Rodney, Leonie and Mel Stott

Cupie dolls are one of the most iconic symbols of the Royal Melbourne Show. Edith (Edie) and Lindsay Stott began hand-making cupie dolls to sell at the Show in the 1940s, and they quickly developed a cult-like following, inspiring generations of show-goers.

Edie and her sister Melba (Mel) Scott worked together all year, getting ready for the Show. Mel remembers, ‘we had to sew nearly all the year round’. Edie and Lindsay’s son Rodney married Leonie and they later took over the running of the family’s stalls. Leonie remembers Edie’s process for creating the dolls before the Show every year:

My memory of the preparation of the dolls was that Rod's mum [Edie] would sew for months and months, and was always on the lookout for lace and fabrics, and went to the Victoria Market and had a few places that she would collect that from … The sewing would have been all year long, and then there'd be a really concerted effort where we'd all be sitting in the kitchen gluing and glittering dolls, and then like eleven o'clock you'd stop and have supper … In those days the back of your whole stand was dolls … That stock had to be replenished every day, so they were working all through the Show as well. 

The stalls grew under Edie and Lindsay’s leadership and by the time Rodney was a teenager, his parents had 11 different stalls and two showbag stands. Rodney remembers: ‘I used to run the stock in my early teens and that absolutely exhausted me … 11 stands to keep stocked up, and the showbags too’.

It was a family affair getting ready for the Show each year, and making the cupie dolls was by far the most labour-intensive process. Weekends were spent glittering heads, hands and feet, sewing dresses, threading tulle, and making wings and canes. But it was a labour of love, as Mel remembers:

Both Edie and I really loved it. She'd ask me for ideas and sometimes I'd have them, sometimes they'd work, sometimes they wouldn't. It was an enjoyable time and I used to love the Show, I was a Show girl in the finish … I loved every minute of the Show.

A testament to the popularity of the cupie doll and the commitment of the Stott family is that they still sell the dolls the same way they did in the 1940s – on a stick. While many things have changed at the Royal Melbourne Show, the cupie dolls have not, and that is what makes them so special. ‘They’re an icon … something that so clearly states your childhood’, says Leonie. The nostalgia they inspire amongst Show patrons is something the whole Stott family has observed firsthand. From little girls to old ladies, the cupie dolls attract people of all ages.