by The Bloom Report | 05 Oct 2023
Biographies and Interviews
Hello People of Play!
We were thrilled to hear that our client, Rose O’Neill, Inventor of Kewpie® Dolls, was to be inducted into the 2023 Toy Industry Hall of Fame along with other industry legends, including your very own trailblazer, Mary Couzin.
Since Rose O’Neill (1874-1944) is no longer physically with us, nor is James (Jim) Skahill, the amazing steward for all things Kewpie for thirty years, Leslie Levine, Owner of Licensing Works!®, the merchandise agency for the Kewpie® IP, reached out to interview two people closest to gain their perspective.
Susan Scott is the former president of Bonniebrook, Rose O’Neill’s home that has been turned into a museum celebrating her life and work. The Museum is in Walnut Shade, Missouri, a suburb of Branson. Scott has been a volunteer at Bonniebrook for more than 20 years. She's been instrumental in getting O'Neill into the spotlight, working tirelessly to have Rose inducted into the National Women’s Hall of Fame in 2019 and played a role in lobbying for Rose’s recognition for both the Eisner award at last year’s San Diego Comic-Con and this most recent Toy Hall of Fame honor. All wonderful tributes, long overdue!
Tom Skahill is the son of Jim Skahill and worked alongside his father at Jesco Imports, literally growing up surrounded by Kewpie dolls. Jesco Imports involvement with Kewpie began in 1982. Briefly, when Rose O’Neill died in 1944 she assigned all Kewpie merchandising rights to Joseph Kallus. Kallus was a life-long business associate and the person Rose asked to sculpt the models for the very first bisque and the celluloid Kewpie dolls that were made in Germany in 1913. Kallus started the Cameo Doll Company in 1925 until he retired in 1969, at which point he licensed Strombecker and later Milton-Bradley Co to manufacture Kewpie dolls. In 1982, Kallus met with the then President of Jesco imports and Kallus agreed to assign all the rights to Kewpie as well as his other Cameo designs. Kallus died shortly thereafter and his daughter, Rita Abraham passed down the original Kewpie and Cameo molds to Jesco Imports.
Jim and Tom Skahill sold the Kewpie® intellectual property to the Kewpie Corporation, headquartered in Japan, in December of 2012. The Kewpie Corporation has been using the Kewpie character as their corporate icon since the 1920’s so when it came time to sell the Kewpie intellectual property rights, Kewpie Corporation became the logical choice. Kewpie Corporation continues the legacy of Rose O’Neill and is the Licensor to all rights involving use of the Kewpie® Brand.
Licensing Works!® has had the privilege to work with both the Skahills/Jesco and Kewpie Corporation to help spread Kewpie joy to new generations.
Levine: We asked Tom what he thought his Dad would have said had he been alive to hear that Rose O’Neill was being inducted into the Toy Hall of Fame.
Skahill: He would be ecstatic that the “pioneer” he came to know thru decades of association with Kewpie is being honored by his chosen peers. And quite possibly may have even shed a tear of joy!
Levine: Tom, you literally grew up with the Kewpies, it must have been a very interesting childhood, surrounded by all those Gumby figures and Kewpie dolls. We know that you are an avid race car driver and lover of all things outdoors. Can you share with us some of your earliest memories about Kewpie?
Skahill: My earliest memories would be visiting my father’s showroom (Dad was a sales rep) in downtown Los Angeles back in the mid 60’s and being surrounded with dolls (Kewpies and others) and toys of all shapes and sizes, but all those toys were girl’s toys!! By the time I was 9 or10, I remember spending time with Dad at the Biltmore Hotel downtown LA wiping down glass shelves and setting displays for Kewpie dolls at the formation of the WTHRA (Western Toy and Hobby Representatives Association) trade shows. Then later, I have memories of when Jesco took control of the IP, and we reintroduced Kewpie out of our tiny little showroom at New York Toy Fair. We had the buyers lined up down the hall to write orders as fast as our pens could scribble, what a thrill for a toy person…but soon after Toy Fair the madness set in with the realization of “How do we get all of these dolls made and shipped?” Through long nights and some creative sourcing we got it done. We had all of Joe Kallus’s original 40-year-old molds (we wanted to maintain the integrity of the original Kewpie). That made it tricky to locate rotational molders that were still using 40-year-old roto machines/ovens for the molds to fit on! The challenges and the thrills were consistent right up to the sale of the IP.
Let me introduce Susan Scott to the conversation. She knows of so many wonderful things about Rose O’Neill. She wrote the biography that we feature on the “About Rose O’Neill” section of the Kewpie Licensing site which can be found here in full, https://kewpielicensing.com/about-rose-oneill.html. Susan wrote this bio for the National Women’s Hall of Fame Induction in 2019.
Levine: What did you think when you first heard that Rose O’Neill was an inductee in the Toy Hall of Fame?
Scott: I was just ecstatic. We are all so happy that Rose received this recognition.
Levine: One of my favorite quotes about the Kewpie brand came from Rolling Stone Magazine of all places. They said that “a century later, Kewpies continue to epitomize the maximum exaggeration of cuteness…” and that is exactly what we believe…that Kewpies have been defining over-the-top ‘cuteness’ for over 114 years. Susan, what are some of your favorite Rose O’Neill quotes?
Scott: One of my favorites is “I have a thrilling hope that women are going to do something glorious in the arts. It is my passionate conviction. I am always indignant when women are denied creative power in art.”
Levine: Susan, can you tell us about some of your work to get Rose O'Neill the recognition she deserved?
Scott: Well, you heard the old saying ‘try, try, try until you succeed’… the Bonniebrook Historical Society nominated O'Neill at least twice over a three-year period before she was selected. We were thrilled to see Rose get this wonderful honor which has been a catalyst for all the recognition since 2019 including this amazing induction into the Toy Hall of Fame.
Levine: Susan can you tell how us you became involved with Bonniebrook?
Scott: As a volunteer at Bonniebrook, I fell in love with her artwork. I connected with Rose O'Neill because I admired her compassion and generosity as much as her amazing talent as an artist.
You know, Rose O‘Neill’s success as an artist, writer, and cartoonist allowed her to develop a very lavish lifestyle, placing her in the center of the New York art world. She made around $1.5 million from her Kewpie creations, making her the highest-paid and wealthiest cartoonist of her time. That translates to around $40 million today.
Levine: That’s a lot of money for someone that grew up without much. Can you tell us a little bit about Rose O’Neill’s work life before she created the Kewpie characters and how her poverty as a young child influenced her later in life?
Scott: O'Neill moved to New York City at the young age of 19 and before long was illustrating for publications like Ladies' Home Journal, the women's magazine which first featured O'Neill's Kewpie drawings in 1909. O'Neill copyrighted and patented Kewpie and began to sell the rights for commercial use. Kewpies were beautifully illustrated enjoying ice cream cones in all sorts of situations and featured in magazine ads for Jell-O.
Rose later traveled to Germany to seek out doll production with Kestner & Co. When Rose was asked for parameters by the German artists she told them, “…I'm just asking that the tiniest Kewpies will be the best.” They did not think that made economic sense as those would cost the least and Rose was quoted as saying, “... We need to price it so poor children can afford them, and we need them to be really good.”
O’Neill had an incredible sense of empathy having grown up very poor. She wanted Kewpie dolls to be affordable and attainable for all children.
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Fun Facts about Rose O’Neill:
Thank You,
Leslie Levine
Licensing Works!®
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