MISLEADING AND MISREPRESENTING THE AMERICAN YOUTH: “LITTLE ORPHAN ANNIE” AND THE ORPHAN MYTH IN THE TWENTIETH CENTURY

______

A Senior Honors Thesis

Presented to

The Faculty of the Department

of The Honors College

University of Houston

______

In Partial Fulfillment

of the Requirements for the Degree of

Bachelor of Arts

______

By

Amanda G. Beck

May 2020

MISLEADING AND MISREPRESENTING THE AMERICAN YOUTH: “LITTLE ORPHAN ANNIE” AND THE ORPHAN MYTH IN THE TWENTIETH CENTURY

______Amanda G. Beck

APPROVED:

______Marina Trninic, Visiting Assistant Professor Honors College Thesis Director

______Douglas Erwing, Lecturer Honors College Second Reader

______Robert Cremins, Lecturer Honors College Honors Reader

______William Monroe Dean of the Honors College

! MISLEADING AND MISREPRESENTING THE AMERICAN YOUTH: “LITTLE ORPHAN ANNIE” AND THE ORPHAN MYTH IN THE TWENTIETH CENTURY

______

An Abstract of a Senior Honors Thesis

Presented to

The Faculty of the Department

of The Honors College

University of Houston

______

In Partial Fulfillment

of the Requirements for the Degree of

Bachelor of Arts

______

By

Amanda G. Beck

May 2020

! Abstract

______

This interdisciplinary thesis examines the myth of the orphan in twentieth-century

America as exemplified through the recurring story of “Little Orphan Annie,” an iconic

American figure of independence, resilience, and optimism. By providing historical context and literary analysis for each of Annie’s crucial moments in the twentieth century, this thesis shows how the character has advanced a misguided perception of orphan and youth agency. While evolving to represent different decades of American society in the twentieth century through different mediums, Annie has further misled Americans in their perception of orphan and youth agency. America’s failure to separate the fictional aspects of Annie’s life from the darker realities surrounding children, along with the country’s fascination with her triumphant narrative, has contributed to the misunderstanding of American youth.

! Table of Contents

Preface………………………………………………………………………………………...... p.1

Introduction…………………………………………………………………………………...... p.2

Chapter One: “Little Orphan Annie” Comic Strip from 1924-1968………………...……...... p.6

Media Form: The Comic Book………………………………...……………………...... p.6

The Beginning: 1924-1927…………………………………………………………...... p.7

The Great Depression: 1929-1931…………………………………………………...... p.10

World War II: 1941-1943…………………………………………………………...... p.15

Post-World War II: 1950-1964………………………………………………………...p.19

Chapter Two: “Annie” in the Media………………………………………………………...... p.28

Media Form: The Musical…………………………………………………………...... p.28

Annie: The Musical - Broadway Impact…………………………………………….....p.31

Media Form: The Movie……………………………………………………………….p.35

Annie: the 1982 movie with Carol Burnett…………………………………………….p.37

Annie: the 1999 movie……………………………………………………………...... p.42

Conclusion: The Afterlives of Annie………………………………………………………...... p.48

! Preface

______

The purpose of this thesis is to examine the myth of the orphan in twentieth-century

America as exemplified through the recurring story of “Little Orphan Annie.” Annie serves as a significant character in American history, entertaining adult and youth audiences for decades since her debut in Harold Gray’s Sunday comic strip in 1924 (Kelly 1). Since her founding,

Annie has functioned as the lead in a musical, the focus of three major motion pictures, the primary character of both a television and radio show, the protagonist of a book, and a common

American figure of independence, strength, and childhood optimism.

“Little Orphan Annie” portrays different cultural points of American society, and this thesis will explore American children’s narratives in relation to this fictional female’s qualities.

Through the methods of providing historical context and literary analysis for each of Annie’s crucial moments in the twentieth century, this thesis will show how she has advanced a misguided perception of orphan and youth agency. Prevailing in literature and societal conversation, the phrase that “the sun will come out tomorrow” continues to inspire audiences, and this thesis explores the problematic consequences that attend such inspiration. Annie’s original purpose was to create a platform in which to critique societal issues of her day (Young

310), but her character has fed cultural notions that misrepresent orphans specifically and instill in American children, more generally, a false sense of agency. Little Orphan Annie has evolved to represent different decades of American society in the twentieth century and has advanced a misguided perception of orphan and youth agency. America’s failure to separate the fictional aspects of Annie’s life, along with the country’s fascination with her triumphant narrative, has contributed to the misunderstanding of American youth.

