Sparkle Plenty was made by the Ideal Toy Company in 1947. Sparkle is the daughter of Gravel Gertie and Bob O. Plenty (BO Plenty, gotta love it). These characters appeared in the Dick Tracy comic strip created by Chester Gould in 1931. She was introduced to the world in LIFE magazine August 25, 1947, where Ideal ran a full page ad. Sparkle had been "born" in May of 1947 in the comic strip. Her introduction to the comic strip tripled the fan mail in to the comic strip. The manager of Gimbel's Department Store felt that a character this popular would make a great doll and would need little promotion. He took his idea to Ideal and 48 days later, production began on Sparkle Plenty.
The doll is made of "magic skin" a latex material developed in 1940, that was stuffed with cotton inside the body of the doll and felt soft to the touch and was supposed to be washable. Sparkle Plenty is easily identifiable from her long LONG blonde yarn hair. She was made in a 14 inch size baby doll wearing a cotton saque or a dress with a white collar. She came in two different boxes, the most desirable with the comic covering and the other a plain generic print style box. According to the Life Magazine, "at a stiff $ 5.98 apiece,10,000 sold in the first five days. Sales in the next two weeks zoomed to 22,000. At this rate more Baby Sparkle Plentys will be sold in the last five months of this year than all other types of doll put together."
You would think that would mean that there would be lots of these dolls around. Sadly, that's not the case. Sparkle's great new body was not very durable. Most of them were damaged from heat, water, or other forces and have rotted away. When you do find her, you find a blackened body, often cracked and/or missing fingers or other parts. Usually you just find a head. I've had several heads over the years but rarely a body and recently I got my first Sparkle Plenty in the box. She has darkened but she's in excellent condition for a Sparkle!
Sparkle was made until 1951. She came in two sizes, in different outfits, and had her own cradle, paper dolls, even a soap carved in the shape of a Sparkle Plenty doll.
