So why did Effanbee spend 30-thousand dollars creating the 20 inch display dolls? They could have been dressed more economically without such detail and with less expensive fabrics. Or why even do the Display Series at all. The 14 inch replicas were amazing on their own and would have certainly been a hit without all the large scale promotion. 

The timing holds the key!  The 1939 New York World’s Fair was a huge event that was going to draw some 45-million people from around the world and a display of this magnitude matched what certainly was on the level of what many other companies were planning to present. No one who exhibited at the World’s Fair was sparing any expense!  

But Effanbee did NOT display at the World’s Fair.  That has been proven.  However, Macy’s did.  With it’s flagship store an icon in New York City and the company always looking to outdo rival Gimble’s, the World’s Fair provided a myriad of opportunities and Macy’s took them all.  From specially sponsored items to a Macy’s-centric guide for visitors to the city, Macy’s planned to be front and center at the World’s Fair so a partnership here makes perfect sense on something of this grandeur. 

Exactly where the dolls were displayed is still in question. One report puts them in the Children’s World exhibit, a seven-acre area dedicated to attractions for young visitors to the Fair.  Within the space, there was a “Doll Palace”, a perfect place for the Display Series to be showcased.  Another report puts the Series possibly in the pavilion sponsored by Westinghouse.  It’s possible that exhibits were moved from place to place during the two year run of the Fair.

But one of the three sets of Effanbee Historical Series Display Dolls was there.  This picture of the entire set of 20 inch Display Dolls was taken in 1938-39 as part of a promotional set of photos of the dolls with designer Sharmel Elliott and comes from the family archives. It carries the handwritten caption  “Dolls dressed for World’s Fair, 1939 by Sharmel Elliott” along the top border. Until it was found recently, no one had seen this photo in some 80 years.