had settled on a Josie and the Pussycats paper doll book! That was my favorite cartoon show at the time and I was thrilled about the prospect of having my own collection of characters with exchangeable outfits. (Good God, was the writing on the wall or what?!) My favorite character was blonde Melody, but I also was heavily interested in Alan, for reasons I perhaps didn't fully understand at the time. I know that I loved having a version of him that was shucked down to his underthings and wasn't covered up like he was on the show! 
Beyond this one incident, I really wasn't a paper doll person, but now I occasionally find them interesting or amusing to glance at, usually due to the artwork or the clothing that is created for them to wear. I also had a brief interaction with a place called stardoll.com, which allows the visitor to click on a celebrity (usually current twits and twinks, but also some others) and click & drag various outfits and clothing pieces from a set of racks to their underwear-clad form. It can be a diverting way to pass a few minutes if you're bored.
While researching the recently-profiled Michael Landon, I stumbled onto a real curio, which in turn opened the door to more of the same. Unbeknownst to me, the country of Sweden apparently had a sigificant affinity for paper dolls over the years. Not only did I find Bonanza's Mr. Landon represented, but also his TV father Lorne Greene (don't you just stay up nights longing for a Lorne Greene paper doll?!?) and brother Pernell Roberts. Unlike other entries in the "Fun Finds" posts, 
I didn't actually buy these, but they were too kitschy to not share with you. Half the fun is just seeing what someone decided their underwear should look like. Lorne has rather modern, blue briefs for use under his western ensembles (one meant for riding and gunplay, the other more refined for hoe-downs, hootenannies and the odd cotillion.) Landon is depicted wearing almost army-issue cotton briefs and gets to wear a contemporary golf ensemble. (
These dolls are from different companies. The artwork for the dolls in this post varies considerably, though after a while you can tell which dolls came from the same place.) Roberts has a pair of hooty '60s briefs (or perhaps it is a swimsuit), a zigzag of chest hair and, despite the fact that he wore a hairpiece for the show, has a serious five-head going. He's also sporting the stern expression that often sprang from his disgust at having to work on the show in the first place.
These television paper dolls are a long way from the old-time movie star ones I also came across. These are far more artistic, elegant and glamorous, though not nearly as practical for cutting out and playing with. 
They seem to be more for show, which is likely why they were never actually cut out and are still intact on their original paper. For whatever reason, these dolls also look almost nothing like their intended subjects! If the names hadn't been attached to the pages, I might have been hard-pressed to identify who the ladies even were. First is an overly-blonde (and overly statuesque) June Allyson. Only one “Peter Pan” collar in her wardrobe, though two of her 
get-ups have close-to-the-neck lace trim. Then comes Esther Williams. She looks pretty much on target and I can picture Ms. W. wearing some of the outfits they've drawn for her. I like that two-piece, one-shouldered bathing suit. A tad daring for back then, especially for someone who later espoused modesty in ladies swimwear. 
The artist for Lauren Bacall really made it a point to emphasize her lean figure and wasp waist. The one thing missing from all of ol' Betty's ensembles is a cigarette in hand! At least she has the distinction of possessing a purse with one of her suits. The last one was, for me, the biggest head-scratcher because I don't think it looks a thing like the actress in question! 
Joan Fontaine just simply didn't look the way this doll depicts. And I've studied and studied that blue hat and cannot figure out how it could possibly look good on her with or without the accompanying blue suit. Maybe if she were refereeing a croquet match at David O. Selznick's, it might be okay, but otherwise.... no.
To revisit some more TV stars who had the honor of being immortalized as a paper doll, we have Miss Vivian Vance, Lucille Ball's sidekick Ethel on I Love Lucy and as a different character on The Lucy Show. While the maker didn't shy away from her more substantial figure (that was rumored to have been dictated by Lucy to stay that way!), she's still been drawn in a pretty flattering manner. And check out the hat they gave her! If you believe the biographies on Viv, she was something of a maneater in her day!
An equally iconic TV star was Henry Winkler as The Fonz on Happy Days. I'm screaming over the shoes and socks and the attention to body hair on Henry. They've even pencilled in little hairs all over his shins/calves! Of course, he must be shown doing his famous thumbs up signal... “Heeeyyyy!”
The roll call of TV star household names continues with Mr. Dick Van Dyke. I love his zany and colorfully-patterned shirts as well as that trim little table tennis outfit. 
The robe and ascot combo is interesting, too. No matter what Dick wears, he still has that wall-to-wall smile plastered on his face. I wish I could have grown up in Sweden just so I could have Dick and Vivian Vance existing in the same paper doll world. How fun would that be?
