A CLOSER LOOK: The Annette Cheerios Cereal Box

When it comes to Annette cut-out dolls, it's fair to say that among the rarest isn't one of the brightly colored doll books produced by Whitman Publishing for retail markets between 1956 and 1962...but rather an Annette doll offered for free on the back of a cereal box!  In 1958, General Mills included an Annette cut-out doll on the packaging of Cheerios breakfast cereal.  The doll, doll stand and a few outfits and accessories were printed directly on the back and left-hand side panel of the box, ready to test one's scissor skills and provide hours of playtime fun.

While vintage, uncut cereal box panels with the Cheerios doll will surface from time-to-time on the collectors market, surprisingly, the front panel featuring unique and charming artwork of Annette promoting the doll included with purchase was rarely if ever preserved.  Even rarer are complete, fully assembled boxes which are nearly impossible to find today.

Given it's scarcity, I feel especially fortunate to be able to share with you a surviving example of a fully assembled Cheerios box to show exactly how the Annette Cheerios cut-out doll was presented and arrived at homes and family breakfast tables across America over 60 years ago.

Lets take "a closer look"...


*Click on images to view larger

First, here's a close-up look at the artwork from the front of the Cheerios box showing Mouseketeer Annette holding her own cut-out doll dressed in the western outfit - one of three outfit options included on the box.

At the same time General Mills was offering the free Annette doll for girls, the right-hand side panel of the box promoted an alternate option on Cheerios boxes for boys - a free cut-out basketball game!  Below that, ingredients and dietary information for the cereal are listed.

Here's the back panel of the box featuring the Annette doll, doll stand, western outfit and hat and a belted dress and bag, in addition to the following instructions: 

Here's how to have fun with your Annette doll.  Carefully cut out the doll and all the costumes and accessories. Leave the tabs on the dresses.  Attach stand "A" to the doll by placing it across the cut out slit at Annette's feet and pushing up.  Then dress the doll.  Flowers, bag or card fit into the cut out slit in Annette's left hand.  Western hat fits over her head after you cut open the dotted slit.  Dresses fit on when the tabs are folded around back.  You can get Whitman's new Annette Cutout Doll Book now at your favorite store - only 29 cents. 

Moving on to the left-hand side of the box, we find the third and most iconic outfit of all - Annette's Mouseketeer outfit.  This panel featuring the instantly recognizable sweater, pleated skirt and mouse ears also included a couple additional doll accessories: a bouquet of flowers and greeting card.

While the top of the box didn't exhibit any special graphics promoting the free Annette doll on the box...

...the bottom of the box did!!

Here's the back and left-hand side panels from an unused and never assembled Annette Cheerios box.  Notice that the bottom box flap with the Annette doll wording and the top flap with the perforated pull strip are still intact.  Sadly, even this new old stock cereal box is missing the front box panel with the additional Annette art carefully removed at a time when it was thought the doll set itself was the only thing worthy of preservation.

The doll on the Cheerios box is of the same design as this one (pictured in blue) from Annette's very first cut-out doll book, Walt Disney's Mouseketeer Annette, released by Whitman Publishing in 1956.  While the size, outfit color and some details differ, the silhouette is identical.  

Speaking of size...cereal boxes were much smaller in the '50s than they are today.  Cheerios was sold in 7 oz. boxes measuring 9.5'' H X 6.75" W X 3'' D.

Always proud to showcase relics from her career around the house, in the early '90s, Annette began displaying a set of Cheerios cut-out dolls on the wall adjacent her own kitchen table (pictured above on the wall behind her husband, Glen).  Matted in blue and framed in gold, the doll set escaped the 2011 house fire and was proudly displayed among other surviving keepsakes in her new home near Bakersfield for the remainder of her days.