Joanne Cubbs Collection:
Joanne is an art curator who has organized exhibitions at leading museums
around the United States. A specialist in contemporary and “outsider” art,
she is particularly drawn to aesthetic objects that somehow break with
convention or push the limits of accepted artistic and social practice.
Captivated by Scarey Anns’ quirky, unusual appearance and the fact that
they appear to question traditional gender stereotypes, Joanne began
collecting Scarey Anns around 2010. |
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Steve Mayo
Collection:
Steve started collecting things at the age of twelve, and in about
2012 turned his attention to old toys. As a safety advisor for a number of
major American manufacturing and governmental entities, he traveled
extensively around the United States. On his travels, he searched out old
toys which he stashed in storage lockers all over the country. Although he
collects widely, Steve is especially interested in wooden toys and pull
toys made in the twenties through the forties, and he has discovered many
Scarey Ann dolls. In addition to being a source for many other Scarey Ann
collectors, Steve has also commissioned the making of a number of Scarey
Ann doll types which were never made originally by the Poppey Doll
Company. These are fabricated from old, battered dolls by one of the best
toy restorers in the country, Kevin McGuire. |
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Cleaning the toys out a storage locker
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Storage Locker to Plastic Bins
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Plastic bins to shelves (along with some Walkies)
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New Scarey Anns made by Kevin McGuire. (Fireman, Boy
Scout, Dough Boy)
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Francie Owens
Collection:
Francie lives near Atascadero, California, where Scarey Ann dolls were
made. She has been collecting for many years and has perhaps the largest
collection of Scarey Ann dolls, including a number of pieces which may be
the only surviving example. In particular, she has a group of the swinging
arm Scarey Ann dolls made by the Atascadero Mill and Lumber Yard between
1932 and 1939. She also collects Twistums which were made in Atascadero.
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Francie’s Shelves of Scareys
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Some of Francies Swinging Arm Scareys (Porter,
Gandfather, Grandmother)
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Kent Kenney
Collection:
Kent has one of the largest, and perhaps most complete, collections of
Atascadero memorabilia, including an enormous archive of historical
photographs. The grandson of some of the town’s earliest residents, he
grew up in Atascadero and is committed to maintaining its history. Kent’s
interest in Scarey Anns can be traced to four dolls given to his
grandparents by a friend who worked at the Poppy factory. Found carefully
wrapped in tissue paper in a drawer after his grandparents’ death, they
became the impetus for his large collection. One of the most remarkable
dolls in Kent’s collection is a prototype whose arms as well as its hair
move when the lever in its back is pushed. Although such a doll was
pictured in one of the three Scarey Ann patent documents, it is, as far as
can be determined, the only one that was ever produced.
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Richard Mueller
Collection:
Known as the Pull Toy Professor because of his affinity for pull toys,
Richard collects over 100 different toy companies. His enormous
collection, which is often open for public display, includes Fisher Price,
Rich, Hustler, Gong Bell, Bliss, Reed, Converse, Fulton and also The Poppy
Doll Company. In addition, he has collected many toy company catalogues
and materials which can be accessed on this website, All About Old Toys. |
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Richard Babcock
Collection:
Richards’s enormous toy collection focuses on antique Fisher Price
(1931-1965) toys as well as those from related companies, Alderman,
Fairchild, and Brice. In addition to these, he also collects several dozen
other makers and types of toys. He is interested in Scarey Anns because of
their fascinating history and the fact that they fit in with other types
of toys in his collection. |
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