Rose Michtom and her husband Morris started out making teddy bears which they sold in their novelty and stationer's shop in New York.
In 1903 they established Ideal Novelty & Toy Company.
Morris Michtom, the founder of Ideal, died in 1938. His son Benjamin took over the company, and renamed it the "Ideal Toy Corporation".
In 1982 the company was bought by CBS-Toys and doesn't make Teddy Bears anymore.
The Ideal Toy Corporation had a long and illustrious career in the doll business, and was a major force in fashion dolls in the fifties and sixties.
Ideal was in the forefront of new technology in producing their dolls. Materials ranged from cloth, celluloid, composition, hard rubber, latex "magic skin", hard plastic, injection-molded vinyl, rotation-molded vinyl, and blow-molded vinyl. Ideal holds dozens of patents for innovations such as flirty eyes, "mama" voice boxes, "magic skin", and the blow-molded vinyl techniques. |