Doll Parts Posted on May 8, 2009 by Kevin Killian
I saw this one doll had won the coveted Rondo award for best horror toy of the year 2008, and when I stopped laughing I fell in love. It is the new Barbie doll dressed as “Tippi” Hedren in Alfred Hitchcock’s horror classic The Birds. Heaven only knows the licensing fees that form the backstory of this one, but Mattel spotlights the Hitchcock name so avidly that you know his estate must be getting its cut. But what of Ms. Hedren herself? What’s she getting out of this, one wonders. America’s greatest actress is still alive and very beautiful at age 79 and she must approve in some fashion of this doll, and how do I know this? Because if you went on eBay and looked up this doll you can buy a copy she signed herself (comes complete with photos of her signing it, and of course, a “certificate of authenticity”). No living soul interested in Bay Area visual culture can turn their nose up at “Tippi” Hedren in The Birds, filmed largely right in our backyard in Bodega Bay. Jean-Louis, the designer, does he have an estate? Or can you just copy down to the tiniest detail the pale green wool suit he created for Ms. Hedren and just do so scot free? This blog is about image control and dissemination, so I should know the answers to these questions, but I come to you today as a collector.
In mint condition still in the box: Barbie/”Tippi” Hedren golem
A collector without much room in his apartment. To make way for my new “Tippi” Hedren doll, I am having to give the axe to my only other doll–a mint condition Kylie Minogue doll from the Fever era, a gift from a treasured friend, a gift which has dominated the front room of my apartment for many years. It is a tragedy but it is a new rule of mine that every time I get something, I have to throw away or give away two of whatever category it falls into — in this case dolls! I love Kylie of course, but I will say one thing always kept me from totally embracing the doll of her–its utter lack of resemblance to the original–whereas the new “Tippi” Hedren Barbie is not, or so they tell me, actually modeled on Hedren’s own face, but it’s an amalgam of Barbie’s face with Birds-era makeup, and thus exists in a floating world, halfway between Barbie and “Tippi” Hedren — neither and both. Roland Barthes could do a better job than I at explaining the sinuous appeal of this simulacrum, but hopefully a picture will tell a thousand words. (more…)
