Remember Cabbage Patch Kids? The frenzy to have one, the hottest toy of the year!
The chaos, the frenzy, the craze!!!! The trampling and stampedes to get to these creations of the year!
In 1983, a Milwaukee Radio DJ joked on the air, that a B-29 Bomber was going to drop 2,000 Cabbage Patch Kids from the air. People should bring catchers mitts or what ever they need to grab one of these dolls. If you got one, you had to hold your credit card in the air to be photographed….can you believe about 15-20 people actually showed up for this bogus event??
There was such an epic craze for this artsy, folksy, yet simple doll! Reports of people being strangled with purse straps, broken legs, people getting trampled, people storming displays, people camping overnight…all this for a doll! Camping overnight for a hot item is pretty common these days, but back then, you needed therapy!
Even car dealerships were giving them away to get people to drive off in a new car!
The Cabbage Patch chaotic frenzy became the way for Tickle Me Elmo and Furby! Today, the Black Friday marketing campaigns and the toy frenzy of the past was/is all engineered mania. We get up in a frenzy over items and we want them for a good price!
The doll was inspired by the folk art movement in the late 70’s. Created by Xavier Roberts, was a 21 year old art student and began experimenting with hand stitching and quilting techniques. Xavier originally called them “Little People” and set up shop at crafts shows all over the US. He eventually struck up a deal to sell the dolls at a medical clinic in Cleveland, Georgia. (Which he renamed, Babyland General Hospital) Which is also his place of birth!
Of course there is the side that Xavier based the dolls upon a design originally created by Martha Nelson. Or maybe even flat out ripped off her idea! Check out the story!
The idea of these dolls weren’t technologically advanced in any way…they were described as, “the ugliest dolls in the world.” There was nothing genius about this doll, the only thing genius was the advertising!
I wasn’t a big fan of the Cabbage Patch Dolls…I was more into sports, getting dirty, swimming and hanging with my friends. My sister was OBSESSED!!! I remember the fit she threw at Woolworth’s for one of those dolls! The meltdown of all meltdowns!!
Did you have one?
