I DO.

This is a Gene Marshall doll. She called is "I do"  and shows Gene Marshall in the film Ida Best.

These photos were taken by me out and about in West Yorkshire.  Yeadon Tarn on the way to a dog walk and Non Go By farm near Yeadon (the Llama!) And St Michael's Church in Headingley, Leeds.

The story is that Ida Best was the best.           I got the back story of this doll from Wiki.
It is as follows.......

.  She was the 1920s film star who changed Monolithic Studios from the home of pratfalling policeman and cream pies in the kisser to a place that produced films of prestige and class.  Her presence and talent brought the studio the respect it deserved--and Monolithic studio head Reuben Lilienthal never forgot her.

He saw Ida Best's sparkle and fire in Gene Marshall, and so it was only natural to ask her to star in a film based on Ida Best's exciting life: a recreation of the riotous, red-hot Roaring Twenties.

The most lavish scene in the film was the recreation of Ida Best's wedding to a suave European count.  Costumes, under the watchful eye of Reuben Lilienthal, spared no expense in getting all the details of the wedding dress just right, right down to the ribbon rosettes and the tendrils of satiny ribbon that connected each one to the other.

Finally, the time came to roll the camera.  The director didn't need to cue the cast in their reaction: the sight of Gene in the wedding dress, the long veil wafting wispily around her, was more than enough.

When Gene posed for the cover of a fashion magazine wearing the wedding gown, with its satiny splendor and svelte lines, brides all over the world took notice and began walking down the aisle to a Jazz Age wedding march--and many a daughter begged a happy mother to take her 1920s wedding gown out of storage to wear on that special day.

Gene Marshall is a doll designed by Illustrator Mel Odam inspired by Mdvani Dolls. Gene first appeared in 1995 as a 15.5 inch doll.
Mdvani inspired Mel Odam to revive his childhood love of dolls and to design Gene. She is for adult collectors and inpired by Hollywood glamour of the 1930s 1940s and 1950s.

Gene now has her own sub culture of Clubs, conventions, magazines and is eminently collectable. I am hooked.She makes some of my other dolls look a bit pale!...She is based on a selection of  Hollywood actress's....." larger than life Hollywood golden era" and costume designer Edith Head. The Heiress (1949) and The Sting (1973) and Dorothy Lamar's famous sarong dress.

The popular doll sparked a whole generation of collectable dolls from such as Tyler Wentworth. Tonner doll company, Madame Alexander.....

Here is (as we speak) my only Mel Odam designed Gene Marshall doll.  It is my birthday tomorrow and I am being very very bad on Ebay and bidding on another doll. This one came from California last Autumn and has become a bit of a fave. Today I saw her in my cabinet looking at me....so I put her in my basket to take along to photograph out and about.

I started this blog after I got home and looked up her back history and Mel Odom himself. I see illustrations and latest news on my news feed on Facebook so I know a little about him and I follow his career all that.....I just found out That he went to LEEDS POLYTECHNIC!!!! ( it is now Leeds Metropolitan university)

So Mel Odom the great designer and illustrator trained in Leeds. Which means he must have lived in Leeds for a while!!!! which also means he possibly knows this church that I am now photographing his doll outside today. This is St. Michaels in Headingly. Headingly is real student stomping ground along with the two pubs just by here The Original oak and The Skyrack. I wonder if he was a regular?

Odom was born in Richmond, Virginia, USA, and grew up in Ahoskie, North Carolina, where his parents encouraged his interests in drawing and in dolls. He majored in fashion illustration at Virginia Commonwealth University and then attended Leeds Polytechnic Institute of Art and Design in England for graduate work before moving to New York City in 1975.....This is from Wikipedia.^]

So Mel Odam was in Leeds 1974 1975!!! WOW!!!! It looks like he was in the graphics department for a year and a half!"
 So if he was a student in Leeds ...lived Headingly Hyde Park...oh Yeh he'd a known 'em all......Cottage road cinema.....The Hyde park picture house....art deco.....1974...I were 7..... Glam rock started round about then. I were too young." stated Lee

!974. The Great Gatsby came out that year. My fave film. Robert Redford, Mia farrow. I had the pictures from Vogue on my wall at boarding school....
1975...Jaws movie. everything was Jaws! I remember going to Whitby regatta and all the stalls had tat from this film. It was the first film marketing that became everything from t shirts to key rings.....
1974!!!!! Abba,,,,,Waterloo. .....Love me for a reason...The Osmonds.......Gonna make you a star...David Essex.......She... Charles Asnavor........Tiger feet...Mud!!!!!!!

So yes. That was a bit of a revolution!!! I was going to write up a whole history of the Gene doll. But I am all excited about 1974/1975 now and the thought of Mel Odom living in student accomodation in Leeds!!!
Any way after we went to Headingly ...driving home I spotted some Llamas. So Lee pulled the car onto a path and I got out to take some photos of the animals. I still had Gene in my hand. so here she is. This is called Non Go By Farm shop and is just by Yeadon on the way home from Headingly.

These are pictures I found of my doll in her original box etc......




Gene Marshall red hair doll sample in "I do " outfit. found on the net,,,,,

She would have had this cetrificate.....

Mdvani doll. These were Mel Odom's inspiration for these dolls. I have looked them up too. VERY very expensive. I have no chance of owning one of these. Though I am bidding on some other Gene dolls. I am totally hooked now.

I have just been messaging the lady who gave me "I DO". This doll was given to me when she visited Leeds with her sister and family in September. Her visit was to research family who lived in the Leeds area in 1600's before emigrating to America as Quakers. We did not know it at the time but Gene has kind of come home. Mary did not know Mel Odom trained in Leeds either at that time. She does now!