Toys of Christmas Past - Part 7 - Pull String Talking Toys

Pull String Talking Toys - Mattel - 1960 - Mid 1970's

"....You can tell it's Mattel, It's swell ! ...."

Our next entry is the talking dolls and puppet line by Mattel. Mattel was the hands down leader of talking toys in the 1960's.  There were dolls, puppets and also learning toys all based upon the same talking technology.  Many of the dolls and puppets were popular cartoon and television characters of the 1960's and early 70's.  Such as Beany and Cecil, Bozo the Clown, Bugs Bunny, Mr Ed.

Beany and Cecil - A popular cartoon in the early and Mid 1960's

Bugs Bunny

The heart of these toys was the talking mechanism.  This mechanism was primative by today's standard, was actually cutting edge in the late 50's and early 60's.  The voice box was a plastic encased mechanism which was burried inside the doll or puppet.  This essentially was a plastic record with 5 to 15 phrases recorded on it.  Each phase had a different track on the record.  To play the record, a pull string would put tension on a spring.  When the tension was released it spun the plastic record which would then play.  There were 5 to 15 phrases recorded on each record, each having it's own groove.  When the string was pulled, the "needle" (yes needle) would randomly be placed on one of the groove.  Thus when you pulled the string many times you would get a different phrase from the talking box.   Here is a picture of the inside of the talking mechanism.

Example of Mattel voice box.  Notice the pull string and  black plastic record.

The first talking toy introduced by Mattel was the Chatty Cathy line in 1960.  These dolls are now worth about 6 zillion dollars.  In the original Chatty Cathy dolls, you would insert a record into the doll [talking mechanism].  Later version of the doll, had a sealed talking mechanisms where the record was not replaceable.

The early version of Chatty Cathy

Chatty Cathy On sale for $9.88 in the Mid 1960's

Chatty Cathy commercial with Maureen McCormic (Marsha from the Brady Bunch TV Show)

Here is an incomplete list of all the talking dolls and puppets Mattel produced.

• Chatty Cathy
• Chatty Baby
• Beany, Cecil, Dishonest John
• Bozo (doll and puppet)
• Mr Ed
• Herman Munster
• Tom & Jerry
• Mrs Beasley (from Family Affair TV Show)
• Sister Small Talk
• Mork (Mork & Mindy)
• Matty & Belle
• Casper the Friendly Ghost
• Woody Woodpecker
• Porky Pig
• Animal Yackers
• Linus the Lionhearted
• Chester O'Chimp
• Doctor Doolittle

Mattel Talking Puppets commercial

I had the Mr Ed talking puppet, and my sister had a Bozo the Clown talking puppet when we were wee lads.  Bozo would say things like "Hi, I'm your old pal Bozo" and "Hardy Har Har".  Mr Ed had sayings like "I have a horse face" and "Isn't it silly talking to a horse ?".

Bozo the Clown and Mr. Ed talking hand puppets

These toys had a number of problems. First, the spring which provided the tension for the record to spin would sometime be too tight or too lose, which caused the record to spin too S L O W, or too fast (and sound like Alvin and the Chipmunks). 

The second problem is that the string would sometime snap, retracting it inside the voice-box  rendering the talking part useless. Some times this happened because the string had frayed from much use.  Sometimes this would happen.... Oh I don't know ... by a brother or sister whose talking toy had broken the previous day, and so they sneak into your room and "accidentally" cut the string with a scissors so yours won't work either..... 

You know who you are .... And I'm sure the guilt that you live with day-in and day-out, knowing what you did is punishment enough. LOL


Luckily time, therapy (I'm OK and your OK, LOL), medication and sometimes money will heal the wounds. A different Mr. Ed with a functional voice box, now resides in my office at work. Mr Ed, however has somehow shrunk, because he no longer fits on my hand. :P Good times