Saucy Sale

 My very first experience with 50s dolls was playing with “Janie”, my mother’s childhood Posie doll. Posie was the second in the transformation that led to Ideal’s Saucy Walker doll. First a kneeling and praying doll, Ideal redesigned the doll as “Posie”, so named because she could supposedly hold so many poses. You can read about my restoration of my mother’s Posie doll and learn more about her in my blog post here.

Posie was eventually redesigned again as Saucy Walker. Ideal kept that name, even though they redesigned Saucy Walker several times as well. Saucy Walker was sold for many years, but surprisingly this is the first time I’ve restored one for my shop. I’ve fixed a few for other people in my hospital, though.

I think this is because Saucy Walker is so universally loved the owners inevitably kept her just like my mom kept her Posie doll. The Saucy Walker doll is a head turning walker, meaning when you move her legs back and forth her head moves from side to side. This 22 inch version also has “flirty” eyes, which move from side to side as well as open and close. Ideal made this doll with a few different faces and bodies. The last one was PlayPal size without the flirty eyes and with short hair instead of the braids the earlier dolls had.

As you might suspect, the flirty eyes are notorious for problems and they weren’t made very long, probably because they were so fragile. Saucy Walker’s eyes are very often messed up; it’s the number one question I get about her. The eyes tend to stick, go cross-eyed, come loose all together, or roll up into the head.

If the eyes fall off into the head all together you can reattach them just like Tiny Tears or any other weighted eyes, which I cover in my Doll University book. You can get that book (on sale!) here.

​If the eyes roll up into the head you need to use a different method. I teach that in my new Midcentury Doll Repair book. You can get a sneak peek tutorial by clicking here.

Besides eye repair, my Saucy Walker got a complete restoration in my hospital. She needed a bath and hair styling, as well as restringing. She also got her eyelashes replaced. She retained her original shoes but the rest of her clothes were gone. One of her shoes needed repair, so I fixed it. I gave her a dress from her same era ~ it originally went to the Deluxe Reading Miss Beauty Parlor doll. It’s a beautifully-made garment. I tied her braids with huge satin ribbon bows; she reminds me of Pollyanna!

Saucy’s original voice box, which cried, is broken. Unfortunately, the only way to fix it is to split the doll in half! I didn’t want to pursue such an invasive endeavor, so I gave her a modern voice box and put it in a pocket of her bloomers. You can hear the new voice box in the YouTube video here (let the video play to the second part to hear the voice).

My Saucy Walker used in the tutorial is up for adoption and she’s all ready to head to her new home. In fact, she’s so ready right now she’s on sale! You can get her here.