Madame Alexander

Madame Alexander. , The woman who would become known as "Madame" Alexander, "The Queen of Dolls," was born in Brooklyn, New York in 1895. She was named Bertha, but later adopted the more sophisticated "Beatrice." The daughter of Russian immigrants, she was raised over her stepfather's doll hospital , the first in America , and often played with the dolls waiting to be mended. Her belief in the American dream, combined with her love of dolls and their costumes, led her to start her own doll company at the age of 28. Within a few years she had moved her business from the kitchen table to a downtown studio in New York City, later relocating to its present-day headquarters in the Manhattanville section of Harlem., Madame Alexander created the first "collectible" dolls based on a licensed character , Scarlett O'Hara from Gone with the Wind. Over the decades, great works of literature, the arts, and the different cultures of the world became the inspiration for many of her creations. She was one of the early creators of mass-produced dolls in honor of living people, with dolls of the famous Dionne quintuplets in 1936 and a set of 36 Queen Elizabeth II dolls to commemorate the 1953 coronation celebrations in Britain. ,
Madame Alexander "wanted to do dolls with souls." Her dolls had hair that could be styled and she created designer clothing for them. She was the first to introduce dolls with "sleep" eyes that opened and closed. The high-quality dolls were dubbed "the Cadillacs of dolldom" by the press., For over 35 years, Beatrice Alexander lived with her husband, Philip Behrman, at 315 Oxford Road in New Rochelle. They were members of Beth El Synagogue. Alexander died in 1990, and the toy industry continues to recognize her accomplishments, inducting her into the American Toymakers Hall of Fame in 2000. Today, rare Alexander dolls can fetch thousands of dollars from those eager to expand their collections.