Nancy chose a career in film and she also worked as a dress designer. She took small roles as well as lead roles in the movies, plus she danced in reviews. The last 2 movies Nancy had parts in were Broadway Melody and 42nd Street. While on the set,    Nancy would dress dolls in miniature costumes worn by her actress colleagues.

In 1936, Nancy Ann Abbott started her doll factory in San Francisco--the Nancy Ann Dressed Doll Corporation was incorporated on February 23, 1937. Her partner in this venture was Allan L. Rowland. He remained with the company until his death several years later. The name of the corporation was later changed to Nancy Ann Storybook Dolls, Inc. on December 26, 1945.

1936
The first bisque dolls were the "Hush-A-Bye Baby" dolls with bodies made in Japan. They are 3-3/4" in height and are marked a follows:

87 Made in Japan or 88 Made in Japan or 93 Made in Japan.

A small gold sticker is attached to the clothing of the doll. The sticker reads "Nancy Ann Dressed Dolls".

Boxes are pink or blue marbelized or colored boxes with sunburst pattern.

Various marks were used during this time period:

An example of early mark-is the rare dolls from the Family Series. It is a set of 5 Little Sisters. No picture available.

Other marks during this period were:

  Japan, Made in Japan (CAUTION: Not all dolls marked thusly are NASBs).
  America (very rarely found)

Dolls (except the babies) from the period 1937-1939 are 5" tall, have molded hair with molded bangs underneath a mohair wig.

Their legs are strung and they have molded socks. Shoes are painted on black slippers or painted on white boots.

The dolls have pudgy tummys (will show you example of this later).

Small gold stickers continued to be used on the clothing. The sticker reads "Judy Ann" or "Storybook Dolls". Boxes were colored with sunburst pattern (as pictured previously) or colored with small silver dots.

See photo for picture of Judy Ann mark – This is a picture of one of the harder to find dolls from the Sports Series—Sailing.

Their legs were strung and they had molded socks.

Shoes were painted on black slippers OR painted on white boots.

They had pudgy tummys. Small gold stickers continued to be used on the clothing. The sticker reads Judy Ann or Storybook Dolls. (See photo)

This is a picture of one of the Around the World Dolls (Belgium) which shows the sticker on dress and maybe you can just barely make out the molded socks. The other picture is of Little Miss showing the painted on white boots.

Babies wore booties held on with ribbons and had star-shaped hands. (See Photo)

(Sorry, no example of this.)