In 1960's, there were posters of children in mod clothes, dancing. They had pipestem arms & legs, HUGE heads &

Question

HUGE eyes staring RIGHT AT you (which used to give me the willies.) I think they were the predecessors to the heroin-chic style of advertising and possibly some of the anime style which portrays characters with disproportionally-large eyes.

I've tried searching under every combination of names I can think of (disco babies, etc.) and can't find images of them. But they were popular poster images, as well as (I think) velvet paintings.

I wonder if they would still affect me they way they used to. They gave me a sense of horrible wrongness, like something that was pretending to be human but wasn't.

Anybody know where I can find images of them?

Thanks!

They weren't dolls, but posters, or maybe velvet paintings, wall art.

One I remember in particular was of a boy with tight white bell bottoms and a turtleneck sweater, and he seemed to be dancing and snaping his fingers.

But the emaciated look of his limbs and the spaced out look in his oversized eyes always made me think that he had been captured and tortured horribly somewhere to reduce him to this condition and make him dance as entertainment for his unseen captors.

There was probably really no back-story to them, and what I imagined was probably far from what was intended.

Oh, almost forgot-- they always seemed to have sad or serious expressions, like they weren't having fun at all, or they were forbidden to smile.

Their faces had 'pinched' expressions, like they were trying to keep their real feelings from showing. That added to the eeriness of them.

The Blythe dolls look somewhat like them but once more, the art I saw was on posters.

Answer 1

They were done by a husband and wife team named, Keane. I don't recall who did which parts, but I remember the images very well.

For me, the "wrongness" was more that they seemed to be children, dressed up in adult clothing.

In fact, I think the generic term for the collected works was "Keane Kids." Try a web search for that term.

Answer 2

i remember the posters, too...but y'know i'm an old hippy and most of the 60s and all of the 70s and a major portion of the 80s are rather foggy to me so i cannot help you with the names of the artists or companys that put them out...i just remember seeing them, sometimes associated with some of the music (hendrix, joplin, birds, peterpaulandmary, etc.) whatever what playing on the radio or someone's phonograph or tape deck at the time.

Answer 3

There's the Blythe dolls that kind of fit your description but it came around in 1972. They're still popular today I guess you might be referring to something else but I hope my answer helps.

Oh I found sites these might help too - http://www.dollsntoys.com/1960s.htm
http://www.angelfire.com/art/dollmemories/sixties.html
http://www.dollreference.com/mattel_dolls1960s.html