From 8-year old Hilda’s diary:

Everyone buys me dolls because they feel so sorry that I have no mother. I think that is a silly reason to buy a doll for me besides I hate dolls. Yesterday Grandmother bought me a big one. She has a little phonograph in her stomach and you put a little record into it and then you are to pretend the doll is singing. The songs are not pretty and the voice of the doll is ugly.

I really wanted a “Chatty Cathy” doll in the 1960s. It seemed like the most wonderful and modern invention. Who knew that talking dolls had been around for decades?!