Gay Bob
Illustration — Creator Harvey Rosenberg displays two Gay Bob dolls Gay Bob is a doll created in 1977 and billed as the world's first openly gay doll. Bob was created by former advertising executive Harvey Rosenberg and marketed through his company, Gizmo Development. Bestowed with an Esquire magazine "Dubious Achievement Award" for 1978.
Gay Bob
- Region
- United States
VALÉORINE Encyclopedia
VALÉORINE documentary reading
Documentary summary
Illustration — Creator Harvey Rosenberg displays two Gay Bob dolls Gay Bob is a doll created in 1977 and billed as the world's first openly gay doll. Bob was created by former advertising executive Harvey Rosenberg and marketed through his company, Gizmo Development. Bestowed with an Esquire magazine "Dubious Achievement Award" for 1978.
Admitted source layer · organised and presented by VALÉORINE
Reference Check
Propose documentary evidence for Gay Bob. A contribution is never written directly as fact: identity, source, rights and evidence gates still decide.
Sign in to contribute
World of VALÉORINE
Documentary connections
Only confirmed graph relationships appear here. Images are shown only when their identity and reuse rights both pass the documentary gate.
Documentary evidence
Documentary basis
Authority files
gnd · 1350509760 · wikidata · Q4134786 · wikipedia · Gay Bob
In this article
Identity
Identity
Bob stands 13 in tall and was presented clothed in a flannel shirt, tight jeans and cowboy boots. He has one ear pierced. Bob's packaging box is decorated like a closet and included a catalog from which additional outfits could be ordered. Creator Rosenberg described the doll as resembling a cross between Paul Newman and Robert Redford. Bob is anatomically correct. Bob sparked outrage in at least one Ann Landers reader, who was inspired to write to decry the doll and predict that it would lead to the acceptance of other "disgusting" dolls like "Priscilla the Prostitute" and "Danny the Dope Pusher". Rosenberg had announced plans for a line of "permissive dolls", but no drug dealers or prostitutes. Ann replied that she would believe such a doll existed when she saw it in the stores, but that she was unlikely to see it in the sort of "respectable" stores she patronized.
Gay Bob is associated with United States.
Places
Named by the record
Places
Only places the record itself states, plotted where the house gazetteer settles their coordinates. Nothing is inferred from a name or a nationality.
- United States
Named but not plotted · 1
Gay Bob is associated with United States.
Country
Literature
Scholarly footprint
A count of publications is evidence of attention, not of standing, and is given here only as a measure.
Citations
References
Each reference names the institution holding it, so a reader may go to the document itself.
reference work
Secondary witnessreference work
Secondary witness
The Encyclopedia exists whether or not anything is for sale. Corrections are recorded rather than overwritten, and every version of this record is kept. Published 16 August 2026.
Elsewhere in Collectables
20,755 published records in this field, each with its sources named.
- Gauntlet IIWork
- Gauntlet IVWork
- Gauntlet LegendsWork
- Gautier–WehrléOrganisation
- GayBladeWork
- GaylordOrganisation
- GAZ GroupOrganisation
- gazambaTerminology
Best supported in this field
For owners
Own an object connected with Gay Bob?
A specialist will read what you send and tell you what the house can establish, what it cannot, and whether the object is suited to sale. There is no charge and no obligation. The object stays with you throughout; nothing is shipped to us unless it is arranged in writing beforehand.