There's no question about it: Lately, nesting dolls have gotten trendy. I was exploring the web the other day and stumbled across a
matryoshka bonanza. Nesting doll shaped cell phone holders, nesting doll greeting cards, nesting doll pillows and t-shirts. It's amazing! I, myself, am thinking about making a nesting doll themed handbag this weekend; that would be pretty adorable. We're all hooked, it seems. And why not? Nesting dolls are beautiful, ethereal, and downright charming. Even Hollywood seems to have taken notice!
Being John Malkovich: 1999. My freshman year of high school. A bad year for me, but a good one for nesting dolls. Golden Cockerel was asked to produce nesting dolls to promote the movie, which centers around a puppeteer who finds a portal into actor/producer/director John
Malkovich's head. (Side note: If you're not familiar with
Malkovich, I'd recommend watching 1985's
Death of a Salesman. I really enjoyed it.) After fifteen minutes of being privy to each and every one of
Malkovich's thoughts and feelings, the observer is mysteriously dumped onto the New Jersey turnpike. Fifty carvers from
Polkovski Maidan, Russia worked like crazy to supply Golden Cockerel with 5,000 blank five-piece dolls a week to meet the deadline: 40,000 sets of dolls in two months.
What better way to advertise a wacky tale of someone entering the head of another person than with a nesting doll? Golden Cockerel won a "best promotional merchandise" award from
Premier magazine for this item.
Amazingly, a few are still available at Amazon.com.
Lost: 2007. I never thought that nesting doll-related work would mean getting to talk to the pseudo-famous. A few months ago, I spoke over the phone with the merchandising manager for Duran Duran. A bit before that, I got a call from the head prop man for ABC's
Lost. He said they needed some nesting dolls to appear in an upcoming episode, but wouldn't tell me much else. He picked five reproductions of the first nesting doll, the
Rooster Girl, and had them shipped to Hawaii.
I must admit, I've never watched
Lost before. It sounds like a pretty good show. My best friend, thirteen-year-old cousin, and future mother-in-law are all addicted to it. I think a large part of the reason I've never jumped on the bandwagon is because I can't stay awake past ten o'clock. If I'm actively doing something,
maybe I can make it till midnight, but stick me in front of the tube and I'm done for. So, I employed several friends to be on the lookout for our dolls.
A few months later, my friend Christina called me, sounding very excited, and told me to turn on the TV. I did, and there was the Rooster Girl. I learned that a character was smuggling diamonds inside the doll, and then watched as he smashed her to pieces and hid her inside a toilet tank. This is probably a good thing for all those who own or wish to own a Rooster Girl nesting doll. As it is a limited edition collectors' piece, the fact that five have been broken and drowned probably means the value of the remaining dolls has gone up slightly.
It also excites me that bits of the old world are seeping into the new. I love old things. My mother's cardigans from high school, the circa 1970 pea green owl wall hangings I bought at the thrift store, black and white photographs of strangers, ancient postcards, teen girl magazines from the 1960s, well-loved books and clothes. Sometimes I feel like I'm a crazy person in this world where everything is meant to be disposed of two minutes after you've purchased it. So, thanks
Lost, for making me feel like maybe someone else is on the same page as I am.
Has anyone else had any Hollywood nesting doll sightings? I know there have to be more! Amy
www.GoldenCockerel.com
A doll from the city Sergiyev Posad.
The black egg with red berries is painted in the Khokhloma style.
