When dolls, sandals and biros were made in Hamilton
Who remembers getting a doll for Christmas? I certainly remember getting my first one: she could cry, close her eyes and move her arms and legs ... a treasure who lies today in the top of my wardrobe. I would like to think she was made here in Hamilton by Mortie Foreman’s Plastic Products, but my older sister recalls our two dolls arriving in a large box, from grandma in England.
I might not have had a Plastic Products doll, but thousands of other children here and overseas did.
According to David Coy, the Foremans’ biographer, “The dolls the Foremans produced in the early 1940s were one of New Zealand’s first non-agricultural exports”. Mortie and his son Bill “created companies with international reputations for their technological achievements”.
Foreman was born in the United Kingdom in 1902.
His father was an engineer and Mortie attended a private grammar school until leaving at 17 to work as an apprentice as a fitter and turner at an iron foundry, brass foundry and machine shop, where he gained a wide range of experience.
He brought that experience to New Zealand in 1925.
In 1936, after a few years working in the motor industry he came to Hamilton to join up with Ted Valintine, the Todd Motors distributor, as Valintine and Foreman. However, the following year he set up his own business, Foreman Motors.
At the beginning of WWII, Foreman began looking to get out of the motor industry and begin manufacturing something that would not be reliant on imports.
After “a rudimentary market survey” conducted in Victoria St, Foreman found that there was difficulty in importing toy dolls.
In 1940 he set about experimenting with moulding a mixture of sawdust, casein and formaldehyde into the various parts of a doll until after months of experimentation he finally achieved a saleable product.
For the early dolls, only the head and arms were made of this plastic, the body being fabric stuffed with flock.
Foreman’s dolls were produced in Hamilton from 1940, and his Plastic Products business was established.
Plastic Products’ first factory was in the rear of Foreman Motors in Hood St, but later occupied a much larger building at the south end of Victoria St.
The business and the range of products increased dramatically, so that by the time Plastic Products opened their new factory in Foreman Road in 1963, there was a staff of 180. It had become one of the biggest plastic moulding companies in New Zealand.
Other products were torch cases, toy motor cars and aeroplanes, soap boxes and Bic biros, squeeze bottles and a range of household utensils and fittings. With the assistance of engineer Doug Wenham and others, Foreman developed plastic components of milking machines, milk flow meters and vacuum regulators for the dairy industry.
(For a comprehensive description of the many innovations in engineering and technical processes involved in the manufacture of the dolls and later products, see The Foremans: Plastics Manufacturers of Hamilton, 1945-1995, by David Coy.)
Mortie’s oldest son Bill started working for Mortie at Plastic Products in 1953 but then established Trigon, in 1970. Mortie retired in 1963 when the company merged with Alex Harvey & Sons, but he retained a directorial role.
Mortie Foreman married twice: his first wife, Kathleen (Kar) Ferguson, died in 1975, and Mortie married Yvonne Procuta in 1989.
Mortie Foreman died in June 1992 aged 90 years and was buried in Hamilton East Cemetery’s A Block alongside the graves of his parents, wife and other family members.
The Waikato Museum and Auckland Museum each have Plastic Products dolls in their collections.
Russell and Maureen Cassey also have a doll, named Belinda, in their care.
Stephanie Clark, writing for the Dictionary of New Zealand Biography summed up Foreman:
“Innovative, energetic and creative, Mortie Foreman was a problem-solver who saw the potential in people and products and made the best use of both … he placed great emphasis on training and apprenticeship”.
I may have mis-remembered owning a Plastic Products doll, but I definitely had some of Plastic Products’ Kewpee Sandals: plastic with straps and buckles, quite a sturdy sole, great for wading through puddles and streams.