Object Record
Images
Metadata
Object Name |
Doll |
Caption |
Buddy Lee doll |
Description |
Lee Jeans 1920-1930s Buddy Lee promotional doll. Hard composition boy doll dressed in denim bib overalls. Painted features; moveable arms. Has raised "Buddy Lee" lettering on the back. Buddy Lee became the Lee Jeans mascot, modeling and advertising a miniature version of Lee Jeans. A hole in the left boot was where the rod went to make sure Buddy stood up and showed off his clothes properly for all to see. Buddy Lee dolls were made by the H. D. Lee Company Inc. (Lee Jeans), a garment manufacturer in Kansas City, MO USA, originally from 1920-1960 as an advertising doll for their clothing. The doll was brought back as the star of television advertising for the company's Lee Dungarees line from 1998 until the mid-2000s. Sales manager Chester Reynolds, later Lee's board president, came up with the idea of using a doll to "model" miniature versions of the company's clothes for store displays. The 12½-inch composition dolls first appeared in the windows of Dayton's flagship store on Nicollet Mall in Minneapolis, then were used at stores nationwide. Lee encouraged stores to sell the dolls after the displays were taken down, and later provided the dolls for retail sale, including versions dressed as a cowboy, Coca-Cola deliveryman, railroad worker and gas station attendant. They were composition (1920-1948) at 12 1/2" tall or hard plastic (1949-1960) dolls at 13" tall, had molded lightly painted hair, painted side glancing eyes, painted upper eyelashes, painted closed watermelon mouth, jointed only at the shoulders, had black painted boots and was dressed in original Lee clothes depicting various occupations. The Buddy Lee dolls were discontinued in 1962 because they were no longer profitable. By then, Buddy Lee had become the second-highest-selling doll in the United States. Although female versions of the so called Betty Lee doll surface from time to time, there was no official Betty Lee doll ever made by the D. H. Lee Company, they never made any female doll at all, these dolls instead are composition Carnival dolls (term used by collectors - dolls sold at Carnival's as prizes) that look similar to the Buddy Lee doll. In 1998, ad agency Fallon McElligott brought back the doll, along with the 1940s Lee tagline "Can't Bust 'Em," to promote the Lee Dungarees line, aimed at 17- to 22-year-old males. The main campaign was preceded by guerrilla marketing techniques, including movie trailer-style teaser spots, unbranded posters of the doll, and a 6-minute mockumentary, "The Buddy Lee Story," which was aired in segments during late-night cable television. The comedic ads touted the unmoving Buddy Lee as a "Man of Action." The doll was usually presented as a heroic figure who survived all manner of certain doom, prompting his human co-stars to marvel at the durability of his jeans. |
Catalog Number |
1985-1779-001 |
Search Terms |
Dolls Buddy Lee dolls Toys |
Subjects |
Dolls Toys |