The next Dick in line is Darrin I from Bewitched, Mr. Dick York. Dick has an expression of austere concern. Perhaps it is because his chest definition consists solely of two small dots where his nipples are supposed to be. I have no trouble picturing him in the pale green business suit, but have no recollection of him ever going golfing in knickers!
David Cassidy. He has a rather festive pair of pink and white briefs on and possesses some eye-opening clothing. I was especially tickled by the blue jeans, rolled up (!) to show off a pair of embroidered cowboy boots.
Omnipresent '70s TV starlet Barbi Benton (misspelled on her sheet as Barbie and a staple of The Love Boat and Fantasy Island) is given a plethora of wardrobe selections that seem awfully chaste and covered up for a former Playboy model and girlfriend/protegee of Hugh Hefner. For that matter, she looks rather flat on top compared to the real deal. They did, at least, seem to capture her face in a so-so manner as well as her thick mane of hair.
Tony Curtis is primarily regarded as a movie actor, but he did appear in a couple of TV series, too. One was in a supporting capacity in Robert Urich's show Vega$. Prior to that, though, he costarred with Roger Moore in The Persuaders (1971-72.) Unlike most of the other cutouts shown here, I managed to score the page with his doll
on it and a second page of clothing. The green shorts are a hoot as is the yellow cowboy-style hat. Despite a decent enough reception from viewers, the expensive, but trouble-plagued, show only went one season because Moore couldn't quite handle one more year with the then-fiery and drug-addled Curtis.
One of my favorite random, oddball TV star dolls was this one. 
Henry “Manolito” Darrow from the '60s western series The High Chaparrall. That show must have been pretty popular overseas to warrant enough interest in him. While it was a popular series in its day, it's quite little-known to most folks who are not into that genre of programming. I mean, honestly, would you ever expect to see a Henry Darrow paper doll?! (And what on Earth is that pink thing in his holster?)
Speaking of holsters, we next come to one time Little Rascal turned TV detective Baretta (and later murder trial defendant in real life!) Robert Blake. Like a few others shown here, Blake is given some colorful and creative underwear as well as some amusing footwear and hosiery. These are nothing compared to the clothes concocted for the doll. Welcome to the 1970s, folks! He's also given a more elongated physique than the diminutive and solid one he possessed in real life.
See if you can figure out who this doll is supposed to be. (Click to enlarge.) It's another TV star and, believe it or not, a male and not a topless Kristy McNichol! When I mentioned Dick York's two dots, little did I know that another poor guy would be depicted with rounded, effeminate moobs! He starred in a couple of various series and miniseries from a family western drama (which is likely the time this doll was printed) to a detective show in which he was paired with an unlikely female partner and eventually a sci-fi show. He also married a former child-star, who'd grown up before the world's eyes in an hour-long show.
Yes, it's supposed to be Bruce Boxleitner, star of How the West was Won, Scarecrow and Mrs. King and Babylon 5, also the (estranged) husband of Little House on the Prairie's Melissa Gilbert. 
We close the TV chapter of our photo essay with Lee Curreri, the hairy star of the TV series Fame. Really, his entire career on camera was pretty much based around Fame. He was in the movie in 1980, did one ABC Afterschool Special the following year, then worked on the TV version of Fame from 1982 – 1987. There were a couple of other things during that, but he left the airwaves in 1988 to concentrate on his music career after one episode of something called T. and T. (starring, who else... Mr. T.!)
In the realm of music is Rod Stewart, then in close to the prime of his career. Look at the fun and colorful outfits someone dreamed up for him to wear. I especially love the knee-length tan coat with the rope button fasteners. (Someone even thought - in those skin-tight jeans days - to give him a little moose knuckle in the outfit to the right. Ha!)
Another popular music personage of the time, who is now but a distant memory to most folks, is Miss Rita Coolige. Her doll has on a tiny string bikini yet, typical of the times, her clothes are layered, long, body-covering conglomerations. Did she really ever wear blue eyelet socks under creamy character shoe-like wedges?! Incidentally, just how does one manage to have a purse that is underneath the tweed jacket on one side and outside the jacket on the other?! There's a fashion feat you don't run into every day...
And the creators of the “must have” Anne Murray doll left no stone unturned in serving up evidence of Ms. Murray's utter and complete lack of style sense. LOL The pink running suit with size 13 tennis shoes is bad enough, but what in the hell is that mess with the yellow shaker knot sweater over a wedgewood blue prairie skirt, under which dwells a set of grey tights, topped off with a knotted lilac scarf?! Again, the shoe/sock combination boggles the mind.
Music and the movies are blended in our next couple of paper doll examples. First comes Oscar, Tony and Grammy-winning songstress Miss Liza Minnelli, apparently having survived a fall from a tree in which her arm was cruelly snapped and not set back in the correct position? I presume that her lavender evening gown was by Bob Mackie.
