Tribes of Toy Nation: The Toy Healers

Toy Nation lost a citizen last week. He was 83 years old and he was the Chief Surgeon” at the New York Doll Hospital in Manhattan. His name was Irving Chais and, according to The New York Times, he and his company had, over many years, “reattached thousands of heads, arms and legs; re-implanted fake hair shorn by scissor-wielding toddlers; and soothed the feelings of countless doll lovers, young and old…”

The fact that a man like “Dr. Chais” could make a living out of repairing dolls for almost 60 years speaks to how much dolls and toys can mean to people. “Dr. Chais” had been interviewed many times over the years and he was quoted as saying: “People get very attached to these things. Sometimes you have dolls and animals that have been in the family for five and six generations…He said a 90-year-old man had recently come in with a Popeye doll he really cared about…It was like he was a 6-year-old kid.”

We in Toy Nation do far more than make “products.” We make keepsakes that resonate with meaning through a lifetime and beyond. Pretty powerful stuff.