! 1 Introduction ______

“I didn’t want to be just another orphan, Mr. Warbucks. I wanted to believe I was special.” -Annie

Harold Gray’s character Annie outlived the Great Depression, World War II, the Cold

War, and the turn of the century. Her common slogans of “you’re never fully dressed without a smile” and her epic ballad “Maybe” are phrases and lyrics that even modern youth recognize.

However, Annie’s optimism provides a misguided view of American youth and their agency throughout the twentieth century. Her debut into society through the comic strip in 1924 began an extensive story that overshadows American history’s treatment of children.

Harold Gray’s Annie originated from the work of James Whitcomb Riley, who wrote the poem “Little Orphant Annie” in his work “The Old Swimmin’ Pool” and ‘leven more poems” in

1883 (Kuiper 1). Riley introduced the upbeat character of Annie, who crafts folktales for other children in his poem. As a short poem of only four stanzas, this work serves as the basis for

Gray’s interpretation of the Annie who grew into an American phenomenon (Kuiper 1).

Throughout the poem, Annie’s dialect suggests an uneducated member of the working class, a stark differentiation from later interpretations of Annie, a girl who seems smart and quick-witted.

Annie, although a teacher to other children in Riley’s poem, appears to be the one who does not speak properly, an irony that exposes the orphan’s differences from those around her from the very beginning of her existence. The first stanza of the poem introduces Annie as a working girl in the home, and she warns the children of “Gobble-uns” that will get them if they “don’t watch out” (Riley 2). The next two stanzas of the poem evaluate the fate of a little boy and a little girl whom the goblins find and kidnap. Although merely a fable, the pointed message of this poem arrives in the last stanza, which sums up Annie’s advice to the children:

! 2 You better mind yer parents, an' yer teachers fond an' dear, An' churish them 'at loves you, an' dry the orphant's tear, An' he'p the pore an' needy ones 'at clusters all about, Er the Gobble-uns'll git you Ef you Don't Watch Out (Riley 2)!

This stanza establishes yet another difference between Annie and the children through the line regarding the children’s parents. Riley clearly labels this poem as “Little Orphant Annie,” but Annie’s charge to the children speaks of not only their parents but also of their teachers and those that love them. Riley sets Annie apart from the children in the poem, for they have parents and other people in the world who care about them. Annie, as an orphan, has no one. However,

Riley’s differentiation of Annie from the children seems inconsequential in light of the folkloric tone and optimistic outlook the character Annie provides. In spite of her inability to relate to the children as an orphan, Annie stays positive, thus beginning the century-long thread of overlooking the plight of the real American orphan.

This stanza also invokes irony for future Little Orphan Annie’s narrative, which is one of a rich benefactor called Daddy Warbucks. Annie’s charge to “dry the orphant’s tear, / an’ he’p the pore an’ needy ones ‘at clusters all about” is one that was not taken into account until later in the twentieth century. The Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 was the first official reform for child labor; the act also served as a major reform for all workers, which benefited the “‘pore an’ needy ones’” (“Child” 2). Although Riley encourages help for the poor, aid to the orphan did not stem from his poem or even from later versions of Annie. Riley’s poem is a guide to the folkloric tone of the Annie character, as well as an insight into Annie’s purpose as a character when

Harold Gray published his work. This poem provides a reference point for this thesis in order to

! 3 better explain Annie, her optimism, and her purpose as a fictional character in twentieth-century

America.

In addition to Riley’s poem, the work of Horatio Alger serves as another source of background for this thesis in order to enhance the discussion of Little Orphan Annie. Horatio

Alger produced over a hundred books in the nineteenth century that “heroicized urchins living in poverty at large” (Kasper 1; “Horatio” 1). His popular “dime novels” sold stories of young boys scraping by on the streets of New York (“Horatio” 1). In each situation, these boys found ways to prevail in spite of their circumstances. Alger is credited as the source of the “rags to riches” myth in American literature (Kasper 1). His depiction of young impoverished boys succeeding in the world in spite of society’s dismissiveness towards them was a popular sell with youth and adult audiences (Kasper 1). Alger’s myth of independent youth climbing the economic ladder is a concept that contributes to and assists with explaining Annie’s story and popularity with

American audiences. With the idea that young boys can overcome their circumstances, Annie’s narrative as a young girl in New York City who propels herself up the social ladder is a new take on the popular Alger trope. This concept of a female Alger protagonist is a point of departure in understanding Annie’s evolving character.

