The Silver Box is celebrating a birthday. Well, to be more precise, two birthdays.
Martha Soles, owner of the Gloucester Main Street boutique, will turn 60 on Friday. And another famous lady was also born that same year, 1959—the Barbie doll. Soles is celebrating both birthdays with a special window display.
A Barbie enthusiast ever since she got her first doll, Soles has been a serious collector of all things Barbie for the better part of 40 years. She still has that first doll, as well as the very first Ken (with flocked or fuzzy hair), as well as Midge, Francie, Tutti and the rest of Barbie’s friends.
She also has Barbie’s first Dream House (made of cardboard), her first convertible car, as well as countless outfits (many in their original boxes), books, magazines, and every other conceivable accessory, most of which currently fill the two front windows of the Silver Box.
One window contains early Barbie memorabilia, from 1959 to roughly 1965-66. The other has more...
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