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Trivial, Perhaps. But We're Curious...
To be fair, the same syndicated AP story appearing above in newspapers around the country had our call letters in their proper order. Of a dozen U.S. papers checked only this one (from a paper which shall remain unnamed) seemed to have some difficulty.
However, we also checked on how this story was reported in seven British papers. None mentioned WNYC. The girl's hometown broadsheet, The Lancashire Evening Post, reported on Christmas Eve that her mother had written to Mayor La Guardia saying her daughter "had no dolls and she did not look like getting any this Christmas [sic]. She had heard that in America there was a plentiful supply of everything, including dolls." All British newspapers reported the doll's arrival in London on Christmas Eve and booking on a train to St. Helens, England, before going missing.
But wait, there's more! A second AP dispatch out of St. Helens, on December 28th reported that Allison's old doll was held together with adhesive tape, but that the replacement doll arrived late. "LaGuardia's gift, resplendent in a yellow organdy dress arrived two days after Christmas, but its head was broken after the 3,000-mile trip."
A query with the University of Miami archives where the Pan-American World Airways papers are housed turned up no accounts of the flight. We're checking with our friends at the New York Municipal Archives. There's a chance Allison is still around, and the doll too. Perhaps we'll have all the facts by Christmas. :)
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