ANAHEIM : White House Replica Holds Doll Collection

Bea DeArmond knew she was starting something big when she successfully bid 15 cents for a small wax and papier-mache doll at a Michigan auction.

More than 4,000 dolls later, DeArmond’s collection has become the centerpiece of her Toy and Doll Museum.

Located in Hobby City, an outdoor shopping mall of 22 hobby and craft stores that she and her late husband, Jay, founded in 1960, the museum is housed in a replica of the White House.

“I had this all planned from the beginning that I would have a big doll museum,” DeArmond said.

“I had a small museum and then when I got married and came to California, we had a small museum in our house. And when the collection got too big, we decided to build our own big museum.”

DeArmond, at age 80, still runs the museum and the adjoining doll shop with her daughter, Yvonne Ansdell.

Admission to the museum--on Beach Boulevard, just south of Lincoln Avenue--is $1 for adults and 50 cents for children.

The dolls and toys are housed in two-tiered cases along the wall and in the center of the room.

The top tier contains dolls that interest adults, such as Shirley Temple and Charlie McCarthy dolls from the 1930s, China dolls from 19th-Century Europe and wooden dolls from the 18th and 17th centuries.

The oldest is a small wooden figure from Egypt that was carved in about 300 B.C., DeArmond said.

The rarest doll is a “Lady Long Fingers,” which was carved from wood in England in 1623.

The bottom tier next to the floor contains more modern dolls, such as G.I Joes and Cabbage Patch Kids, as well as a 1920s Lionel train set and a miniature circus.

“We put children’s dolls at the bottom so that they will be at the children’s eye-level, even for the babies in strollers,” DeArmond said.

The G.I. Joes and dolls of athletes such as Joe Namath, Muhammad Ali and Jackie Robinson were added, DeArmond said, so “we have things in here that even men and boys will like.”

“The fathers will even get down on the floor with their sons to point out which G.I. Joes they had as a boy,” DeArmond said.

Ansdell said that for serious doll collectors, the museum’s collection of Kewpie dolls and antique French dolls are probably the most impressive.

“But what Mother wanted most of all was a good selection,” Ansdell said.

“Mother wants someone to come in and find a doll she had as a child.”

DeArmond boasts that she has never been seriously ill, which she attributes to her doll collecting.

“It keeps you young because you’re always looking, always hunting for another doll,” she said.