For some of us, dolls are sinister, nightmare-inducing creatures with distant, glassy eyes that follow us around while they plot our demise in their little doll heads.
Maybe these fears stem from a childhood misgiving, like cutting off most of P.J. Sparkle’s hair and dyeing it a magical shade of florescent that can only be achieved with a stolen green highlighter. Seemed like a good idea at the time, but what we ended up with was a deranged, wild-eyed goblin baby that vowed to eat us the next time we succumbed to slumber.
Still, there are some who regard dolls as a cherished childhood toy that embodies love and security. Those people are whom Australia’s Doll Hospital caters to. In a warehouse stacked to the ceiling with accumulated doll parts, “head doll surgeon” Geoff Chapman works to restore ragged childhood dolls to their former glory, repairing the silent victims of sibling rivalry or a teething puppy. He is the third-generation owner of the hospital, which started as an offshoot of a general store that received a shipment of damaged dolls.
Fair warning -in this hospital for broken dolls, there are things that can’t be unseen.
Source: Concrete Playground
Source: Daily Mail
Source: Daily Mail
Source: Business Insider
Over three million aggressively-loved playthings have been “operated on” by Geoff and his employees since the hospital started doing business in 1913. “We’re one of the last ones that does everything, when it comes to dolls, there’s very few that are capable of that sort of work,” he says.
Source: Daily Mail
Source: Daily Mail
Source: Totally Cool Pix
Currently, the doll hospital has 12 doctors on staff at the suburban South Sydney shop. Like doctors who work on real people, these “MDs” have specialties like eyes, limbs or hair.
Source: Daily Mail
Source: Business Insider
Business really boomed during the Second World War. Because of changed import laws, it was almost impossible to purchase new dolls, so the old ones had to be repaired to satiate the kids. Said Chapman, “My father was through the war years, that was the busiest time at the Doll Hospital. At the peak they had 70 staff and six workrooms.” Nowadays older women comprise the doll hospital’s main clientele, seeking help in preserving a doll for their grandchildren.
Source: Concrete Playground
Source: Totally Cool Pix
Source: Business Insider
“When they were children they possibly only got one doll, not a new doll every time you go down the supermarket like it happens today. That’s why it’s so emotional,” Chapman explains. With immediacy defining everything from toys to food today, it’s really no wonder why this is the only repair shop of this magnitude left. The world being as it is, they still repair close to 200 dolls a week.
Source: Concrete Playground
Source: Concrete Playground
“I think there were lots of budding hairdressers that took to their dolls and thought it was going to grow back. Well it didn’t grow back, did it?” Chapman says with a laugh. If there’s one thing they can rely on, it’s that kids will always be kids.
Source: Concrete Playground
Source: Concrete Playground
Oh yeah… and that disembodied doll parts will always scare the stuffing out of some of us. Rely on that.