With the two influences of Riley and Alger to serve as foundational elements, this thesis uses two main time periods in the twentieth century to address Annie’s influence as a character.

Each time period includes a different form of media used to portray Annie and to reach

American audiences. The continued adaptation of Annie from medium to medium with

America’s technological changes illustrates the power of Annie’s narrative and the longevity of her story.

! 4 In the first section of this thesis, the time period of 1924-1968 and the impact of the

“Little Orphan Annie” comic strip is examined. Harold Gray first published the popular comic in

1924, and he died in 1968 (Kelly 1). Although the comic continued after Gray’s death, the shift in tone and purpose created a different style of the Little Orphan Annie comic strip for the latter half of the century. In this chapter, Annie’s comic strips in the the beginning, Great Depression,

World War II, and post-World War II are analyzed in order to demonstrate Annie’s use as a figure for social commentary, which resulted in a larger misrepresentation of youth’s narratives.

In the second section of this thesis, the time period of 1970-2000 and the impact of Little

Orphan Annie’s other media representations is examined. After Gray’s death, Annie was transformed into a multimedia personality. Her debut on Broadway in 1977 produced the beloved musical that still runs in theaters across modern America. Additionally, the popular

Annie movie with Carol Burnett hit the movie theaters in 1982, bringing the Annie story to life on the screen. Annie quickly transformed during 1970-2000 into a star on television, and this journey is explored in the historical context of the late twentieth century.

Prior to analysis of the literary aspects of Annie, a definition ought to be clarified. In this thesis, the term “orphan” will be used to refer to “a child deprived by death of one or usually both parents” (“Orphan” 1). Discussion of orphans will also include those who have been abandoned by one or both of their biological parents, if those parents have not passed away.

This thesis is designed to analyze Little Orphan Annie in the aforementioned mediums in a chronological order to understand the changes in Annie’s influence throughout the twentieth century. Within each historical period, the thesis is organized into media form, literary, and historical analysis in order to further examine the continuity of the orphan myth in twentieth- century America through the catalyst of Little Orphan Annie.

! 5 Chapter One: “Little Orphan Annie” from 1924-1968 ______

“Jus’ give her an even break and she’ll do the rest.” - Daddy Warbucks

Media Form: The Comic Book

In the twentieth century, the comic strip served as a consistent mass distributor of entertainment and social discussion for the American public. Comics reached over four-fifths of all adult newspaper readers (Auster 26). During the 1940s, “comics were selling between eight million and a hundred million copies every week, with a typical issue passed along or traded to six to ten readers, thereby reaching more people than movies, television, radio, or magazines for adults” (Hajdu 5). With comic books selling so widely during this time period, it is understandable that a character like Annie would appeal to so many and survive in a strip for so long. Not only were comics a genre for adults, but they also strongly intrigued the younger generation. Comic books “were radical” for being targeted towards youth while simultaneously

“asserting a sensibility anathema to grown-ups” (Hajdu 5). Although comics successfully appealed to both generations, they also reflected the struggle between parents and children during the mid-twentieth century (Hajdu 6). Children bristled against standard expectations, and comic books provided an outlet for younger Americans that acknowledged these stigmas (Hajdu

6).

Harold Gray was no exception to the rule of commenting on social issues in comics. Gray believed it necessary to comment on the social issues of his day (Young 310). In fact, “the only thing that was unchanging [about his comic] was Annie herself” (Young 310). Gray’s social commentary caused many editors to complain, including James Clendenin of the Herald

Dispatch, who said, “Annie has been made the vehicle for a studied, veiled, and alarmingly

! 6 vindictive propaganda” (Young 311). With these statistics regarding comic strips and their social impact, it comes as no surprise that the Little Orphan Annie comic strip immediately pervaded society as a caricature for the orphan.

The Beginning: 1924-1927 Literary Analysis

In the very first comic, published between August 5 and August 7, 1924, Annie and her home mistress, Miss Asthma, are actually introduced somewhat realistically, a trope from which

Gray quickly departs. Miss Asthma informs Annie of a family willing to adopt her, but she instructs Annie that she must behave in order to be adopted. Annie’s response shows her vulnerability as an orphan: “When she keeps reminding me I’m an orphan and that I’m a charity girl it makes me hate her and hate the ‘home’ and hate myself too for being so poor” (Gray 1:36).

