Bertha "Beatrice" Alexander Behrman (March 9, 1895 – October 3, 1990), known as Madame Alexander, was an American dollmaker. Founder and owner of the Alexander Doll Company in New York City for 65 years, she introduced new materials and innovative designs to create lifelike dolls based on famous people and characters in books, films, music, and art. Among her notable creations were the Scarlett O'Hara doll, the Dionne quintuplets dolls, and a 36-doll set of the royal family and their guests at the 1953 coronation of Queen Elizabeth II. During her stewardship, the company produced more than 5,000 dolls, many of which became collector's items.
Early life and family
Bertha Alexander was born on New York City's Lower East Side to Hannah Pepper, an Austrian native who had emigrated to the United States via Russia. Bertha's father either died in a pogrom in Russia from which her mother escaped, or he emigrated with Hannah and died in New York when Bertha was about one and a half years old.
In New York, Hannah aka Channy aka Anna remarried, to Maurice Alexander, a Russian–Jewish immigrant whom Bertha considered her real father, and had three more daughters Jennie aka Jean, Florence aka Flora and Rose aka Rosie. In the 1910 census, Morris is listed as a toydealer with a pushcart. It has been said that Morris operated the first "doll hospital" in the United States, repairing the porcelain dolls of wealthy clients. However, there were doll hospitals in the US prior to his arrival in the United States. Morris and his family first appear in 1905 in the NY State census
While there has not yet been found a list of graduates, it seems Bertha graduated from Washington Irving High School in 1913 Washington Irving High School. On June 28, 1914, in Manhattan, NY, Bertha married Philip Behrman (misspelled Behlman on the Certificate), Philip Behrman, worked in the office of a hat company. Bertha enrolled in a six-month commercial course and then began working as a bookkeeper for the Irving Hat Stores.
Career
In 1915 in the NY State census, Bertha, Philip and baby Mildred were living with his family at 20 E 111th Street. It says he is a hatter and she does housework. Alexander crafted her first doll during World War I. Due to the embargo on German-made products during wartime, porcelain dolls were no longer available and Maurice's doll hospital was on precarious footing. Alexander suggested creating a Red Cross Nurse cloth doll with hand-painted, three-dimensional facial features. She and her sisters sewed a variety of these dolls to sell in the doll hospital, priced at $1.98 apiece, thus rescuing the family's livelihood. She and her sisters continued producing cloth dolls after the war ended. In 1917, according to Philp's World War 1 draft card, they were living at 945 East 181st St., Bronx Park South.
In 1923, with a $1,600 loan, she established the Alexander Doll Company in a one-room studio, employing her sisters and neighbors, a total of 16 people. In the mid-1920s, she entreated her husband to quit his job and become the company manager, threatening him with divorce if he refused. Later that decade, she acquired a $5,000 loan to move the business to a storefront. In 1930, they lived at 278 Bronx Park South, in The Bronx. Philip's occupation was listed as "doll manufacturer", Bertha's was listed as "none", and they had a maid named Elva Matzen.
With a savvy eye for marketing and innovation, Alexander became a leader in the American dollmaking industry. In 1936, Fortune magazine listed the Alexander Doll Company as one of the top three doll manufactures in the United States; the company would go on to become the largest dollmaker in the country, operating out of several factories and employing 1,500 at its peak. During the 1980s, Alexander Doll Company released more than one million dolls annually. In 1947 she began producing dolls from hard plastic, and in the 1960s turned to vinyl plastic, which rendered a more lifelike appearance. She introduced "eyes with lashes that closed and fingers with knuckles", and rooted hair that could be styled. She researched historical and cultural dress to fashion accurately-detailed dolls clothing, and insisted on quality workmanship. Materials used to clothe the dolls were made of "silks, velvets, satins and other fine fabrics".