When I was little my mum let us read her old books and annuals, they were all from the sixties and had wonderful illustrations. My favourite was the June annual from 1967, the cartoons were beautifully drawn and my by far the best was Lucky’s Living Doll. I think the immersion in mid twentieth century books and early black and white films is why I’ve grown up with an obsession with anything from that era. As a child my favourite films were The Parent Trap and High Society, I grew up knowing all the words to all the musicals and all the famous faces of the big stars. I was never one to swoon over heart-throbs of the 80’s, that was never my thing, instead I loved to laugh at Cary Grant and James Stewart.
I couldn’t find any images of Lucky’s Living Doll anywhere on the internet which is a shame as I would have liked to travel further down memory lane by finding other stories, instead I took a trip to my parents to look that old annual up again.
It’s in a bit of a state now, years of yellowy sellotape are taking it’s toll on the binding and the odd page is falling out but it’s looking good for 45 years old.
Here is Lucky’s Living doll, it was a story of a little girl called Lucky Smith who had a living doll called Tina who was tiny and mischievous but always whilst trying to be helpful.
Look at how Tina’s tiny skirt always shows off her knickers when she does anything – cute!
Tina was a resourceful little miss and one of my favourite bits is when she makes herself snow shoes to go out in the snow and collect items for Lucky’s school exhibition, look at the way the stuffed toys appear to be watching, maybe they are alive too?
Tina’s outfits were adorable too, here she is getting dressed to go out with Lucky, complete with fur topped boots and pom-pom hat.
I might make it my mission to track down other versions of this annual as I’d love to read what Lucky and Tina got up to. If you have one of these annuals, do let me know.
Hi Pam, my scanner is actually broken at the moment but I’ll see if I still have the original scan as I think I did the whole story :)
What a lovely trip down memory lane this was for me. My father, Robert Robertson MacGillivray, was the illustrator for Lucky;s Living Doll. I have very fond memories of him coming home full of excitement about this new project and in fact he based how Lucky finally appeared, on me! I was only very young at the time and I remember having to pose in different situations with my teddies and dollies and with various expressions on my face for him to copy. My mother used to hand sew all my doll’s clothes and they were made up from various scraps she had, including old parachute material which made lovely little nighties and undies for the dollies! Happy days indeed.
What a wonderful story, thank you so much for sharing it with me!
Oh my gosh I just looked up Lucky’s living Doll and found your post. I loved her too! Gosh if people would put up some of the stories I would love it. Gosh Fiona that is so cool. Love to read about the birth of the story and how it came about. Lovely!! Kimbra Tasmania, Australia