Irving D. Chais, Manhattan Doll Surgeon, Dies at 83
krishna....@gmail.com
the New York Doll Hospital in Manhattan reattached thousands of heads,
arms and legs; reimplanted fake hair shorn by scissor-wielding
toddlers; and soothed the feelings of countless doll lovers, young and
old, died on April 24 in Manhattan. He was 83 and lived in Manhattan.
His daughter Dana Pisani said he died after a long illness.
In a cluttered, brightly lighted second-floor workshop at 787
Lexington Avenue, between 61st and 62nd Streets, Mr. Chais and two
other doll doctors had hunched over operating tables (well, work
benches) since 1965. Stacked nearby were boxes labeled “hands,”
“fingers,” “wrists,” “wigs,” “German eyes,” “French eyes,” “American
eyes.” Lining the shelves and piled in boxes were thousands of dolls,
new and antique, from as far away as Afghanistan and China. Some were
the size of a clothespin, others as large as a 4-year-old child.
The hospital drew doll lovers from around the New York metropolitan
area. “There are certainly other individuals who repair dolls,” said
Donna Kaonis, the editor of Antique Doll Collector, a monthly
magazine, “but as far as I know it was the only retail establishment
in Manhattan that repaired dolls.” Over the years Mr. Chais was the
subject of many newspaper articles.
In 1987, when a New York Times reporter wandered into the hospital, a
70-year-old teddy bear had recently been checked in, the victim of a
dog attack. It was missing its nose, eyes and fistfuls of stuffing. It
probably cost its original owner $5, but the current owner had agreed
to pay $350 for its extensive surgery.
“We reconstructed the whole bear, and it looks fantastic,” Mr. Chais
said at the time. “People get very attached to these things. Sometimes
you have dolls and animals that have been in the family for five and
six generations.”
The New York Doll Hospital had been in Mr. Chais’s family since the
early 1900s, located at three other sites on the Upper East Side
before moving into the walk-up at 787 Lexington. It started as a
beauty parlor and wig store owned by a distant relative who had
refurbished her own childhood dolls and was soon receiving requests
from customers who wanted their own huggable toys repaired. Mr. Chais,
who had worked in the family business since 1945, bought it from his
sister Ann Lancet in the early 1960s and continued to run it until a
month ago.
“From plush to plastic, we fix it,” Mr. Chais said in 1993, pointing
out that he was as likely to be repairing a 19th-century automaton as
a Barbie. He said a 90-year-old man had recently come in with a Popeye
doll he really cared about. “It was like he was a 6-year-old kid.”
Irving David Chais was born in Brooklyn on Aug. 22, 1925, one of three
children of Abraham and Dora Metnick Chais. Besides his daughter Dana,
he is survived by another daughter, Alison Hirsch, and two
grandchildren. His marriage to the former Rose Kaufman ended in
divorce.
After graduating from Lincoln High School in Brooklyn and attending
City College of New York, Mr. Chais served in the Army during World
War II. He then joined the family business.
On Thursday Mr. Chais’s daughter Alison was at the hospital waiting
for the last few dozen customers to pick up their repaired loved ones.
The hospital will close by the end of May, she said.
“We’ve been in business since 1900,” Mr. Chais told The Times in 1990,
“and never lost a patient yet.”
--
Reminds me of the Typewriter repairman obit in the times 3 years ago:
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/21/nyregion/21ink.html