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Annalee Dolls, Inc., also known as Annalee Mobilitee Dolls Inc., and AMD Holdings Inc.,〔(AMD Holdings, Inc. Business Entity ). New Hampshire Corporation Division. Last Report April 10, 2009 8:00:00 AM. Accessed January 28, 2010〕〔(Annalee Dolls Inc. Business Entity ). New Hampshire Corporation Division. Last Report April 23, 2009. Accessed January 28, 2010〕 is a company located in Meredith, New Hampshire, that manufactures collectible dolls. The company was founded by Barbara Annalee Davis (later Thorndike) who died in 2002. At the company's height, it filled over of land dotted with seven buildings containing of space, and had US$15 million in sales with 300 employees. The popularity of Annalee Dolls led R. Stuart Wallace to write that "the most famous manufactured item to come from New Hampshire in the 20th century is the Annalee doll."〔 Annalee Dolls have reached up to $6,000 at auction. In 2008, the company closed its museum and sold its Meredith factory while as of 2006, there were only 30 employees.〔Amsden, Roger. (Annalee downsizes, outsources its way back to profitability ), ''New Hampshire Union Leader''. Oct. 23, 2006. Accessed January 17, 2010.〕 ==History== Barbara Annalee Davis was born in Concord, New Hampshire, in 1915,〔(Frequently Asked Questions ). ''Annalee Dolls Inc.'' Accessed January 17, 2010.〕 and grew up at 113 Centre Street in the same city.〔 Originally interested in puppetry as a young girl, she began creating dolls at a young age along with a friend. When her friend went off to college in the early 1930s, Annalee, as she was called, continued to create dolls and began to sell them through the League of New Hampshire Craftsmen. She soon moved to Boston and continued to sell her dolls, most notably to S.S. Pierce and Co.〔(Put on a Happy Face: Annalee Designer Reflects her Dolls ). ''The Telegraph''. December 17, 1989. Accessed January 17, 2010〕 In 1941, Annalee met Harvard graduate Charles "Chip" Thorndike. Soon thereafter, the two married and moved to Meredith, New Hampshire, where they raised a family and opened Thorndike's Eggs and Auto Parts, which survived until 1950. With the fall in price of eggs and poultry, Annalee wanted to see if she could make money selling her dolls again. The Thorndikes sold off a section of the poultry farm and used the profits to create a small line of skier dolls. The line was a success, and slowly the Annalee doll "Factory in the Woods" was born.〔 This continued until, in 1955, Annalee Mobilitee Dolls was incorporated as a company.〔(Museum- The Dolls of Annalee ). New Hampshire Historical Society. July 22, 2000. Accessed January 21, 2010〕 During the 1950s, stores in Manchester and Boston started buying Annalee dolls to decorate store windows, and Annalee was hired by New Hampshire to create dolls to be featured in tourism material. These dolls were on display at the Eastern States Exposition in Springfield, Massachusetts, and at the Rockefeller Center in New York City, both to advertise the state.〔 These promotional dolls were extremely popular; so popular in fact that by 1960 Annalee dolls were being sold in stores in forty states, Canada, and Puerto Rico.〔 In 1964, the day-to-day operation of doll making became too big for the Thorndikes' house. At this time they moved the operations out of the house and into a "factory in the woods". 〔 Over time, the factory expanded to eventually fill over fourteen acres of land dotted with seven buildings containing of space.〔 Annalee Dolls came into the spotlight again when, in 1975, a New Hampshire state legislator gave then-president Gerald Ford a selection of dolls to decorate the White House Christmas tree.〔 In 1990, Annalee Dolls became the headgear sponsor for Christopher Pederson, a member of the United States Ski Team. The Annalee logo was placed on all of his headgear (helmets, hats, etc.), and in exchange the company sold a special "Victory Ski Doll" of which five percent of the sales went to the ski team.〔(Annalee Dolls Sponsors U.S. Ski Team Member ) ''The North Conway Reporter''. December 26, 1990. Accessed January 17, 2010.〕 In 1992, Annalee and Chip gave each of their sons, Townsend and Charles, 48 percent of the doll making company, and in 1995, Charles took control of the everyday operations of Annalee dolls.〔(Thorndike v. Thorndike, 910 A. 2d 1224 - NH: Supreme Court 2006 )〕 During the later part of the 1990s, the market for collectibles began to fall, and many companies began to outsource their operations. Annalee was one of these companies. In 2001, all construction of dolls and other collectibles was outsourced overseas, while the design and marketing departments stayed in Meredith.〔 A short time after this switch in business model, on April 7, 2002, Annalee Thorndike died.〔 In 2008, after a string of lawsuits between the two sons of Annalee Thorndike over ownership of the company, including a case heard by the New Hampshire Supreme Court,〔 Annalee Dolls was acquired by David Pelletier, Bob Watson, and the Imagine Company of Hong Kong, the company which builds the dolls. This same year, the company decided to sell their "Factory in the Woods". The Winnipesaukee Playhouse, a small 84-seat theater located in the Weirs Beach section of Laconia, purchased the Annalee Doll Factory site for 1.05 million dollars. The Playhouse plans to renovate the property to create a "Tanglewood type of setting" for their theatrical endeavors.〔(Annalee property sold for playhouse ). ''New Hampshire Business Review''. February 1, 2008. Accessed January 17, 2010〕 The plans are to move the theater from its current site in Weirs Beach to the site of Annalee's former gift shop. Annalee operates out of its corporate headquarters, a former chicken farm building on site.〔 This same year Annalee auctioned off a selection of dolls from their museum.〔(Annalee Sells Museum Dolls ). ''Playthings.com'' . June 3, 2008. Accessed Jan 17, 2010〕 Annalee Dolls is planning on moving its outlet store and offices to the site of a former grocery store located in the Old Province Common, on Route 104 in Meredith, and vacate the "Factory in the Woods" for good. The company hopes to "be in its new location and open by mid-July with the full move-in anticipated in September or October."〔Plummer, Erin. (Annalee Outlet Moving to former Jackson Star location ). GraniteStateNews.com. June 2, 2010. Accessed July 8, 2010〕 Annalee Dolls' creative director stated that "With all the construction going on around us for the Winni Playhouse, it was just time for us to make the jump to a new location."〔August, 24, 2010. Accessed August 24, 2010〕 David Pelletier, chief executive officer of Annalee Dolls, claims that “We can be wherever we want to be,” but since Annalee dolls has been associated with New Hampshire and especially Meredith since its beginnings, there "was value in terms of continuity of identity in remaining in Meredith."〔 The storefront Annalee Dolls is moving to contains , of which will be a retail store, with the rest being offices and warehouse space.〔Kitch, Michael. (leaving homestead but not home town http://www.laconiadailysun.com/LaconiaPDF/2010/8/24L.pdf ). Laconia Daily Sun.〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア(Wikipedia)』 ■ウィキペディアで「Annalee Dolls」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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