KINGFIELD -- What began as a childhood love for paper dolls became a career for Jenny Taliadoros.

After growing up cutting and folding paper dolls, Taliadoros now makes a living publishing themed magazines and books that include images of glamorous Hollywood stars of yesteryear -- celebrities Taliadoros often gets to meet.

She is the founder of Paper Studio Press, a paper-doll publishing company that caters to collectors and a new generation of children interested in fashion.

"Celebrities and paper dolls go together like peanut butter and jelly," Taliadoros said. "It's a huge connection. Celebrities were a big part of the paper doll business back in the '40s and '50s. There's just that glamour of Hollywood that you're drawn to; what the stars are wearing."

Taliadoros is a third-generation paper doll lover. Her adoration for the dolls, though, turned professional in 1991 when she took over Paper Doll Studio, a magazine started in 1984 by Taliadoros' mother, paper doll artist Judy M. Johnson. The magazine, published quarterly, was focused on art and fashion, with every issue promoting a different theme.

Taliadoros then took on publishing a second magazine in 1999, Paperdoll Review, which focuses on the nostalgia of paper dolls of the 1930s, '40s, '50s and '60s.

Both magazines talk a lot about paper dolls. But neither actually makes paper dolls, which spurred Taliadoros' next idea.

"(Paper dolls) are so hard to find in the collectors market, and when you do find them, they're expensive," she said. "Reproductions are easy to cut out and more affordable. Supply and demand got me into wanting to publish paper dolls."

She began to offer dolls through a mail-order business she began in 2000, selling other companies' dolls through her Web site. But the demand for dolls was still outpacing the supply, leading Taliadoros to up the output by publishing her own, original dolls, she said. She and 22 paper doll artists put together Paper Doll Artists Gallery in 2005, which boasted 22 original paper dolls. In the process, Taliadoros launched her own publishing imprint, Paper Studio Press.

"After I did that, the demand for the vintage style paper dolls seemed to be increasing, so that's what got me wanting to do the publishing of the old paper dolls and creating new titles of classic stars," she said.

"That's when we got going with Marilyn. That was my first licensed deal. I thought it would be impossible to afford paying for the license of Marilyn Monroe. But it's not just a flat fee for everything; they look at the specific project you're doing. It turned out that I thought I could pull it off."

The Marilyn Monroe Paper Doll book, by Marilyn Henry in 2007, was the first of what will be a long line of Hollywood star-themed dolls. Ginger Rogers Paper Dolls, also by Henry, and Betty Hutton Paper Dolls, by Judy M. Johnson, recently hit the stands. Also featured or to be featured: Marsha Hunt; Jane Powell; Esther Williams; Greta Garbo; Marlene Dietrich; Rhonda Fleming; Phyllis McGuire; Phyllis Diller; and Grease paper dolls featuring Olivia Newton-John.

Getting the licenses to produce the dolls can take anywhere from a month to a year. Many of the deals done with celebrities are done directly with the star. Others, through representatives.

"I have been able to meet some stars personally," Taliadoros said. "The paper dolls are warm to their hearts as well as the collectors; they tend to want to work out a contract. For example, with Esther Williams, I haven't met her personally, but I've communicated with her assistant, and we had a preliminary paper doll already done.

"From the time I mentioned it to her and she received the proof, she said everything she thought she'd want in it was in it. Artists chose things from her movies that were special or memorable and they were meaningful to Esther Williams herself."

How the dolls took off remains a mystery to Taliadoros.

"I think it had to do with branching out," she said. "I didn't just stay in my own little cocoon of my own category. If I was going to print it, I was dealing with volume. In order to sell that much, I had to find other suppliers, bigger category companies. Once you get started, you can't stop."

She won't have to stop any time soon. She has at least a dozen projects for 2009. Taliadoras declined to provide annual sales figures for her company but said there is an overabundance of work -- a good problem to have.

"It's really rewarding to bring so many aspects together and make something happen," Taliadoros said. "You're dealing with celebrities, lawyers, artists, contracts and insurance companies. All these things that can seem really daunting, and accomplishing it none the less. And, it makes so many people happy.

"In a way, I'm kind of a star-struck girl working out of my basement in Maine, to get a call from Paramount Studios or Esther Williams' office, or getting mail from Phyllis Diller. It's really fun and it's exciting to be a part of something Hollywood from Kingfield, Maine."

Sada Reed -- 621-5732

sreed@centralmaine.com