Gene Marshall
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Gene Marshall is a 15.5 inch tall collectible
fashion doll Fashion dolls are dolls primarily designed to be dressed to reflect fashion trends. They are manufactured both as toys for children to play with and as collectibles for adults. The dolls are usually modeled after teen girls or adult women, thou ...
inspired by Hollywood's
Golden Age The term Golden Age comes from Greek mythology, particularly the '' Works and Days'' of Hesiod, and is part of the description of temporal decline of the state of peoples through five Ages, Gold being the first and the one during which the G ...
. It was created by the illustrator Mel Odom. Each doll features an intricate movie-styled theme based upon fashions from the 1930s, 1940s and 1950s as well as Hollywood's version of historical costuming. When the Gene Marshall doll appeared on the market in 1995, it was one of the first large fashion dolls primarily intended for adult collectors. Its success sparked the creation of similar dolls from other companies.


History

When the Gene Marshall doll appeared on the market in 1995, it was one of the first items of its type and size: a large fashion doll primarily intended for display by adult collectors. Until then, the standard fashion doll had been the 11.5-inch
Barbie Barbie is a fashion doll manufactured by American toy company Mattel, Inc. and launched on March 9, 1959. American businesswoman Ruth Handler is credited with the creation of the doll using a German doll called Bild Lilli as her inspiration. ...
, which is still primarily sold as a children's plaything; while some collectors were attracted to limited-edition specialty Barbies, most collectible dolls at the time were constructed with
neotenous Neoteny (), also called juvenilization,Montagu, A. (1989). Growing Young. Bergin & Garvey: CT. is the delaying or slowing of the physiological, or somatic, development of an organism, typically an animal. Neoteny is found in modern humans compa ...
baby-doll proportions instead of with mature, nubile ones. There was an exception;
Mdvanii Mdvanii was originally conceived as a conceptual art and fashion doll for adults (and particularly art, fashion and doll collectors) by artist BillyBoy*. Since 1990 it has been a collaboration with his life partner, artist Jean Pierre Lestrade ( ...
, the first anatomically correct fashion doll for adults. Mdvanii renewed Mel Odom's childhood interest in dolls and led him to create Gene Marshall. The popular success of Gene Marshall sparked the invention of an entire genre of similar collectible large fashion dolls from other companies, such as
Tyler Wentworth Tyler Wentworth was a 16" fashion doll created by Robert Tonner produced by the Tonner Doll Company, Inc. for adult collectors. Tyler Wentworth dolls were constructed of vinyl and hard plastic and had rooted hair or wigs. The Tonner Doll Company p ...
from Tonner Doll Company, Alexandra Fairchild Ford from Madame Alexander and Clea Bella from Bella! Productions. Three years after Gene Marshall's introduction, over half a million had been sold, and a Gene subculture had sprung up including collectibles clubs, magazines, and conventions. Her design is "an amalgam of all the larger-than-life actresses of Hollywood's Golden Era", and costumes that evoke the work of
Edith Head Edith Head (October 28, 1897 – October 24, 1981) was an American costume designer who won a record eight Academy Awards for Best Costume Design between 1949 and 1973, making her the most awarded woman in the Academy's history. Head is cons ...
are supposed to represent her appearances in specific but fictional films. Odom's illustration work has been compared to dolls, and though his career progressed beyond the men's magazines for which he is still best known (he has done book and magazine covers including ''
Time Time is the continued sequence of existence and events that occurs in an apparently irreversible succession from the past, through the present, into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequence events, ...
'' magazine), he believes that Gene is the "something significant" he has felt bound to do after watching of his friends die during the AIDS epidemic. After its debut at the 1995 toy fair, Gene became a hit among adult collectors, among them actress
Demi Moore Demi Gene Moore ( ; née Guynes; born November 11, 1962) is an American actress. After making her film debut in 1981, Moore appeared on the soap opera '' General Hospital'' (1982–1984) and subsequently gained recognition as a member of the Br ...
("the world's most high-profile doll collector", according to ''
The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...
''). Between 1995 and 2005 the dolls were manufactured by the Ashton-Drake Galleries. From 2005 to 2010 the dolls were produced by
Jason Wu Jason Wu (; born September 27, 1982) is a Taiwanese-Canadian artist and fashion designer based in New York City. Born in Taiwan and raised in Vancouver, he studied fashion design at Parsons School of Design, and trained under Narciso Rodriguez ...
and made by Integrity Toys. They have a dedicated following and have inspired other characters in the line: Madra Lord, Violet Waters, Ivy Jordan, Trent Osborn, Zita Charles, real-life movie actress Marsha Hunt, and the mysterious Oona Bellwether. These dolls are also popular for artists' one of a kind repaints. In 2013 Gene was reborn into the 21st century and brought back to life as a resin
ball joint In an automobile, ball joints are spherical bearings that connect the control arms to the steering knuckles, and are used on virtually every automobile made. They bionically resemble the ball-and-socket joints found in most tetrapod animals. ...
ed doll, by JAMIEshow Dolls USA. Premiere doll "Phoenix" was introduced at IDEX (International Doll Expo) in Orlando Florida in the spring, where creator Mel Odom presided over Gene's new launch. A second Gene Marshall "J'Adore" was introduced in the summer of 2013 by JAMIEshow Dolls as an exclusive for ''Fashion Doll Quarterly'' and a final Gene "White Orchid" is currently for sale as a Gene Basic dolls. Mel Odom's collaboration with JAMIEshow Dolls. 2015 brought the introduction of Madra Lord, Violet Waters, and Trent Osborne. Oona was introduced late in 2014. Gene and JAMIEshow celebrated Miss Marshall's 20th anniversary in Chicago with the All That Jazz Convention and introduced Black Lipstick Gene, a black-and-white version of Gene in the form of a gray resin lady. Also reintroduced at the convention were Trent, Madra, Violet and Oona in special convention versions.


Backstory

The doll comes with a detailed backstory, eventually expressed in the novelization ''Gene Marshall, Girl Star''. The character Gene Marshall was born in
Cos Cob, Connecticut Cos Cob is a neighborhood and census-designated place in the town of Greenwich, Connecticut. It is located on the Connecticut shoreline in southern Fairfield County. It had a population of 6,770 at the 2010 census. Cos Cob is located on the we ...
, in 1923, and was discovered by the filmmaker Eric von Sternberg while working in New York City as an usherette. Cast in his next film, she was thrust into a major role when the star fell through a trapdoor during a musical number called "You Floor Me". By the 1950s she was a Hollywood "powerhouse".


Further reading

* - Fictional backstory * - Doll's history and accessorization options * - Reference


References

{{reflist Fashion dolls History of Hollywood, Los Angeles Products introduced in 1995