Was it a reflection of the onslaught of the machine age?

That same year, a docile egghead with painted squiggle hair and mere dots for sad cartoon eyes was seen in windows. Did this creature know what had happened on Wall Street?

Even the felt children by Siegel only had the slightest cryptic notation for eyes and mouths. These children definitely were to be seen and not heard. And Gems Ltd. (the London-based company now known as Gemini Mannequin, Inc.) advertised in its catalog a girl with eyes closed. She stood on her toes with ankles crossed in a dreamlike dance pose and arms gracefully outstretched.

Wax and plaster mannequins continued to be manufactured concurrently with the new abstract, stylistic papier-mâché figures. By the late ‘30s, heads of plaster composition became prevalent. One young woman with an overtone of a “gentle marm” had glass eyes combined with the plaster, which created that odd look of papier-mâché heads back in the late 1800s, i.e., as if some human visage were concealed behind a mask.

Smiles revealing teeth became more and more common, during this era. Heinrich Obermaier was manufacturing wholesome, cheerful schoolboy look.

Kathe Kruse (Kathe Kruse no longer makes mannequins, but continues to manufacture dolls in Germany) was producing the “happy family” with skin made of molded felt that gave the collection a softer overtone less stylistic than the mannequins of plaster did.

More and more, emotions continued to be conveyed on mannequin faces. Gems Ltd. created a family scene where a husband and wife expressed surprise and puzzlement when they found their children had turned the dining room into a makeshift train. One male by Heinrich Obermaier actually had furrowed brows. And even a look of cool sophistication was communicated in both face and body attitude.

Between the late 1930s and mid 1940’s, the female characterization ranged from the "woman of the world" to the "American pert and perky doll" to the "vision of purity" to the somber and concerned woman waiting for the return of her husband from the war.