Rose O'Neill & Kewpie Dolls
by George Bailey
Branson, Missouri was once home to Rose O’Neill, an illustrator and writer, and the creator of Kewpie Dolls, now considered to be fundamental to the evolution of American doll and toy trends as well as, according to some views, the development of the comic-strip as an art-form. O’Neill’s now famous dolls arose out of illustrations she published in a column in Ladies’ Home-Journal. The illustrations, which accompanied O’Neill’s own stories, became a part of the magazine in 1909; the actual dolls wouldn’t hit the market for another four years. When they did arrive, however, their impact would prove lasting. The Kewpie doll is the mascot for a small hamburger chain founded in Michigan called Kewpee Hamburgers, and it is both the name and mascot of a Japanese mayonnaise. A Kewpie doll was placed inside the 1939 New York World’s Fair and Anne Frank mentions one in her famous diary. Though the name appears to be a phonetic abbreviation of the phrase “cutie pieâ€, O’Neill in fact named her creation after the god Cupid. “Kewpie philosophy takes the unwieldliness out of wisdom,†O’Neill remarked, “puts cheerio into charity and draws the fangs of philanthropy. I have put all of my love of humanity into this image.†Rose O’Neill was not the first lover of humanity to be drawn to Branson, Missouri, and she certainly won’t be the last. Branson is a city for people who love people.