"Her name was Katie Marshall.   It was only after she was discovered by a famous Hollywood producer that she adopted her beloved Grandfather's name, Gene-because he had always urged her to follow her dream to Hollywood stardom."

          "Deeply inspired by Hollywood's greatest movie stars, Katie refined her natural abilities with after-school lessons in acting, dance and music, and by performing in local community theatre. She quickly won the hearts and admiration of everyone who saw those early performances, for even then, Gene was surely destined for stardom."

          "Still pursuing her dream, she made her way to New York City, becoming an usherette at a fashionable movie theatre frequented by celebrities."

          "On a night that changed her life forever, Gene led a tall, distinguished man to his seat in the darkened theatre. Her flashlight fleetingly revealed her lovely face to him. Astonished at her beauty and poise, the noted movie producer declared her his latest discovery, whisked her to Hollywood, and helped polish Gene's shining star."

         "Come…share the dream." This is the story of Gene included with every Gene doll and fashion since distribution of this extremely popular doll began in 1995.

         Gene was created by well-known fashion illustrator/designer Mel Odom. Mel's story is not unlike Genes. He is a native of Ahoskie, North Carolina. Mel knew at a young age what he wanted to do with his life and was lucky enough to have parents who also recognized his potential and encouraged his talents.  Classmates from elementary and high school remember him as being friendly, outgoing, and extremely talented in art and design.

          Mel majored in fashion illustration at Virginia Commonwealth University followed by graduate work at Leeds Polytechnic Institute of Art & Design in England. His work has been widely exhibited in such notable museums as the Cooper-Hewitt Museum, the Chrysler Museum, and the Santa Barbara Museum of Art.   He has also received multiple Awards of Excellence from the Society of Illustrators.   His artwork has appeared in the New York Times Magazine, on the covers of Time & Omni magazines, and he has illustrated stories by both Joyce Carol Oates and Tom Robbins.

What, you may ask, would lead a man of such incredible accomplishments and talents to create a doll of all things? Well, Mel Odom, along with his many other interests, has been a doll collector since early childhood. At one time, he volunteered to help in designing the face of an earlier European collector fashion doll. He was so disappointed with the results that he felt compelled to create a doll of his own.   He has said that he was seeing fewer and fewer new dolls that he liked or wanted to buy. He found himself increasingly drawn to the dolls of the 50's and 60's, but the cost of collecting this type of doll was becoming increasingly expensive.   He decided to create a doll that would reflect his personal illustrative style. A doll that would appeal to him personally. One that he couldn't pass up if he saw it in a store.

          Having been inspired from an early age by the glamorous actresses of Hollywood's golden age, he wanted his doll to reflect the classic American fashions at their best. He felt the fashion boom of the 40's and 50's was a perfect starting point.

          Mel began working on his dream doll, but soon realized the actual execution of the doll was more than he would be able to handle alone.   While working on a previous project, Mel had met sculptor Michael Everet and learned that Michael was also interested in doll designing.   They had worked well together and Mel enlisted Michael's talents in sculpting and musculature to bring a more realistic and sophisticated look to the doll than what is seen in today's 11½ inch fashion dolls. (Or Hair-on-a-stick, as Mel sometimes refers to them) The pair used Vargas drawings to assure Gene would have a beautiful and elegant woman's body. Mel even sought the advice and opinions of several female friends on what the dolls' proportions should be. After doing various drawings of the doll in different sizes, Mel decided that 15½ inches looked ideal, much to the delight of his dress designers. They felt this would be an ideal size for dressmaking and Mel wanted something that would be large enough to dress gracefully, but small enough to collect and display multiple dolls in the often limited space collectors have.

           But it was Joan Green, Senior Product Development Manager of Ashton-Drake, who turned Gene from a dream into a reality.

  Until 1995, Ashton- Drake was known primarily for their high quality porcelain dolls. However, executives at the company were instantly captivated by Mel Odom's presentation of Gene.   Everyone was so taken with Gene's concept that it took only a short time to assemble what is now referred to as Ashton-Drakes "Gene Team". This team consisted of Joan Green (referred to by many as "Gene's Mom), Mel Odom, and dress designers Timothy Alberts, Doug James, Laura Meisner, and Timothy Kennedy.   Mel chose "people" designers rather than "doll" designers. Mel said of this decision, "The proportions on modern fashion dolls have become so ridiculously exaggerated that I saw no relationship between these dolls and real fashion. Gene fills this gap perfectly. The philosophy I stressed to the designers was to design human clothes on a doll scale. I'm trying to be very real about the costumes-each comes with the year and purpose, whether it be public appearance or movie costume, it was intended for Gene, who has a life. Her costumes are a reflection of that."

          When Gene was introduced at Toy Fair in 1995, the rave reviews were instantaneous. It seemed that Gene filled a niche in the doll-collecting world. Here was a high quality doll, with a wonderful, realistic wardrobe that collectors did not have to spend their life savings to obtain.   As Gene gained notoriety she also gained more and more new followers. Mel Odom designed Gene as a reflection of young Hollywood actresses in the 40's and 50's. He took inspiration for her appearance from such actresses as Gene Tierney, Jean Harlow, Lana Turner, Hedy Lamar, Rita Hayworth, and Ann Southern.   Many collectors feel that his main influence was Gene Tierney, but Mel will not pin his creation to a likeness of any specific person. Rather he wishes her to evoke the feel of a certain time period. Mel calls Gene his "Valentine to an era".