Although this vulnerability appears in this first strip, it quickly dissolves over the course of the comic strip Annie’s life. In the first few frames of the 1924 original comic strip, Annie is on her knees, praying for a new family and for someone to stop “telling me I’m an orphan” (Gray 1:36).

However, the second line of frames exposes Annie’s well-known and hot-headed charisma, as she physically attacks the little boy who comes with his parents to adopt her. Despite Annie’s optimistic character and her ability to fight for herself, a misleading characteristic regarding orphans, Gray does establish the stigma against orphans in this first strip. The little boy says that

“orphans are always funny but you’re a riot,” and Miss Asthma also tells Annie, “You a waif, an orphan, dependent for every crumb you eat upon charity” (Gray 1:36). Orphans are established as outsiders in the strip and Gray allows Annie to be shunned, but he provides her with an agency that orphans indeed did not have, a fact with which even Miss Asthma agrees. Annie is seen in this strip as a laborer for Miss Asthma, but she is also granted the access to fight a boy

! 7 physically. Not only does this agency set Annie apart from other orphans, but it also places her in a Horatio Alger-like situation as a “boy of the streets.”

Gray’s third week of comics from August 12 to August 14 in this 1924-1927 volume also provides Annie with an agency and a lack of realism that mimics Alger’s rags-to-riches stories.

In the August 12 comic, Mrs. Warbucks adopts Annie and immediately launches her into a world of new gowns, shiny floors, and helpful servants. Although Mrs. Warbucks despises her, Annie accesses Daddy Warbucks and becomes his best friend almost instantly. The millionaire even disgraces his wife in saying that Annie “doesn’t need charity -- just give her an even break and she’ll do the rest” (Gray 1:51). Gray briefly allows realism by making Mrs. Warbucks return

Annie to the home, from which Annie eventually runs away. Annie then runs into a country family with money trouble, but she only stays there long enough for the reader to grasp the family’s financial issues before Daddy Warbucks swoops in and saves Annie once more. Annie does not live the average orphan life. Gray occasionally returns to Annie’s vulnerable state of loneliness and uncertainty as an orphan, but the similarity to her counterparts ends there. She exists as an agent of free will, traipsing through the country to find a new family and whisking away at the eleventh hour with her wealthy caregiver Daddy Warbucks. Orphans are discriminated against in these first years of comic strips, a fact that Gray makes clear, but Annie exists outside of those boundaries.

The Beginning: 1924-1927 Historical Context

Annie does not accurately represent the orphans of her time period in the first years of her existence. As Diana Pazicky comments, “fictional orphans are so unrepresentative of society’s real orphans, who were stationary, as opposed to upwardly mobile, members of the underclass”

! 8 (149), and Annie is no exception. Gray gives Annie the agency to run away and find a farm where she can work for a kind couple. This situation ironically hints at the state of orphans in the early 1900s, but it gives Annie more power than her historical counterparts.

In the early 1900s, the concept and implementation of the “orphan train” still ran rampant in America. Due to heavy immigration from European countries and overcrowding of American orphanages, the orphan train existed as a bridge to send children west to work (Warren 1).

Children were not sent for the purpose of acquiring a nurturing home. Rather, they were sent as laborers for western farmers’ families in an attempt to rid the New York streets of vagrant children and provide the West with free labor (Blakemore, “Orphan” 2). Over 200,000 children were sent to the West, and the train continued until 1929 (Blakemore, “Orphan” 2). During the period of the publication of these first few Annie comic strips, the orphan train was just beginning to settle down. However, the damage was already done. Orphan and non-orphan children alike were quite literally shipped off to the West in order to allow New York to prevent an influx of child criminals and juvenile delinquency (Warren 1). In spite of the idea that the orphan train would mutually benefit children, their parents, and other families in the West, the situation was anything but kind to misplaced orphans. Often selected merely on their looks and physical working appeal, children were treated more like pack mules than human beings (Warren

3). Contrary to Horatio Alger’s men on the streets, these real-life children found homes in the

West but were still placed into a lesser category of humanity.