The King, himself, Mr. Elvis Presley, had a doll made, too. Dig those boxer shorts, which I don't believe Elvis sported in real life. I think he was a briefs type of guy. He gets the same torso treatment that Dick York got, only there are three dots, not two (an additional one to suggest the belly button!)
In a rather bizarre twist, there was also a Lisa Marie Presley doll, not from when she had struck out with her own music career 
or had married Michael Jackson, but rather when she was but a four year-old child! Incidentally, I've decided that I prefer this manufacturer of Swedish paper dolls, whoever they may be, because of the dark, black outlines. We like things distinct, clean and sharply delineated in The Underworld.
Songbird Olivia Newton-John was clearly in the midst of her Grease
days when her doll came out. I'm sure she really appreciated the stumpy, tree-trunk legs, all the way down to the “cankles” that her doll was given, made all the worse by those tawdry, low-rise panties (in spicy mustard yellow!) Then there are the lovely lines they gave her around the tummy area! WTF? She must have pissed off some Swedish illustrators at some point (or maybe they disliked “Hopelessly Devoted to You?”)
Not faring too much better is her Grease costar John Travolta, also depicted with hair from that movie, despite some clothes that are not. He's given an amusing set of briefs and is drawn with his hands in THE gayest way possible (except maybe for having them drawn with limp wrists!) Still, some little girl probably had a field day cutting these out and re-enacting “You're the One That I Want” over and over on the floor of her bedroom.
I would be interested to know what inspired not only the hairdo on Miss Goldie Hawn, but also the selection of garish and hysterical outfits. I survived the '80s and know that they were bad, but good grief! The first two ensembles here made my eyes bleed. I hope that the third outfit was from a movie she did (unseen by me, apparently.)
And what is it that inspired the artist behind Miss Shirley MacLaine's paper doll to show her in this highly unusual pose? Was their a second page of outfits, one of which was from My Geisha, that justifies her being on her knees and arched back this way?? I smiled at the fact that she was given a two-piece bathing suit along with a very similar one-piece rendition, though I do love her Edith Head-like suit, blouse, scarf, gloves combination.
The creator of the Christopher Reeve doll (which looks nothing like him, by the way) didn't seem to be inspired past providing him with just the Superman suit as a clothing option. Even though I liked his Superman movies, I might have enjoyed them even more if he'd done them in just the hunter green undies. Check out the dorky red boots they gave the Man of Steel.
Another muscle man is Sylvester Stallone of Rocky and Rambo fame, though the artist decided to portray him in a decidedly puny way here. (He's also as pasty as all get out!) Has anyone ever seen Sly Stallone dress the way the clothes are presented here? I can't say that I ever have...
'70s superstar Robert Redford must have been on a major diet when his paper doll was introduced. Not that he was ever heavy, but wow! This seems to be in his The Great Gatsby time period (around 1974.) I love, love, love his li'l blue and white briefs with the pocket on the hip! I had completely forgotten it until I saw this, but wasn't there a line of men's undies sold in the free-wheeling 1970s that featured a pocket in them for carrying a condom around?!
Finally, and I'm sorry I don't have something truly bizarre to close with, I give you my beloved Faye Dunaway. I am loving the diagonally-zippered 
swimsuit her doll has as well as her pink baby doll dress and The Thomas Crown Affair-ish red suit with blue and white accoutrements. A perfect get-up for the still-recent Fourth of July festivities (as long as one stayed inside and was not baking out back by the grill!)
I hope you got a lift out of seeing these sort of rare (to me, anyway!) examples of an unmined resource, the Swedish paper doll. (By the way, I mean no harm in the slightest to my friends in Sweden. This just happened to be where these came from. Lord knows the U.S. and other countries have provided thousands upon thousands of examples of hilarious oddities over the decades.)
g, a wonderful one and the first blog I ever read (and the only one I visit regularly) called “Stirred, Straight Up, With a Twist,” I was inspired to revisit this topic because of a photo posted there of Dirk Benedict, shirtless with his pants open (not the same photo shown here.)
Grease, Saturday Night Fever (and later, Pulp Fiction) and the bloated object of ridicule in Battlefield Earth and other lesser films, he was the breakout star of a TV series meant to feature Gabe Kaplan. Welcome Back, Kotter was a high school-themed series with a gang of dudes called The Sweathogs and Travolta, as Vinnie Barbarino, was chief among them. Times have certainly changed as John’s pasty, chunky torso would hardly ignite young female fans these days!
e notable last name in the 70s was Cassidy. David Cassidy (son of entertainer Jack Cassidy) became a teen sensation on The Partridge Family, co-starring his step-mother Shirley Jones. While he certainly had his fair share of pinups, some of them shirtless, he really caused a stir when he posed for the cover of Rolling Stone magazine and a layout inside in which he revealed his pubic hair! This was part of a move he was attempting to shed his squeaky-clean teen image. 
