing from James Whitcomb Riley's poetry and made up the doll's name from two poems: "The Raggedy Man" and "Little Orphan Annie." Marcella unfortunately died shortly afterwards from infected smallpox vaccination when she was thirteen. After that Gruelle started to concentrate his work more on his new Raggedy Ann stories – stories which he told to his daughter before her death.

 

Gruelle published his Raggedy Ann Stories in 1918, and named the little girl in the books Marcella after his late daughter. Gruelle believed that children's books "should contain nothing to cause fright, suggest fear, glorify mischief, excuse malice or condone cruelty." Raggedy Ann, with her candy heart, became a doll spokesperson for kindness, trust, and morality. She was joined later by her brother Andy, Beloved Belindy, Camel with the Wrinkled Knees, Quacky Doodles and Danny Doodles, who were all just as cheerful and sweet.

 

There’s some dispute where Gruelle actually developed the Raggedy Ann doll to accompany the book’s release, or just holds onto the patent (as his family does today.) Either way, the first toy company to produce the dolls was P.F. Volland Exposition Doll and Toy Manufacturing in 1935, followed by Knickerbocker. Today, Simon and Schuster retain Raggedy Ann and Andy literary rights, and Hasbro-Playskool and Applause Toy Company hold the license to the characters for toys and merchandise.

The Knickerbocker dolls were introduced in the 1960’s and were dressed in old-fashioned gingham and calico fabrics, had cloth bodies, red and white striped legs, and an "I love you" message printed over their hearts. In 1979, The Applause Toy Company, a division of Knickerbocker, created the dolls with embroidered faces, though there was one version with button eyes-just like Marcella's original doll. Inside each doll was a magic peddle for Ann or a wishing stick for Andy, which you could feel when you hugged the dolls tightly. Both were part of the duo’s storybook days. When the animated Raggedy Ann and Andy movie came out in 1978, the Ideal Company made a set of 18" porcelain dolls.

 

Raggedy Ann and Andy dolls continue to be huge collector’s items. Their faces can be seen on everything from wallpaper to tea sets to comics to doll house miniatures, in addition to the books and dolls themselves.  Their sweet demeanor and romantic beginnings continue to inspire new generations.