In the 1924-1927 strips, the Silos, the farming family, treat Annie as an equal. In some ways, she is the adult in the family. She even tells the Silos in one frame, “the whole world can’t lick the three of us” (Gray 1:94). Annie chooses where she goes in her comic strips, approaches a family on her own, and works for them of her own accord. Little Orphan Annie was no member

! 9 of the orphan train, even though she was shunned as an orphan, and Gray provides her with a sense of agency in these first few strips that is misleading in comparison to the real-life orphans of 1925.

The Great Depression: 1929-1931 Literary Analysis

With later movies referencing this specific era, Annie’s most famous time period as a character is within the framework of the Great Depression. In volume 3 of Gray’s comics between 1929-1931 And a Blind Man Shall Lead Them, Annie’s story once again alludes to the surrounding situation in America, but her story provides misleading possibilities. In this particular volume, Annie fails to address the Depression itself until 1931. In spite of this acknowledgement of the Great Depression in 1931 and a thread of commentary on the external issues in America, Annie still does not address the circumstances of the orphan. Annie provides a source of relief and a point of escapism for many in the Depression while simultaneously undercutting the realistic orphan narrative.

Beginning in the April 1930 comics, Annie’s strips address the need for reinvention, mirroring the desires of the public in the Great Depression. While working at Mrs. Twinkle’s store, Annie finds herself framed by her schoolmate Edgar Filch, a boy who is madly in love with her. In order to attain retribution for her shunning him, Edgar steals money from the store at which she works. When the town condemns Annie for the robbery, a bystander woman says in the frame, “I always said there’s no good in these orphans from the slums - potential criminals, I calls ‘em” (Gray 3:63). This statement reinforces the previously-mentioned attitude towards orphans that Gray establishes in volume one of the strip: orphans are of no use to society. After this incident, the town decides to take Annie away to the “county poor farm,” where she once

! 10 again begins to work in the country (Gray 3:64). This situation mirrors the circumstances of many in the Great Depression, who had to leave their current jobs and move to a place that would provide them with work. Although Annie merely hints at this issue, her change of lifestyle, work, and the gossip surrounding her circumstances provides a relatability with her audience that proves her popularity with adults during the Great Depression.

For most of the year 1930, the Little Orphan Annie comic strip portrayed Annie’s troubles on a deserted island, displaying a societal theme of isolation and loss. In the June 29,

1930 comic strip, Annie shipwrecks with a local fisherman, her dog Sandy, and her bear Willie.

When they first land on the island, the fisherman claims, “We’ll make out here right snug - It won’t be but a few days till some craft will see our distress signal and take us aboard” (Gray

3:96). However, no such thing occurs. Over the course of the comic from June through October

1930, Annie and her friends remain stranded on a desert island, desperately waiting for assistance. This duality of agency with passive waiting exposes the contradiction of Annie’s character. She decides her own fate, but when she chooses incorrectly, someone must save her.

Annie points out in the July 3 comic after just ten days of being stuck, “It seems to me it’s takin’ us a dog-goned long time to get rescued” (Gray 3:98). In the midst of these comics, Daddy

Warbucks once again works desperately to save Annie. He sends out search parties and refuses to give up on her. Right in the nick of time, as Annie lays sick in bed, Warbucks rushes in with a nurse and medicine to save her life (Gray 3:142). Annie’s situation of getting stuck with no help reflects a commonly-perceived feeling within America at the time. Many individuals were trapped in their situation without a way to get out of their financial crisis. Based on the timeliness of Annie’s comic strip and Harold Gray’s consistent trend of commenting on social issues, the deduction can be drawn that Americans were waiting to be saved from their trials, just like

! 11 Annie. However, Daddy Warbucks provides a false sense of rescue with Annie, once again proving the fictionality of Annie’s character and brushing over true orphan issues in American society. Once Annie physically recovers in the November 17 strip, Warbucks gives her a pony and a car. Gray’s illustrations expose a lovely little Annie, dressed up in a riding suit, hopping on a well-manicured, almost smiling pony. In the same strip, she climbs into a shiny black automobile in an elegant and clean little black dress (Gray 3:158). In spite of her brief moment of struggle, Annie gets back on her feet with no effort of her own. Warbucks’ rescue of Annie isolates her from American society, and the strip itself portrays the shiny objects that the stock market crash placed out of reach for American citizens.