His younger half-brother Shaun Cassidy was, for a time, a very hot commodity as well. A bubble gum pop singer, he starred for three seasons on The Hardy Boys, with his face seemingly everywhere, but especially in the lockers or folders of school age girls. While David still tours even now, Shaun has had success moving into the production end of things. (And for what it’s worth, youngest brother Patrick was, in my opinion, far cutest of them all!)
as a major heartthrob to the teen set, Greg Evigan. Star of B.J. and the Bear, his costar was a chimpanzee! What’s striking about Greg, and is also, in fact, about several of the stars in this post, is that he had a hairy chest and was neither asked, nor expected to shave it for the purposes of making him seem more accessible to the little girls. At the time he was most popular, I had no interest in him, but over the years, his appeal has rubbed off on me a little more.
y Patrol) was a favorite show with plenty of opportunity for beefcake. While Larry Wilcox was a little bit bland, the more flamboyant Erik Estrada was everywhere. His tan uniform pants seemed, literally, twice as snug as anyone else’s on the series. He was photographed countless times without his shirt in publicity pics. To be honest, one of my earliest crushes in life was on the unlikely Robert Pine, who played the somewhat older sergeant in char
ge of the officers. His son Chris Pine is now a burgeoning star, having played Captain Kirk in the big screen Star Trek redux. When Wilcox left the series, he was replaced by another blond actor, Tom Reilly. But what really set my preteen heart aflutter was that character’s little brother who was introduced soon after. Bruce Penhall, a pro cyclist, was brought on and there seemed nothing in the world cuter than his petite, cute, tan, blonde, blue-eyed self
t always serve only myself here!), who also enjoyed a period of intense popularity was Peter Barton. As the lead actor in The Powers of Matthew Star, a science fiction show, he got plenty of face time, and some degree of chest time, in the fan rags. He also came to prominence on The Young and the Restless.
William Shatner returned to series TV with T.J. Hooker, his sidekick was the svelte, dark-haired Adrian Zmed. Zmed was Broadway singer and dancer who had a big role in the unsuccessful Grease 2. Popular while the show was on the air, he had trouble continuing his career when it ended, ultimately taking part in the reality series Confessions of a Teenage Idol, geared towards giving a second chance to male celebs whose shelf life had run its course.
McGyver still brings up visions of a man who could take a matchbook, a piece of gum, half a spoon and a nail and break out of a Mexican jail! Star Richard Dean Anderson gained fame for his starring role in the show. Previously featured on Days of Our Lives, he later appeared in several variations of the sci-fi series Stargate starting around 1994, an enterprise that keeps him employed even now.
e title character. Co-starring was Gregory Harrison as Gonzo Gates, a far more casual and genial doctor than his counterpart. Harrison provided in the opening credits, one of the sexiest shots of that time, a clip of him emerging from a shower. After one season, the shot was cropped to show less of him down below, which was more than a little disappointing! However, producers knew what they had in the hairy hunk and dispersed publicity stills of him with his chest front and center.
always yielded a slew of hunks. One of them, in particular, was the dark, muscled, ever-smooth Don Diamont. Though this set of posts traditionally focuses on primetime actors, he fit the bill so much with his undone jeans I just had to include him. I must say, however, that his sinewy, veiny arm gives me the creeps. I like a beefier (or at least less arterial-looking) type of guy myself.
as the time that original stars of The Dukes of Hazzard, Tom Wopat and John Schneider, walked off the show in a contract dispute and were swiftly replaced by two actors who almost no one had ever heard of before! The guys, Byron Cherry and Christopher Mayer were tossed out to the public like so much meat, shirtless and in jeans, as if any brunette and blonde country boy could fill the required places! Public reaction was negative, to say the least, and the original stars were brought back after just 18 episodes.
profiled here elsewhere, just click on his name to the right) is Jon Erik Hexum. Star of the short-lived series Voyagers, thankfully some of the eras he was transported to required him to be shirtless. Cut down way before his time thanks to an act of carelessness on his part, he left behind a plethora of beautiful images of his amazing face and physique.
oking and well-packaged young man on the bicycle? An actor featured in two brief television series of the 70s, Sierra and Westside Medical, as well as a few other obscure TV projects, you may be surprised to learn that, at 28, he wrote the play and later successful movie On Golden Pond! Who knew that Ernest Thompson was so hubba hubba?
