The Glendale show will feature antique and collectible dolls, modern dolls, fashion dolls, bears, old toys and miniatures, old and new doll clothes and related items.
Last year, the show drew about 200 visitors and collectors, and they are expecting a similar turnout this year, Kouri said.
“Barbara always has a lovely show,” said Lucy Cooney, of Glendale, who will be serving the show as treasurer. “She really tries hard to do so.”
The show has dolls from Barbies to antiques, and the cost of the dolls at the show range from vinyl dolls at $5 or $6 to bisque or china dolls up to $20,000, Cooney said.
There will be vendors selling doll parts and accessories like wigs and clothes.
“I belong to four doll clubs and know a lot of the people who attend,” she said. “It’s fun seeing the people you know and looking for something I don’t need. Collecting is a horrible sickness but fun.”
Kouri will be too busy coordinating the day’s activities to show her own dolls, but she does have an interesting, vast collection.
The first doll she purchased was a Storybook doll by Nancy Ann. She bought it in the 1960s.
“My daughter and I were on our way to a shoe store in Glendale, and we went past a little antique store,” she said.
They went in and she saw the Storybook doll in a box. She bought the bisque collectible doll for 35 cents.
Her husband bought her the next dolls for her collection. They were the Chap dolls, a collection of vinyl dolls that consisted of four dolls — a father, who was a doctor, a mother and two daughters.
“My husband used to go to Downtown Los Angeles to buy our groceries at Central Market,” she said. “They were on sale for 66 cents. He got me all four of them and a piece of clothing.”
The most precious doll in her collection is a French fashion bride doll from 1960. It belonged to her teacher at Villa Cabrini Academy, Lucien Biggs.
When Biggs was a girl, her mother died, Kouri said, and her uncle felt so sorry for them, he bought dolls for her and her sister.
Many years later, a woman called Kouri wanting to sell her three dolls, which once belonged to her mother. Kouri made an offer on the French bride doll, and the woman told her she had to ask her brothers and sisters before she could sell the doll.
While Kouri walked her to her car, the women mentioned a family tie to Biggs, and Kouri told her of the connection.
“She turned to me and said, ‘That settles it, you’re getting the doll,’” Kouri said.