Gray finishes his third volume of the Depression era with Daddy Warbucks losing his fortune, a choice that actually resonates with the fate of many American adults at the time. In the

January 12, 1931 strip, Warbucks receives the dreaded phone call that his business is failing

(Gray 3:182). He states, “Well, why in Sam Hill wasn’t I informed of all this before? I knew business was bad, but I figured we were big and strong enough to go through any Depression - why wasn’t I told” (Gray 3:182)? In response to this, his business partner claims, “Told? We told you and told you, Mr. Warbucks” (Gray 3:182). Big businesses fell, even the strongest ones, and the Great Depression left no one untouched. Warbucks’ refusal to acknowledge this and his utter surprise in this frame comments upon the arrogance of big business and the widespread impact of the Depression. Although Warbucks attempts to keep this information from Annie, she inevitably discovers the situation, and in typical Annie fashion, provides endless positivity. She helps Daddy find a place to live, and in response to his feelings of failure, she claims, “Shux!

Don’t make me laugh - You? A failure? That’s funny - just a little bad luck and you’re ready to quit? Not if I know you” (Gray 3:201). Annie here diminishes the severity of the issue and makes

! 12 success attainable. She pushes aside the disastrous effects of the Great Depression and presents an unrealistic optimism that everything will work itself out. These comic strips reinforce Annie’s optimism and Daddy Warbucks’ status, allowing them simultaneously to remain separate entities from but also nod to the plight of America during the Great Depression.

The Great Depression: 1929-1931 Historical Context

Throughout these few comic strips during the Great Depression, Gray finds the opportunity to comment upon the circumstances within America, but he glosses over the situation of children like Annie during this time period. Annie, although now a semi-adopted orphan, does not comment on nor provide any direct insight to children in America during the

Great Depression. These few strips in volume 3 reveal Annie’s oversight and misrepresentation of the American orphan while also exposing the relationships between children and adults during this time period.

Furthering the misguided narrative of orphans and children, Little Orphan Annie does not consider the direct increase of children in orphanages during the Great Depression. According to

Marshall B. Jones’ “Crisis of the American Orphanage, 1931-1940,” the mid-1930s and

Depression-era saw a steady rate of orphans in homes, called a “Length of Stay” rate (618). As seen in the figure below, the length of stay of orphans between 1925-1940 greatly increased.

Since there was nowhere for these children to go, and American citizens did not possess the means to support them, children stayed in orphanages much longer than in previous decades.

! 13

Source: Jones, Marshall B. “Crisis of the American Orphanage.” 1989.

In addition to orphans staying in the homes in which they were placed, the status of other children worsened. Jones notes that “estimates varied, but a reasonable figure for the number of homeless children on a given day in the mid-1930s was 150,000” (“Decline” 463). Unlike Annie, who never failed to possess a home during this time period, many American children found themselves either homeless or trapped in an orphanage during and following the Great

Depression. Without someone like Daddy Warbucks to bail them out, they stayed in their current situation for most of the 1930s. However, because of the Social Security Act of 1935, children were able to move out of orphanages at the end of the 1930s (M. Jones, “Decline” 460). In addition to this positive turn for orphans in the 1930s, the Depression did allow children to move away from child labor more than in previous decades. “Families could no more manage on a single income at this time previously, so more wives entered the labor force,” which alleviated the need for as many child laborers (Kleinberg 138). Although Annie acquires a job in volume 3, many children at the time did not require a job to survive. Rather, these children were stuck inside orphanages in order to get the support that they desperately needed.

! 14 While misrepresenting orphans during the Great Depression, Annie does reveal the roles and relationships between adults and children during this time. The Great Depression necessitated adults taking responsibility and leaving the frivolity of the Roaring Twenties behind

(Ress 787). However, “although adults no longer imitated the young, they were attracted to children who imitated adults,” and “Little Orphan Annie” proved the perfect platform for this obsession (Ress 787). Comic strips marketed to both children and adults, allowing the “Little

Orphan Annie” strip to create communication between the two (786). Annie herself was the perfect reflection for the “good old days,” as she showed the bright optimism and resilience of youth that many Americans had lost with the stock market crash (787). Annie’s optimism may have misguided the agency of her youth counterparts, but her resilience proved necessary to give hope to adult audiences in search of their lost innocence. This character once more diminished the plight of young orphans but still reflected some audiences of her day, extending her popularity with those publics. Stella Ress claims that for adults, “in many ways, they were not reading the paper; they were gazing into a funhouse mirror, watching a distorted image of their own becoming” (Ress 791). Additionally, Ress points out that Annie acts like an equal to Daddy

Warbucks when he loses his fortune (791). Her agency and equality is unfounded for the youth of her time, who were homeless on the streets and trapped in local orphanages. However, Annie served a purpose in appealing to the feelings of adults during the Great Depression, even if it was at the cost of continuing the orphan myth in America.

