This is an I-Heart podcast.

Guaranteed Human.

And we continue with our American stories.

Jonathan Alexandrados is a toy historian whose knowledge was featured in the film

Billion Dollar Babies, the true story of the Cabbage Patch Kids.

Here's Jonathan with the story of the Cabbage Patch Kids and how they set the wheels

in motion for modern day Black Friday.

So at 1850, way back, the U.S. met its first baby doll. And instantaneously, the baby doll was not popular.

It took until the late 1800s for the thing to actually catch on.

But by 1920, the modern conception of the baby doll was here.

It was a cloth body and a sculpted head that was painted.

That's typically what one might think of when they think of the baby doll.

That model stayed fairly popular throughout the 20th century.

Once we get to 1971, we meet an artist, Martha Nelson, Martha Nelson Thomas, soon to be.

And she's looking at the baby doll and she's wondering what she could add to this genre of toy.

And what she reaches for is something called soft sculpture.

So soft sculpture is basically the act of conceiving of a sculpted head, let's say, that's made out of some sort of cloth material.

So you're kind of sewing it so that the

features are all evident in the ultimate soft sculpture. That's Martha Nelson's interest. She makes

these off of input from kids that she knew at the time. So she actually asked kids in her community, you know,

what they would like to see in a baby doll. She made those. Those are called doll babies.

Martha Nelson Thomas originally sold those in Appalachian craft fairs. She is from Kentucky, and

...