Dolls

Barbara Kouri has been talking dolls for more than 30 years — and it just doesn’t get old, she said. “I love my club,” she said. “It’s my favorite thing to do for fun. I enjoy being with the ladies and talking dolls. My sister said that she has never seen me so happy as when I’m doing a doll show.” On Saturday, the Burbank resident’s Happy Dolling Doll Show celebrates its 28th year at the Glendale Civic Auditorium. A charter member and the second president of the Jewel City Doll Club, Kouri gathered her experience helping her club with their shows before setting out with a friend to start one of their own. 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.

Joyce Rudolph GLENDALE CIVIC AUDITORIUM -- Barbara Kouri's Doll Show and Sale, "Happy Dolling," will be held from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Sept. 30 at the Glendale Civic Auditorium, 1401 N. Verdugo Road. Doll enthusiasts will find all their collecting needs at this show. There will be antique dolls, modern dolls, doll artist dolls, collectible dolls, reproduction dolls, play dolls, Alexanders, Barbies, Patsy's and G.I. Joes. Accessories will also be available for purchase including miniatures, doll clothes, doll wigs, doll stands, old laces and fabrics and antique doll clothing.

Judy Seckler ROSSMOYNE -- At the holiday party given by Glendale Adventist Medical Center and the Glendale Public Health Center, children became wide-eyed over gifts donated by the women inmates at the Twin Towers jail in downtown Los Angeles. About 150 rag dolls were transported to the party on Thursday in Public Health Nurse Suzanne Gero's station wagon. For eight or nine years, the inmates have handmade rag dolls throughout the year. The yarn hair and clothing are color-coordinated, said Public Health Nursing Supervisor Maxine Falls who coordinates the effort.

American Girl fashion shows benefit Childrens Hospital Flintridge Guild of Childrens Hospital Los Angeles will host the sixth annual American Girl Fashion Show on March 23, 24 and 25 at Brookside Golf Club in Pasadena. The event highlights the American Girl collector dolls. Daughters and granddaughters of members model historical outfits matching the dolls they carry. There is a dinner show on Friday, March 23, and three tea shows, at 10 a.m., 1 p.m. and 4 p.m. Saturday and Sunday, March 24 and 25. The cost is $30 for the Friday gala and $25 for the tea shows.

This show is all about the dolls The Happy Dolling Doll Show and Sale will be from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday at the Glendale Civic Auditorium, 1401 N. Verdugo Road, Glendale. There will be antique and collectible dolls, modern dolls, fashion dolls, bears, old toys, miniatures and doll clothes. There is a lunch room on the premises. Admission is $5 and $2 for children under 12. Parking is $6. For more information, call Barbara Kouri at (818) 767-4172 or e-mail happydolling@aol.

Marshall Allen LA CANADA FLINTRIDGE -- Little girls will get to dress like and show off their treasured dolls at the upcoming American Girl Fashion show. The show is sponsored by the Flintridge Children's Hospital Guild and will take place at various times Friday through Sunday, March 22 through 24, at Brookside Country Club, 1133 N. Rosemont Avenue, Pasadena. The guild is a 52-year-old organization that exists to financially support Childrens Hospital Los Angeles.

Janine Marnien LA CRESCENTA -- Some fifth-grade students at La Crescenta Elementary School hit the wagon trail Friday, as part of Pioneer Day. Students in Ginger Dotson's class made covered wagons, clothespin dolls, beaded jewelry and ate food similar to what pioneers would have eaten on the trail West. They even take their covered wagons around the field to test the stability of them. The activities were meant to teach the students about what it would have been like to be a pioneer.

Helping children and being a leader is what Glendale resident Beth Neaman enjoys doing the most when she is not working as a financial consultant. "I'm a child at heart," said Neaman, a native of the Philippines. "I can show you a closet full of dolls. I collect dolls like they are going out of style." Neaman, 46, takes on the leadership role of area governor for the Glendale 1 Toastmasters Club, a nonprofit organization that promotes leadership and communication through effective public speaking skills.

Celebrated Panamanian-American baritone Nmon Ford and soprano Nichole Cabell will be the special guest artists at the "Guys and Dolls"-themed Pasadena POPS Orchestra concerts on Aug. 19 and 20 at Descanso Gardens, 1418 Descanso Drive in La Cañada. In keeping with the concert's "Guys and Dolls" theme, Ford and Cabell will render a variety of Broadway and operatic classics that capture the time-honored dance between the sexes. Under the direction of Pasadena POPS Music Director Rachael Worby, the pair will vocalize the contretemps of Nathan and Adelaide, Romeo and Juliet, Tony and Maria, Porgy and Bess and other historic stage couplings, from "The Marriage of Figaro" to "Gone With the Wind."

