Little Orphan Annie was a comic strip created by Harold Gray in 1924. Annie was a 12 year old girl endowed with wisdom and the innocence of eternal childhood. Harold Gray had definite political views on society, government and human nature. Gray had no problem airing these views and philosophies in Annie’s adventures. He used the character of Annie to speak to American Society and even though he made a few enemies in the process, the comic remained popular for 44 years until Gray’s death. Annie was considered an example of one of America’s heros, a seemingly weak little girl who had the ability to endure hardship and with strength of character and fight the good fight for society.
In Bridging the Generation Gap: Little Orphan Annie in the Great Depression, the author Stella Ress, explains how Annie, was not only a source of entertainment but was also a symbol of hope for those who were going through the trials and tribulations of the depression and World II. The comic strip gave them something to look forward to as they followed the adventures of Annie, Daddy Warbucks her rich caretaker, and her trusty little dog, Sandy.
The title is appropriate for the article as the author tells of how Annie bridged the gap between adults and children. The comic strip was first intended for children in the beginning and society views of children at that time were that they were small and stupid. The author expressed how there was a shift in the story line as the editors no longer wanted the cartoon to be addressed to penniless youngsters and wanted it to appeal to adults who had money to pay for the paper. She explains how Gray continued to use the animal motif to still appeal to young followers and mastered the narrative to appeal to mature audiences, as well, thus making adults interested in Annie,
as Gray was able to center the themes in Annie’s script around issues that society was going through at the time such as the struggle of the poor compared to the rich. Annie was depicted as being poor going to live in a mansion and surrounded by nobility, with Daddy Warbucks her caretaker, who was rich. The transition was brought with opposition from the editors as they suggested that Annie script should stay without change as being a poor little girl, on a farm, who would eventually end up in an orphan. The discontinuance of the article for a week brought on protest from her fans. The author Ress, gave a good depiction of how large Annie’s fan base was and just how popular she had become when the comic strip was stopped and how quickly she was put back into print. She describes the response from her fans as she tells it one dedicated reader commented the following: “Am glad indeed that “ Little Orphan Annie” has again made her appearance (p.785 paragraph II). Another reader wrote Annie's coming back into print helped them from committing a crime. The author’s depiction of Annie’s fans was appropriate in describing just what Annie was to her readers and what she meant to them.
The author was able to explain how Annie’s attraction, gave Gray the opportunity to make the character fit right into the lives and times of her fans. She expressed the fact that by the 1930s Annie appeal had grew to comic books, the silver screen and radio as well as the newspapers and Stated how the plot became intricate. One of the elements, that I found interesting that Stella Ress described was how Gray was able to keep Annie as an image and icon that adults and children could relate to, which was her youth, as Annie always remained 12 years old and even as adults were getting older, they found in Annie an image of youthfulness, that they wanted to continue and identify with. The 1920s was a youthful time, when society felt young and playful and emulated youth, as they wore the flapper dresses, and danced the Charleston. Some never wanted to grow old, and identified with Annie’s youthful looks . Others looked upon themselves as being cute and childlike. That period also had childlike stars who reflected the image of youth such as Mickey Rooney and Shirley Temple. Annie fit right in with that image with her curly hair, school dress, and bobby socks, always accompanied her cute little dog and having other childlike animal figures in the story line. The adult readers were also able to use Gray’s portrayal of Annie to explain their own lives. Gray was good at weaving story lines, to relate to the readers such as Annie and Daddy Warbucks facing financial difficulties of the Great Depression, and he displayed Daddy Warbucks losing his forturne and how he and Annie were forced to live on the streets as paupers but kept the episodes always with a glimmer of hope for the readers, as Annie, time and time again, beat the odds. Which was a message that even the rich in that period was suffering. I feel that the readers felt that they were not alone in what they were going through, and perhaps Annie helped some of them get through that bleak period. Gray was also able to provide a script that depicted Daddy Warbucks, as being more like a friend to Annie than a father figure, and this could have also bridged the communication gap between children and adults at that time.
The author of the article gave a clear description of how Annie was able to come in to the lives of both children and adults who identified with her. Gray’s ability keep Annie forever young and wise as a 12 year old child that endured some of the same hardships that society was going through at the time and beat the odds plus her youthfulness helped bridge the gap and keep Annie alive for her fans for 44 years.
References
Ress, S. (2010), Bridging The Gap: Little Orphan Annie In The Great Depression,
The Journal of Popular Culture, Volume 43, issue 4 (August 2010, p. 782-800,
ISSN: 0022-3840, DOI: 10.1111/j.1540-5931.2010.00770.x Blackwell Publishing, Inc
Retrieved January 20, 2011 from Franklin University Library,
