Kay Jay’s a tradition for 5 generations
By MARJORIE PRESTON Staff Writer

OCEAN CITY—The back of the store is filled with disembodied heads staring out from shelves, baskets piled high with arms and legs, and hanks of shiny hair suspended from hooks. The effect might be eerie if this wasn’t Kay Jay’s Doll Shoppe, where little girls and their mothers have come for 23 years to assemble their own baby dolls, dress them, and take them home. “It’s nice to say, ‘I can make a doll myself, it wasn’t made in a factory,’” says Katy Himes, of the multi-generational doll dynasty that began around the time of the Second World War. In the 1940s, her grandfather opened Emmert’s Doll Hospital in Center City Philadelphia (his father had also operated a toy store). Himes’ mom, Kathryn Jayne, picked up the mantle in the mid 1980s, when she opened the store named for her in Ocean City. Now Himes and her own daughters—Rachael, Jamie, Maggie and April—are continuing the family tradition at the store’s fourth downtown location, on Asbury Avenue. Kay Jay herself, now 78, is still active as the company’s doll doctor. “We still have endless doll parts and stuff from (the original) store,” says Himes. “For a while we taught porcelain doll-making, but the average vacationer is here for a week, and you can’t make a porcelain doll in a week.” The molded vinyl dolls, on the other hand, can be completed in about an hour. It’s especially fun, says Himes, to make a doll to your own specifications, choosing from 40 faces, seven eye colors, and three skin tones. “All in all, there are 500,000 different combinations,” she says. It was almost inevitable that Kay Jay Nichols, her children and grandchildren end up in the doll business. “I grew up in it,” Nichols says. “I used to go to work with my father on Sundays, when the store was closed. I remember sitting by the radiator because it was so cold, folding greeting cards” (which he sold along with the dolls). By the time she was a teenager, she was attending industry auctions with her dad in New York. Nichols says most girls have at least one doll they truly love and cherish. “People don’t realize how strong children feel about their dolls. It’s like a close friend. It’s the memories and the closeness. That’s why they’ve been making dolls since time began, when it was just a twig with a string around it. … I still have the first doll that my grandmother on my mother’s side bought when I was born. It’s a 24-inch baby doll. I named her Mary Lou.” She also had a beloved Italian-made Lenci doll she gave as a gift to a close friend. “She just lusted after that doll, so I gave it to her for her birthday one year. She says if she dies first, she’ll give it back,” Nichols says. Kay Jay’s stocks more than 1,000 dolls for children and collectors, including Madame Alexander, Mary Hoyer, Berengeur and Adora. The store also features hand-made clothing for American Girl dolls. Sorry, no Barbies, says Nichols. “We did sell Barbies, but it just didn’t go for us. (Mattel) would say they were making a limited edition of 1,000, and you buy it on that premise because it’s worth more. Then they’d turn around and say, ‘Well, people were calling for it,” and make more, which puts the value of the doll down. I got tired of that.” In 1998, Mattel acquired the monolithic American Girl franchise, formerly owned by Pleasant Company. “I hope they don’t ruin it,” said Nichols. Kay Jay’s offers items with a local flavor for doll lovers, including an Ocean City outfit for American Girl-size dolls. “”We try to tie in the community,” says Himes. “It has a visor, a camera, water bottle, (Boardwalk) ride tickets, an Ocean City T-shirt, sunglasses.” “My mother doesn’t sleep,” says her daughter, Rachael. “She’s constantly thinking up these things.” A back-to-school set includes backpack, clipboard, stapler, etc. And Halloween costumes for dolls sell briskly. “I’ll get in 25 costumes, and before you know it, they’re gone,” says Himes. “The dolls have a better wardrobe than me.” Kay Jay says she is uncertain if her granddaughters will continue the family business. Rachael, for one, says, “I’m not much of a doll person.” “They love it, but they may want to do something more lucrative, who knows,” Nichols says. She, for one, will keep going as long as she can. “I could write a book, especially about the repairs. Most of it is restringing. Sometimes the doll is not worth anything, but it’s sentimental. We can’t keep up with the repairs. That part of it will die with me.”