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The History of Little Orphan Annie

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In this book,the entire history of Little Orphan Annie is chronicled,from her conception at Harold Gray's drawing board to the musical-based movie of the early 1980s.

There is much detail and more than one chapter given to Harold Gray,the cartoonist who found in his Little Orphan Annie strip the perfect way to state his views on old-fashioned capitolism.He made it big as a cartoonist as "Daddy" Warbucks made it big as a millionaire.(It is not made clear how Warbucks got his fortune,but his name implies war-profiteering.He sure did go full-force as a munitions supplier during World war Two.)

Annie's earlier exploits-from the Home to the Warbucks mansion and onward-are fascinating for those who want to know the early history.Annie went through the Great Depression,the New Deal, World War Two,and more with references to Unions, organized labor,war profiteering,crime-controled groups,mental institutions and psychiatry that brought criticisms galore from many.

The later years are covered,too-after Gray's death when successors tried and failed to keep it going, the revival with the new stage-musical,the new Annie strip by Leonard Starr-and the musical-based movie.None of these are true continuations-but they show that Harold Gray's orphan can be timeless as well as timely.

I loved the fact that Annie was inspired by a real person. Author Harold Gray reported that Annie's origin lay in a chance meeting he had with a ragamuffin while wandering the streets of Chicago looking for cartooning ideas. Little Orphan Annie debuted as a comic strip in 1921. She was a generous, compassionate, optimistic orphan of no definitive age who never seems to age. She is highly independent and wanders through a corrupt world while experiencing a series of unrelated adventures. Beginning her life in a dreary orphanage, she is adopted by Daddy Warbucks, a wealthy industrialist. Her character is endearing and unique. Her best friend is her dog Sandy. Her life is complicated by thugs and gangsters, as well as do-gooders and bureaucrats. I was endeared by her character because of my own parallel experiences as an adoptee. Like Annie, I was unfamiliar with my own beginnings, I loved my dog, and was adopted by a wealthy grocer as told in my story Adoption Detective.

Judith Land author of Adoption Detective
Adoption Detective: Memoir of an Adopted Child