Doll Featured in 'Lost LA' Inducted Into National Toy Hall of Fame

Lost LA

Baby Nancy, a pioneering Black doll featured in a recent episode of Lost L.A. (a co-production of the USC Libraries and KCET), has been inducted into the National Toy Hall of Fame. Manufactured in Los Angeles by the Shindana Toy Company, Baby Nancy was among the first dolls designed by Black toymakers specifically for Black children. Soon after her debut in 1968, Baby Nancy revolutionized the toy industry, prompting major manufacturers like Mattel to produce similarly "ethnically correct" Black dolls.

Lost L.A.'s Season 4 episode "Shindana Toy Company" featured interviews with three former Shindana dressmakers, doll collector Billie Green (pictured above), and with two leading figures behind Shindana's parent company, Operation Bootstrap, a community empowerment organization founded in South Los Angeles in the wake of the Watts Uprising.