by Libby Demp Forrest Thg ‘Lady’ requires Intensive Care. She is about 80 years old; her hair matted and tangled, her eyes dropped to the back of her head. She is a typical patient at Pratley’s doll Hospital, run by Blanche Pratley at 1207 Lafayette Street. Cape May. By the time the patient is checked out, she will be completely overhauled, body repaired, her eyes re-cemented if necessary, snorting a new wig, and wearing a\turn-of-the-century dress. "I do brain surgery — everything that’s needed," Blanche Pratley attests of her doctoring. Just as in any well run hospital, a patient's chart is kept, but at

EXPERIENCED HANDS of Blanche Pratley deftly handle someone's loving doll, about to undergo knee surgery. Perhaps a new dress is also in store for 'the

child.' '--A

Pratley's the patients wear chin straps with their charts attached to their heads. Many dolls travel long distances to reach the hospital. Some arrive via the mall truck, others are left by their\ owners after being found in attics and family trunks. Some have missing arms, or are without toes or fingers. Some merely need a thorough bath or a new wardrobe. Their mistresses a generation or two ago might have styled and re-styled the hair so many times,

the patient^ arrive nearly bald and in heed of a new wig. The wig selection can take quite a while. • Once a color and style arc decided upon, Mrs. Pratley uses a curling iron to fashion i hairdo appropriate to the doll’s" costume. And in using her hairdressing talents Mrs Pratley is doing to dolls what she started out to become in the first place—a hairdresser. "I’VE ALWAYS LOVED hairdressing,” Mrs. Pratley says. During her senior year in high school in Philadelphia, she took up hairdresing, then served her apprenticeship. "1 was 17 then," she recalls, “and my boss asked if I could come to her home evenings and curl dolls' wigs. She owned a doll hospital and had a three story house filled with dolls. My father was of German descent and he felt a woman should have one or two trades. That was a long time before Women’s lib.” Mrs. Pratley studied dolls, then helped to run the family restaurant at 29th & Dauphin when her father died a year after she graduated from high school. But in the 40s Mrs. Pratley picked up the doll work again when she moved to Cape May with her hus-

band.

Mechanically inclined, Mrs. Pratley enjoys the challenge of putting a doll back together again, repainting its face and styling the hair. The various stages and skills^ required to bring Dolly Dimples back to life can take up to several months, depending on the hospital's waiting list. Much of the work has to be done by hand, entailing long-hours of surgery for the dolls, as their bodies are sewn with new leather skin fashioned of discarded kid gloves Mrs. Pratley finds at rummage sales. Her older 'patients' once had fine kid bodies, glass eyes and pierced ears. In her workshop, Mrs. Pratley keeps an ‘eye bank' and old parts that are impossible to buy today. TO BRING A PATIENT back to life she will painstakingly match the stitched she finds on old materials and hand mixes tints fof faces and clothing. She also stores old fabrics cut from antique clothing and a collection of

wigs.

Today’s dolls have man-made hair, but yesteryear’s dolls all had

THE WAITING ROOM at the Doll Hospital i s as busy a place as a inhuman hospital. And the ‘patients’ are there with as many ailments.

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BLANCHE PRATLEY opens another package the postman has brought to her hospital. Inside she finds a worn out or broken doll. In several weeks, it will be good as or better than new, perhaps similar to the patient at left.

human hair wi^s and there are strict health laws governing the use of human hair wigs. “Sterlized human hair for the wigs come from Europe nowadays," notes Mrs, Pratley. "It cannot be tinted hair. In the old days, a lot of doll hair was made from children's hair. Dolls were often made to . look like their mistresses." Mrs. Pratley gets a lot of satisfaction out of seeing her patients come back to life. "Dolls become very forlorn whenCjhey are neglected. It gives me quite a joy to see them completed after being brought in here so broken. I've had dolls that were torn apart by dogs. I know my work brings "happiness to people. My customers are very sentimental about their dolls. Sometimes a grandmother will want to give a child the doll she once played with, and shtf'll brihg it to me for a new wig and proper\clothes.” WHILE MRS. PRATLEY claims no emotional attachment to her patients, she loves .to see them get better. She refers tj> her patients as ‘the children.' "The children take over my workship,” she says affectionately. Most of the Pratley patients are given a good nap When they arc brought in (usually face down to protect their eyes), Wing together on a bed until they go into surgery, makeup or to the hair-, dresser’s as they progress. Some require only a good bath, which may take days of careful cleaning with special solutions that won't remove .their finishes. Mrs. Pratley carefully mixes the enamels needed td put rosy cheeks back on her patients, brushstroking the colors to authentically match the old col-

ors;.

All of the Pratley patients have names. "They arc all named after someone," she explains Her own childhood German dolls, ‘Helen’, a bruneWe, and 'Mamie', a big blond dressed in blue, arc always nearby Mrs. Pratley, overseeing the children' who come into the doll hospital. They both wear brooches and pierced earrings handstrung by Mrs. Pratley. "They both need to have * their hair recurlcd." Mrs Pratley laments, ‘but I'm so busy with the children' I haven't been able to give them any time.” CHILDREN USED TO PLAY differently with their dolls than the little girls of today, Mrs. Pratley believes. "We used our imaginations more," she says. Today’s factory-made Barbie

Dolls, for instance, while having extensive wardrobes for virtually every occasion, aren't usually valued by their mistresses as the old dolls were. Helen and Mamie would get a new dress at Christmas,.. Mrs. Pratley remembers- "They would automatically disappear’ around Christmastime," she says, "to reappear on Christmas Day wearing new clothes. This was" Christmas" Mrs. Pratley carries a line of her own designed Barbie clothes in her .shop, but she says jhc doesn't. repair the Barbie’s

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LIKE PEOPLE, dolls come in all shapes, sizes, many colors and ages. Unlike people, however, dolls may have more than one chance at another life. themspWes. “I hate to turn customers away,” she says, “but the antique dolfc require so much time to restore.'' Mrs. Pratley contends many men have become doll collectors "They go into it for the value When I'm ablq to get to the auc lions -the men there -will in variably outbid the women They're interested in the invest ment, possibilities. You know they're not- going to take them home and play with them " Once there were many doll hospitals in existence, but few young people are interested in learning the trade nowadays "This is a wonderful trade," Mrs, Pratley. reminisces. "I can take my work and go anywhere People are always looking for someone who can help to bring back their childhood memories."

Libby Denip Forrest last wrote ‘ about a very umrsnai cat for Cape May. County Magazine. - CAPt MAY COUNtY MAGAZINi i