Rubber Dolly in USA...what is it?

[Xenophon PCDGS]

In the "Clapping Song" recorded many years ago by Shirley Ellis. mention is made of a mother buying a Rubber Dolly if the girl was good.. The girl in question must have been a certain age, as the song lyrics said that her Aunt had told the mother that the girl had kissed a soldier.

I recall that rubber dollies were non-slip platform based wheeled trucks used in American warehouses for the movement of stock, but I doubt if a mother would buy such an item for her daughter. Has anyone any ideas what a Rubber Dolly is in the USA?

 

[Peter Mugridge]

It is a 1930s-style rubber doll, which was a popular, flexible, and soft toy reward for being good.

Don't know where the yellow highlight has come from; I can't get rid of it...

 

[SJL2020]

In the "Clapping Song" recorded many years ago by Shirley Ellis. mention is made of a mother buying a Rubber Dolly if the girl was good.. The girl in question must have been a certain age, as the song lyrics said that her Aunt had told the mother that the girl had kissed a soldier.

I recall that rubber dollies were non-slip platform based wheeled trucks used in American warehouses for the movement of stock, but I doubt if a mother would buy such an item for her daughter. Has anyone any ideas what a Rubber Dolly is in the USA?

Iggy Pop referenced the same lyric in the intro to his song Loco Mosquito (1980)

 

[Acathater]

two earlier versions with different lyrics, both dating to the 1940s

however there's a suggestion on one of those that it dates back to the 1860s

my guess is that there's no mystery - it simply references an early rubber toy doll, as opposed to a cloth/rag doll or wooden one

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

my guess is that there's no mystery - it simply references an early rubber toy doll, as opposed to a cloth/rag doll or wooden one

In my posting earlier, I mentioned the girl had kissed a soldier, so she was too old for such toys.

 

[Acathater]

In my posting earlier, I mentioned the girl had kissed a soldier, so she was too old for such toys.

In the USA late 1800s / early/mid 1900s things were much less sophisticated especially in rural areas. Quite possible the song could be about a 13 or 14 year old who still played with dolls while at the same time secretly having a crush on an older boy. Note that neither of the two older versions I linked to mentioned a soldier - instead a "feller" is stated

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 19 Feb 2026 ==

Thinking a bit more about it, the song as recorded by Shirley Ellis is a nonsense song anyway with added verses which make no sense
i.e.

[Verse 1]
Three, six, nine, the goose drank wine
The monkey chewed tobacco on the streetcar line
The line broke, the monkey got choked
And they all went to heaven in a little row-boat

[Chorus]
Clap-Pat
Clap-Pat
Clap-Pat
Clap-Slap

[Bridge]
Clap-Pat, clap your hand, pat it on your partner's hand ,right hand
Clap-Pat, clap your hand, cross it with your left arm, pat your partner's left palm
Clap-Pat, clap your hand, pat your partner's right palm with your right palm again
Clap-Slap, clap your hands, slap your thighs, and sing a little song; go:

[Verse 2]
My mother told me
If I was good-ee
That she would buy me
A rubber dolly

My aunty told her
I kissed a soldier
Now she won't buy me
A rubber dolly

Also note the wiki entry for the song at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Clapping_Song
says this

The song and partial lyrics is mentioned in To The Last Ridge by W. H. Downing, a memoir of an Australian soldier in WW1 published in 1920, referring to an incident in 1916

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Thinking a bit more about it, the song as recorded by Shirley Ellis is a nonsense song anyway with added verses which make no sense

As a young child in the early 1950s, I recall girls singing nonseanse songs when involving the two holders of a skipping rope or a single girl with three balls bouncing off a wall.

Edward Lear was noted for nonsense poems... "The Owl and the Pussy Cat" being a good example of his works.