Do you love me? Give me a kiss. I love you. Let’s play school. Please brush my hair. Please take me with you. May I have a cookie? Let’s have a party! What can we do now? Will you change my dress? I’m so tired!

I love you. I hurt myself Will you play with me? Please change my dress. Let’s play house. I’m hungry Please carry me Where are we going? Tell me a story I’m sleepy. Please brush my hair.

The original Chatty Cathy blurted out 11 bon mots in two versions. “I love you” and “Please brush my hair” were the only repetitions, apparently regarded as the primal utterances of pubescent baby boomer girls.

The first successful talking doll was so popular her named entered boomer vocabulary: “One cup of java in the morning and she turns into a chatty cathy.” Only Barbie is better known and racked up more sales in the 1960s. Both were conceived by Mattel and introduced in 1959, a fertile year for the doll maker.

Chatty Cathy was designed to be unpredictable, just like a human—pull her string and phrases cascaded out randomly. On occasion, the mechanism caught and she would spit out the same words in annoying ad infinitum, sounding very much like a real kid.

Once it was clear that Cathy was a hit on the baby boomer block, the mother company had a series of new arrivals: Chatty Baby, Tiny Chatty Baby, Tiny Chatty Brother, Charmin’ Chatty and (it was inevitable) Singin’ Cathy.

“I want all of them, Mommy.” Imagine the whole doll family going off at the same time.

Baby boomers Maureen McCormick and Eve Plumb, who would graduate to play sisters on the Brady Bunch, cut their acting teeth on the early doll commercials. When a remake of Chatty was produced in 1970, Maureen was the perfect choice for the new Chatty doll voice. Once Chatty paved the way, talking dolls hit the market as fast as talking movies in the old days. Porky Pig and Herman Munster were only the baby boomer vanguard of the sound revolution.

Trivia Factoids

• Chatty Cathy is a hot collectible. The original line, produced from 1960 to 1964, will bring $200-300 even for a mute model in excellent condition. Most costly are the #1 issue, less produced Canadian versions, and black Chattys. Boomers recapturing their childhoods are the principal collectors.

• Gieko insurance commercials feature an old television ad with Cathy uttering statements about how she got a better deal with the company.

• The original Chatty doll voice was the same actress who did the sweet warble of Rockey J. Squirrel in Rocky & Bullwinkle cartoons.

Baby Boomer Trivia Questions

►Match Game: Connect the celebrities with the products they endorsed

Orson Wells
Bruce Willis
Richard Gere
Jerry Seinfeld

Credit Card, Photocopier, Coffee Maker, Vodka

►What was the first product to use a jingle on television?

Ajax
Chevrolet
Texaco
Gillette

Answers to Boomer Trivia Questions at end of post

Answers to Baby Boomer Trivia Questions

►Match Game

Orson Wells→ Photocopier
Bruce Willis→ Vodka
Richard Gere→ Coffee Maker
Jerry Seinfeld→ Credit Card

►The first commercial jingle on American television was for Ajax Cleanser in 1948.

You’ll stop paying the elbow tax
when you start cleaning with Ajax.
Use Ajax
Bum-bum
The foaming cleanser
Bum-bum-bum-bum
Floats the dirt, right down the drain
Bum-Bum-Bum-Bum-Bum.

Watch the commercial.  Click on→ AJAX