Rita Hayworth stripped to her lace teddy and was provided with trunks full of accessorized outfits for every possible movie-star occasion. But there were male dolls, too, that were produced over the years, the guys who were supplied with terry cloth robes and tuxes to place over their skivvies.

It was the paper doll images of movie stars that really caught the public's fancy. The forerunner was probably a Charlie Chaplin pantine (a jointed pasteboard doll) made about 1919. Before long, several newspapers were presenting a star and his/her wardrobe every Sunday in the comics section. In October of 1919, for example Douglas Fairbanks appeared in his underwear and garters in the Boston Sunday Post. The St. Louis Post Dispatch Magazine printed 252 sets of motion-picture paper dolls from November 1931 to August 1936, about half of which were men, including Clark Gable, Maurice Chevalier, William Powell, Leslie Howard, and the considerably slenderized Oliver Hardy, Charles Laughton and W.C. Fields. And Laura Brock paper dolls, including Cary Grant and Gary Cooper, were seen in such papers as the Los Angeles Times.

It was in the early 1940s that beefcake entered the picture. One of the most popular cutout books of all time was "Gone With the Wind," heavily featuring virile Rhett Butler. From then on, it seemed, every major male star had his own book, from cowboy heroes like Gene Autry and Roy Rogers to matinee idols like Tyrone Power and Rock Hudson, to young (at the time) favorites like Mickey Rooney.

The '50s saw a boom in TV-show-inspired paper doll books, enabling kids to cut out and dress Greg, Peter and Bobby of "The Brady Bunch," the Cartwright brothers of "Bonanza," Ed "Kookie" Burns and even Jackie Gleason. Pat Boone became the wholesome subject of his own cutout book in 1959, and later Elvis and Beatles fan got their chance to dress and undress their idols.

One of the last popular paper boys was Ronald Reagan, who was depicted on his cover wearing patriotic undershorts.

Linda Rosenkrantz has edited Auction magazine and authored 18 books, including "Cool Names for Babies" and "The Baby Name Bible" (St. Martin's Press). Visit her baby names website at http://nameberry.com. She cannot answer letters personally.