Toys and Culture, thousands of dolls

DR. ELLEN TSAGARIS, executive director of American Doll and Toy Museum in Rock Island Illinois shares her deep insights into toys, especially dolls, in this episode. This museum is a dynamic teaching museum displaying several hundred dolls, many of them nearly one hundred years old, others months old.

Since she was three years old, Ellen has collected dolls. Her interest in dolls has resulted in extensive research and writing.  "Dolls and toys are humanity's historians, in short, Dolls Rock!"

Her competencies stretch far and wide. Tsagaris has a Bachelor of Arts in English and Spanish from Augustana College, a Master of Arts in English from The University of Iowa, a J.D. from The University of Iowa, and a Ph.D. from Southern Illinois University, Carbondale.

Ellen has helpful links to doll collections:
     https://www.thesprucecrafts.com/buying-selling-dolls-4102140
    https://dollreference.com/
   
https://www.facebook.com/americandolltoymuseum/photos/pcb.627761041957455/627746481958911/

Many, many sellers carry books written or published by Ellen. This is one random sample:
https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/thinking-outside-the-doll-house-ellen-m-tsagaris/1138766260
and
https://www.amazon.com/With-Love-Tin-Lizzie-Mechanical/dp/0615505570/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1391571250&sr=8-1&keywords=with+love+from+tin+lizzie+a+history+of+metal+dolls


https://www.facebook.com/americandolltoymuseum/

The music of Leroy Anderson is by permission.
https://classicalexburns.com/2020/04/09/leroy-anderson-the-typewriter-click-ding-slide/

"This ingenious ‘typewriter concerto’ is a masterpiece of musical comedy,"  lifted  without permission this is lifted from this website:  https://www.classicfm.com/composers/anderson/ingenious-typewriter-concerto/

Leroy Anderson was the composer behind such light music classics such as 'The Typewriter', and 'Sleigh Ride'. He has been dubbed by movie music maestro John Williams as "one of the great American masters of light orchestral music."

Young Leroy was given his first piano lessons by his Swedish-born mother who was a church organist.

When he was 11, Leroy began studying piano at the New England Conservatory of Music. By 17, he was composing, orchestrating and conducting the school orchestra.

At Harvard, Anderson studied trombone, organ and double bass, as well as composition and orchestration.

He spoke English and Swedish and became fluent in Danish, Norwegian, Icelandic, German, French, Italian, and Portuguese.

Anderson and his brother played in various dance orchestras. They also performed on cruise ships of the Norwegian Line crossing the Atlantic.

In 1942 Anderson joined the Army, and was assigned to Iceland with the U.S. Counter Intelligence Corps as a translator and interpreter. In 1945 he was moved to the Pentagon as Chief of the Scandinavian Desk of Military Intelligence.

Anderson was released from active army duty in 1945 and moved to New York to pursue his composing career.

Sleigh Ride was written during a heat wave in the summer of 1946. The Boston Pops' single of it was originally issued on red vinyl.

In 1958, Anderson composed the music for a Broadway show Goldilocks. Even though it earned two Tony awards and his score was well-received, the story was criticized as being weak. Anderson never wrote another musical.

Anderson died of cancer in 1975 and was buried in Connecticut.