Doll:Beany Boy Talking Doll

In the late 1940s, Beany and Cecil first appeared on television as hand puppets. The show, though intended for children, attracted an adult audience for its lampoons of contemporary politicians and thinly disguised plots mimicking current affairs. In addition to the puppet show, Dell Comics offered comic book adventures for the two characters from 1951 to 1954. A few years later, the boy character and his seasick sea serpent companion transitioned to an animated series which began airing in 1959. By 1962 the two characters starred in their own "Beany and Cecil Show," which ran, after its first year, in constant repetition on Saturday mornings for five years. The Beany doll, made at the time of the 1962 debut of the cartoon show featured the audio technology Mattel had introduced in its Chatty Cathy Talking Doll.