World War II: 1941-1943 Literary Analysis

Following the comics of the Great Depression, another high point for “Little Orphan

Annie” was during World War II. Volume 10 provides two threads of Annie’s story: her

! 15 relationship with Daddy Warbucks and her work as a “Junior Commando” on the Home Front.

Contrary to her typical character, Annie exposes some of her fear and vulnerability in this comic, while she simultaneously exhibits her bull-headed spirit in maintaining patriotism at home.

Continuing to undermine the orphan experience by providing a false sense of agency to youth in

America during World War II, this volume of comics also sheds light on Annie’s consistent misguidance of the American people during the twentieth century.

First, Annie showcases the struggle of having a loved one overseas through the comic’s depiction of Daddy Warbucks’ deployment. In the May 3, 1942 comic strip, Daddy comes home from the war for the first time. In a few of Gray’s comics, he utilizes bold, scribbled, capitalized words in a large thought bubble to represent a major exclamation; however, he rarely uses this art form. For this particular comic, Annie exclaims in this style of a thought bubble, “DADDY!

Is… Is it really you”? (Gray 10:84). Annie’s shock displays a rarely-seen image of vulnerability and honesty. Rather than approaching it nonchalantly like most of her encounters with Daddy

Warbucks, her joy radiates through the words and images on the page, leaving a somewhat speechless Little Orphan Annie. The comic then notes that Warbucks goes back to the war and presumably passes away, or so Annie believes for quite some time. When Annie discovers this news in the November 8, 1942 comic, she cries. Annie rarely cries as a character throughout the entirety of the comic strip, but here she covers her face with her arm and cries out, “Killed in action… our Daddy -- It can’t be -- and yet even he expected it -- oh! oh! oh” (Gray 10:167)! In spite of this brief moment of vulnerability, Annie immediately transforms back into her brave self in the next frame, pulling herself out of her sadness. Annie encounters Daddy Warbucks again later in this volume, for he rescues her during one of her missions in the July 26, 1943 strip, as his death was false news. In each of these experiences, Annie showcases the ideal

! 16 situation for children during World War II. Each child wished for their father to return safely, which Daddy does, and each child wished to be with their father, as Annie eventually returns to be with him on an adventure. This ideal situation remains just that: ideal. It appeals to the hope in both American adults and children, but it overshadows the true narrative of children at the time, who were orphaned by the war.

Complementing this relationship with Daddy Warbucks during World War II, Annie further provides a false sense of agency to orphans through her “Junior Commandos” initiative.

In the June 1942 comics, Annie gathers a group of her schoolmates and imparts each of them with titles (Gray 10:104). Annie tells them that “this is war, kids -- our war, just as much, or more maybe, than anybody else’s” (Gray 10:104). This group of kids gathers war bonds and executes necessary “war work” to help the American cause. Annie later confides to her dog

Sandy that “Kids are th’ same as grownups! They get a good idea! Work like th’ dickens for a while” (Gray 10:170). Her classic pep talk here establishes an agency to children that does not apply to their actual situations. Kids failed to hold the same value or ability as adults during the war, and the war itself victimized them in ways in which Annie and her “Junior Commandos” elide.

World War II: 1941-1943 Historical Context

Children during World War II suffered from the effects of the war in ways that “Little

Orphan Annie” only briefly acknowledges or overlooks entirely. According to Marshall B.

Jones, only a small percentage of children were in official orphanages during the early 1940s, a sharp contrast from the statistics of the Great Depression (“Decline” 462). However, Jones also notes that this smaller number was just as dangerous. He claims, “Before the war, children in

! 17 substitute care were thought to be much the same as other children, only less fortunate. After the war, the child-care community became increasingly aware that children in institutional or foster- family care were more and more frequently disturbed” (M. Jones, “Decline” 464). These children suffered greater psychological consequences from their orphanhood than previous children. Not only were they less fortunate financially, but they also were less fortunate in their mental health.