Rima Shah When former Glendale Mayor Jerry Milner's first wife, Patsy, a jazz musician, died in 1986, he decided to honor her memory by donating books in her name to the Brand Arts Library. With the help of the Glendale Community Foundation, Milner has been able to donate $14,438 worth of books on music -- mainly American jazz -- to the library; an example, he said, of the way the foundation is able to direct charitable investment and meet the community's needs.

Open auditions for the Glendale Community College Theatre Arts Department's fall production of Henrik Ibsen's "A Doll's House" will be held Wednesday, Sept. 5 and Thursday, Sept. 6 in the Auditorium at 7 p.m. Those auditioning should prepare a one-minute to one-and-a-half-minute monologue from a modern playwright such as Chekhov, Shaw or Ibsen, but not from "A Doll's House. " Actors should come to the lobby of the Auditorium on either audition day to sign in. Call-backs, if necessary, will be on Friday, Sept.

A couple of weeks ago, an article in the business section of the L.A. Times caught my eye. I normally don't read the business section, but it was the accompanying photograph that first got my attention. It showed Mattel's latest line of fashion dolls — the Monster High girls. These are not the Barbies I played with as a kid, or even the Barbies my daughter plays with today. No, these looked more like miniature hookers. What's with the trend to make dolls look like they just stepped off Hollywood Boulevard?

GLENDALE — Rosemont Middle School Principal Michele Doll was tapped Wednesday to take the helm of Crescenta Valley High School, which is less than a mile from her current campus. Doll leaves Rosemont after two years as principal. Dick Sheehan, who will be district superintendent next school year, said Doll was the ideal candidate for her insider knowledge and outsider experience. “You had a combination of parents and community members that wanted someone with internal knowledge of the community, and you had another faction who said we want someone with an outside perspective,” he said.

Molly, Samantha, Josefina ? the American Girl dolls that feed the imagination of youngsters across the country ? will take center stage, alongside their fans, this month at the 15th annual Flintridge Guild Childrens Hospital American Girl Fashion Show. The fundraiser, at the Brookside Country Club in Pasadena from March 19 to 21, includes a dinner and six daytime teas, event Chairwoman Savonia Angelica said. She is expecting 250 guests, mostly young girls and their mothers, at each event.

DOLL CLUB PREPARING FOR ANNUAL SHOW AND SALE The Jewel City Doll Club presents its 31st annual Doll Show and Sale from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. March 28 at the Glendale Civic Auditorium, 1401 Verdugo Road, Glendale. Proceeds from the show support local charities such as the Desi Geestman Foundation, the blind and hospice organizations and others. Members of the Jewel City Doll Club live in Glendale, Burbank, La Crescenta, Pasadena, Canyon Country and Valencia. There will be about 80 dealers with a variety of modern and antique dolls, accessories, books, doll clothes, toys, paper dolls and Barbie dolls.

Rosemont Middle School Principal Michele Doll has a new name plate on her office door. It now reads “Dr. M. Doll.” School faculty and staff congratulated Dr. Doll with cake, coffee and a little bubbly (non-alcoholic, of course) early Thursday morning, Feb. 12 on earning her doctorate from USC. The school lounge sported maroon and gold in honor of Doll’s alma mater. Doll, 37, is married with two daughters – Taney, almost 8, and Kade, 5 – and has been working on her doctorate for three years.

A cast of local youths and Tony nominated Broadway actors will come together this weekend on a Sunland church stage to perform the classic musical ?Guys & Dolls? as a benefit for the Foothill Performing Arts Council and New Hope Tapestry Theatre Ensemble. Robert Torti ? who starred in ?Starlight Express? on Broadway and portrays the dad on the popular Disney television series ?The Suite Life of Zach & Cody? ? performs the role of Sky, the part made famous by the late Marlon Brando.

A special meeting of the Glendale Unified School board on Monday announced the appointment of four new positions within the district. Michelle Doll will replace outgoing Rosemont Middle School principal Sally Buckley, who decided to retire at the end of this school year. Buckley has served as Rosemont principal for the past six years; before that she had a long history with the Glendale district, serving as principal at Lincoln and Glenoaks elementary schools. Doll leaves Glendale High School as associate principal.

The Sierra Singles will meet at 9:30 a.m. at Union Station, 800 N. Alameda St., Los Angeles, and take the train to Long Beach Shoreline Village and Marina Walk. The Metro?s Red and Blue Line will travel to Long Beach, where the group will tour Rainbow Harbor, the Pike and Shoreline Park. For more information, call Bob at (310) 539-9561. ? The Happy Dolling Doll Show and Sale will be from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the Glendale Civic Auditorium, 1401 N. Verdugo Road, Glendale.