A Doctor Dedicated to Dolls : 71-Year-Old General Practitioner Looks at Each Project as an Unusual Repair

It could be described as a M.A.S.H. unit for dolls.

A 60-year-old Pinocchio lies in a corner of the shop with a gaping hole in his wooden forehead. Stan Laurel, newly arrived and looking somewhat pitiful, awaits feet that a manufacturer neglected to attach. Other dolls lie dismembered in bins, some with their unattached heads between their legs and others simply awaiting a new hairdo.

Standing nearby, surveying the scene with confidence, is the Hawkeye Pierce of the toy world--Margie Malone, owner of Mrs. M’s Doll Hospital in Woodland Hills.

Squaring her jaw and smoothing back wisps of gray hair, Malone, 71, said: “Nothing shocks me anymore.”

She draped an arm over her faithful Bernina sewing machine and continued: “But it’s very disturbing to see some of these dolls come in and realize they were works of art when they were new.”

A General Practitioner

Malone works in a shop behind a sprawling house where she lives with her husband, John. She considers herself a general practitioner, performing all aspects of doll repair--from restringing and limb replacement to painting and tailoring.

“I think everything’s an unusual repair,” Malone said. “Nothing is ever really simple because every doll is different.” Her tools of the trade include a blind-stitch machine, shoe-making form, spools of thread, epoxy, clamps, wire hooks, drills, sanders and hammers. Her reference library contains more than 100 books that catalogue various dolls, repair methods, patterns and clothing examples.

Malone repairs about 100 dolls a month. Some arrive by mail; others are hand-delivered. Business comes in from across the country, she said, attracted by word of mouth and ads in the Yellow Pages.

“This time of year, it really picks up,” Malone said. “People want things dressed for Christmas--new wigs and that type of thing. But I’m busy all year-round.”

Malone’s repair experience is varied. She has worked on a 1909 French doll valued at $3,000, an 1840 French fashion doll worth $15,000, teddy bears, rag dolls, an assortment of stuffed animals, statues and Cabbage Patch dolls.

Restringing is the most common repair, Malone said as she labored over a lace cuff belonging to an early 1900s French bisque doll. Most older dolls are held together by a network of heavy elastic strings that connect a doll’s limbs to its body, and that repair costs from $12.50 to $30.

Other services, including wig-making, tailoring, painting and glazing, are priced from $8 to more than $200. She also occasionally makes replicas of antique dolls, which she sells for $225 to $300.

Once There Were 6

Six doll hospitals once flourished in the San Fernando Valley, Malone said, but they died out in the 1950s and ‘60s when manufacturers started to use plastic. Now, Hobby City in Anaheim appears to be Malone’s nearest competitor. Among its other stores, the hobby emporium operates a doll hospital and a doll museum containing 3,000 dolls.

At the age of 16, Malone learned the basics of tailoring and doll repair at the Western Doll Hospital in Hollywood.

“In those days, it was all organdies, China silk and finer materials,” she said, referring to the doll outfits for which she received $1 apiece. (Malone now charges from $50 to $200 for complete outfits that take up to 4 days to create.)

She learned more about sewing by spending time in the costume shops of Universal and MGM studios. Her uncle, a studio employee, “would sneak me in, and they got to know me,” Malone said, adding that she would spend Saturdays working alongside professional costumers.

An avid seamstress, Malone started her own dress shop in Van Nuys in the early 1960s, but closed it 13 years ago and began sewing at home. She finally switched to doll repair, her true love, 8 years ago.

To clothe collectible dolls (over 25 years old) and antique dolls (over 75 years old), Malone frequently uses antique silk, lace and cotton fabrics for authenticity. She hunts down the fragile materials at flea markets or doll shows and through referrals.

“She can fix things that other people haven’t been able to fix,” said Nel Lucier of Woodland Hills. “I think she’s honest with her answers about fixing dolls. She does a beautiful job on wigs, and the best thing is her dressmaking.”

Malone attends five shows a year, where she sells her dolls, drums up clients and keeps abreast of trends. Her own collection numbers 250 dolls, with some valued as high as $7,000.

Preschool Ambiance

The collection fills each corner of her home, giving it the appearance of being inhabited by the entire enrollment of a nearby preschool. A gaggle of bisque dolls, about the size of 2-year-olds, can be found pushing a baby carriage in front of the living room fireplace, while other dolls surround a French bisque reproduction studiously playing a miniature piano.

Four teddy bears help pull a wagon named “the Teddy Bear Express” filled with additional bears. A string of smaller versions line the mantel next to a Danbury Mint Princess Diana doll dressed as a bride.

Fourteen members of the “Patsy Family” from the early 1930s and three Shirley Temple dolls are among dozens of others in display cabinets.

With 110 dolls in her living room alone, she seldom feels lonely, Malone said, joking: “There’s always some one to say hi to.”

Back in her shop, Malone examined the Pinocchio, an original made by Walt Disney Productions, that seemed to test her skills. She decided to mold a new piece from papier-mache to cover the large head wound, while incorporating some shattered bits of wood that the customer had sent along. Later, she said, she would rub in some gray paint to antique the repair.

“It was dropped by a lady’s husband, who was going to take it down from a shelf to look at,” Malone said. “He was just fooling around, but she really came apart at the seams.”