          Mel and Ashton-Drake have gone to great length to make Gene seem to collectors as though she were a real person. She has a birthday (April 17th 1923), a hometown (Cos Cob, Connecticut), and even pets (Dottie & Dashiell). Each doll, outfit, or accessory comes with a story card that tells the collector exactly what role this particular item played in Gene's life. She has movie costumes, party dresses, evening gowns, and outfits from her personal off-screen wardrobe.   The intention is for her career to span a period of 21 years from age 18 (1941) to age 39 (1962), with the possible addition of friends, rivals, and even a boyfriend or two.

Ashton Drake issued three different Gene dolls in 1995.

Red Venus -- who was nominated for the Dolls Magazine Award of Excellence -- Premier And Monaco:
(pictures courtesy of Ashton Drake Galleries)

The 1995 line also included eight different outfits: Usherette, Goodbye New York, Blond Lace, Blue Evening, Pink Lightning, Crimson Sun, The Kiss, and Love's Ghost.

           Prices for the first three dolls were $69.95 each and the outfits were $29.95 each.   The idea was to introduce new dolls and outfits each year while retiring older ones.   Sales of Gene dolls were brisk in 1995, but seemed to truly take off in 1996 with the retirement of the blonde Premier doll on November 19, 1996.   This is the one wearing the black and gold evening gown. When Premier retired and hit the secondary market, the escalation in price was unbelievable. In just a few months after her retirement, Premier was bringing as much as $600.00 on the secondary market and her popularity with collectors has kept her price around that same level at present.

           It is a common misconception, especially among newer Gene collectors, that the Premier was the first Gene doll. This is simply not true. Red Venus, Premier, and Monaco were the first three dolls and they were introduced at exactly the same time. Some of the confusion may stem from the fact that Premier represents Gene's attendance at her first film premier while the Red Venus and Monaco dolls represent two of Gene's film roles later in her career. The second Gene to retire was Monaco in the winter of 1997. It has failed to realize quite as high a price on the secondary market. It is currently selling for between $135.00 and $175.00, although this will most certainly change somewhat with new collectors entering the field everyday and seeking the earlier dolls.  Red Venus is the last of the original three dolls introduced in 1995 and is still currently in production, although rumors abound about its retirement. After a first very successful year, Ashton-Drake forged ahead with plans for the 1996 Gene line. The 2nd years releases included two new dolls.

Blue Goddess-another Dolls Magazine Award of Excellence Nominee -And Pin Up:
(pictures courtesy of Ashton Drake Galleries)

It is also interesting to note that several pre-production pictures of Blue Goddess show her as a brunette similar to Monaco.

          The 1996 line included four new outfits:

  Crescendo, El Morocco, Afternoon Off, and Holiday Magic-Gene's first limited edition piece and originally titled White Christmas. Only 2000 of the Holiday Magic outfits were produced as special holiday dresses and AD made only one Holiday Magic in purple, which was raffled off as a promotion.

           1996 also saw the introduction of the first Gene accessories. AD introduced the Gene dress form to display all of Gene's extra outfits and a Gene wardrobe trunk to hold gene and several outfits. The trunk had to be redesigned shortly after release, however, because it proved too small to hold Gene! The price for the new dolls held at $69.95 each, but two of the 1996 outfits, Crescendo at $39.95 and Holiday Magic at $44.95, were more expensive than the outfits in the previous years' line.   The dress form sold for $19.95 each and the wardrobe trunk for $69.95.

On November 9, 1996 in Newark, NJ, Gene also got her very own convention and her very own special convention outfit, Atlantic Beach Beauty, which was limited to 155 pieces. It was to be the first of the Annual Gene Conventions, which are steadily gaining in attendance.

       1996 also saw the beginning of an Ashton-Drake project designed to benefit Americas budding designers.   While Gene was on display at the Santa Barbara Museum of Art in an exhibit titled "The Art of Play: Dolls and Toys Past and Present".   The museum's Art of Play guest curators, John Darcy Noble and Jane Hirschkowitz, and Santa Barbara Museum staff began discussing the idea of having a fashion illustration class from a local high school design and make their own clothing for Gene. The museum would then exhibit the results in a separate exhibition.

Museum staffers approached art teacher Kasia Stefanek of Santa Barbara High School and asked if she would be willing to undertake the project. She quickly agreed. Their next step was to contact Ashton-Drake to get permission to put Gene's wardrobe into the hands of these unknown teenagers. Joan Green and Mel Odom quickly added their enthusiasm to the project. Odom was especially ecstatic. He said "I would have killed for a chance like this when I was a student." Joan Green also felt it important to support creativity in young people since her own high school art teacher had been such a major influence in her life. Ashton-Drake supplied the students with Gene dolls and even extra fabrics and materials, teachers, museum personnel, family, and friends devoted much of their spare time to helping the students with patterns, sewing (several had never even threaded a needle) and moral support. The project took on a life of it's own as volunteers kept picture records and even posted progress reports on websites.

Shelly Rinker for Best Period Costume (who designed Sparkling Seduction, originally titled Glamorous). ( picture courtesy Santa Barbara High School)

  Michelle Guiterrez for Best Overall Costume (who designed King's Daughter, originally named Restoration).
 ( picture courtesy Santa Barbara High School)