Not just any ordinary doll, but a glamorous 15.5 inch doll with all the allure of Hollywood’s Golden Age. Her name is Gene Marshall.

The Gene Marshall Collection is inspired by the classic movie stars of the ’30’s,’40s, and ’50s. Gene herself has a backstory which covers her discovery and Hollywood transformation, as well as a continuing saga of each movie she starred in as well as her own personal life. Each Gene doll, every ensemble, piece of furniture or other accessory comes with its own booklet that gives you another part of Gene’s story. Each booklet not only continues the saga of Gene, but reminds classic film fans of past icons and films… Here’s a tribute to Monroe, there a reminder of Tierney, and another of Crawford or Bergman…

Each doll wears stunning recreations of the clothes and accessories of this fabulous bygone era. Outfits have luscious fabrics, are lavishingly hand beading. The dresses are fully lined and the sheer stockings have seams running up the backs. These details all add to the collection’s nostalgic appeal.

As collectors - men and women alike — we ate up the nostalgia, her beauty, and the ongoing romantic storyline. This includes the additions of other character dolls, such as her rival Madra Lord, African-American singer Violet Waters, and leading man Trent Osborn. The collection grows, but it always remains focused on the details of the dolls, garments and storyline.

Who delivered such a captivating concoction?

She was created by renowned artist and erotically charged illustrator Mel Odom. Yes, a former artist for Playboy, Viva and Blueboy in the 70’s and 80’screated this doll of the 30’s, 40’s, 50’s and New Look 60’s.

Gene’s sex appeal cannot be denied, but the true magic lies in Odom’s imagination to create a sense of time, a feeling of Hollywood Glamour based on the personality of an actress. We flocked to Gene as if she was truly a celebrity we could reach out and touch. Not since Barbie has a doll had such a history or inspired such buyer passions.

When Odom began with Gene, he was swimming upstream to convince the doll world there was room for Gene. In 1995 when Gene debuted at Toy Fair, with just three dressed dolls and nine costumes, nobody much thought she’d be around the next year. Luckily, Ashton-Drake saw the potential. Before Gene, the traditional method in Ashton Drake’s doll selling was to generate a fast turnover of high quality yet reasonably priced limited-edition baby and children-type dolls. Until Mel Odom and Gene there was never any one signature fashion doll. But 10 years later, she’s changed the course of fashion doll history and the adult collectors doll market.

Gene has spawned a large-sized collectible doll market. Even Barbie, as popular as she was/is, had not started such a frenzy in the minds of collecting adults — but Babs has benefitted by the renewed interest collectors have in fashion dolls. Gene remains the longest-reigning large-sized collectible fashion doll.

Gene is not just a doll, or even just a collectible. She’s a phenomenon.

Combining the collector’s passion for glamour with romantic notions, we bought the dolls, joined the fan clubs, bought more dolls — and the accessories, attended conventions, created fan pages online, and drove the secondary market prices up.

Spurred on by Mel’s philosophy that Gene was not to sit unloved in a box for a greater ’someday’ payoff (he’s repeatedly bemoaned those who buy her and keep her in a box — as a star, she’s to be admired!), we did more than just display and adore her. We not only took her out of the box, we redressed her and created little vignettes of our own, posing her with her props and furthering the stories, even making our own.

Next, we let our fantasies take hold and took complete ownership of her.

We collectors began our own cottage artisan activities. Inspired by Gene’s world and fashions, not to mention a larger size which makes sewing easier, we made our own outfits and jewelry. We changed her hair (everything from wigs to perms, coloring it, and rerooting it (eyelashes too!). We even repainted her face.

Suddenly we felt empowered to create costumes as wonderful as Edith Head, turn out more glamorous stars than MGM, and even create our own Gene Gossip. Even our own artisan makeovers of Gene were selling like crazy, for hundreds of dollars, at online auctions at at conventions.

Our crafty ways and lust for vintage fashion was not unnoticed. Vogue Patterns introduced Gene-sized couture fashion patterns in 1999, and the patterns were at least then their number one and number two best sellers. Even Ashton Drake fueled us on with their Young Designers of America Competition, giving winners opportunities to sign contracts with Ashton-Drake and to receive royalty payments on their designs for outfits that were released as part of the Gene line.

All this creativity put an additional crimp in finding original Gene dolls and outfits. (This will have an especially large impact on limited editions as the years pass by.) But most of us did not concern ourselves, as we were enjoying Gene and her world wholeheartedly. Since then, this custom creation has spawned a similar custom craze with other fashion dolls and their collectors.

In November, 2005, admist months of swirling rumors of a change, at the 10th Anniversary Gene Doll Convention in Stamford, Connecticut, Don Vaccarello, Vice President of Ashton-Drake Galleries announced that The Ashton-Drake Galleries would no longer produce new Gene dolls, nor outfits, beginning in 2006. Many of us applauded what we hoped would be even more control and imaginative releases of The Gene Marshall Collection. After all, he did give birth to her and has carefully tried to preserve the integrity of Gene’s story. But we are still waiting to see…

In Summer 2006, we have seen no new releases of Gene. We do know that Mel’s own studio, Star Blue Studios, has contracted with Jason Wu for the manufacturing and distributing of the new Gene. The new Gene website, GeneMarshallDoll.com, and this interview with Mel Odom offer a little insight into our beloved Gene. Apparently only 6 dolls will be released this year, and only 25 Gene dealers have been accepted worldwide, and photos are few. Here are the few I’ve seen:

I eagerly await more news and the presentation of the dolls and the stories themselves.

Photos © Jason Wu, LLC and Star Blue Studios Inc.