Annie addresses none of this as a character. Rather, she provides a false sense of agency through her fierce optimism. Between 1935 and 1960, 250,000 children steadily remained in the orphan system, whether within an orphanage, substitute, or foster care (M. Jones, “Decline” 461). Annie traveled and found her father figure, but many of these children did not have this opportunity to recover mentally and emotionally from their orphanhood.

Annie’s continual meetings with Daddy Warbucks and his survival of the war also provide a false representation of her counterparts. This occurrence was not as frequent as the comic leads the reader to believe. During the war, “war orphans” became a regular occurrence, as children lost their fathers to the violence of the time. In her book Lost in the Victory:

Reflections of American War Orphans of World War II, Susan Johnson Hadler recounts the tales of several war orphans who lost their fathers. In her story of her father’s death when she was just a little girl, war orphan Ellen says, “I remember when I was in grammar school. I just cringe thinking about it now, but you know how you didn’t want to be different from everybody else, but you were because you didn’t have a father and they did” (Hadler 78). These war orphans dealt with being different from their peers long after their fathers’ deaths. For some of them, like

Ellen, they were merely infants when the war took their fathers away from them. As a result, they grew up without a father figure and “were very isolated and very different, and I knew it. So in that way we were orphans” (80). In other accounts, the now-grown children reference the

! 18 financial detriment they faced without fathers. They failed to possess the fortune to which Annie possessed access. Instead, they faced the difficulty of trying to reconcile the financial difference in their own families (Hadler 87). Aligning with Jones’ analysis of “disturbed” orphans, one girl recounts the “extreme self-consciousness and insecurity, free floating feelings of fear” in the aftermath of her father’s death (93). Each of these accounts sharply contrasts the story of Little

Orphan Annie. Even when Annie thinks Daddy has died, her reference to this situation is a single frame of her crying before she pulls it together. Annie does not give a voice to the war orphan, and the comic strip itself implies a safety and certainty that so many children during the war lacked.

Post-World War II: 1950-1951 Literary Analysis

During the Post-World War II era in volume 15 of the comic strip, Annie showcases adult-like demeanor and coping mechanisms that reflect the uncertain environment of realistic children in the era but ultimately overshadow their post-war and Cold War hardships. As more children entered the foster care system, Annie’s comic strip once again displayed her running away from her hardships with an agency unmatched for her time period. This move towards a conclusion of Gray’s comic strip in the 1950s and 1960s only furthers the idea that his particular category of social commentary left out the realistic situations of other orphans.

Before analyzing the retelling of Annie’s consistent plot line of running away from villains, Annie’s questioning of Daddy Warbucks in the April 1950 comics deserves exploration.

When faced with the communist character Ivan, Daddy Warbucks literally throws the man out the door. Annie immediately asks Daddy Warbucks, “Gee, Daddy, will it mean war?” He harshly responds, “Eh? Of course not! But don’t you think you’re a little young to be listening to things

! 19 like this” (Gray 15:23)? Annie’s response makes an important point in the narrative of the twentieth century child, “It’s my country, too, isn’t it Daddy” (Gray 15:23)? Although one small phrase towards her father figure, this question represents the American child’s plea for agency.

Warbucks dismisses Annie’s question and continues in his own conversation regarding the current state of affairs, a situation that Gray presumably placed to display the dismissal of

American children. In this specific scenario, Gray’s social commentary actually does include the

American child. Annie is reduced to nothing but a little girl, asking her father figure if America is also her country. For American children in the Cold War, the loss from the World Wars and the uncertainty of the future created an unrest that forced many of them into dire family situations, as seen previously through Hadler’s book. Gray’s commentary may signify American children at large in this frame, but his comics quickly return to their regular trope, as Annie begins talking to her father about plans to defeat Ivan (Gray 15:25). However, Annie’s brief moment of vulnerability raises the question about the true psychological effect of the war on

American children – in many ways, they were just as lost as their parents about the state of affairs in the United States, yet they were left out of the conversation.

Despite the hope for a discussion of the state of the American child in the 1950s and

1960s, Gray returns to his folktale plotline, and Annie returns as an equal to Daddy Warbucks in the conversation regarding the Cold War. In several of the volume 15 comics, Annie takes on the role of the American people, asking the questions that were unanswered due to the secretive nature of the war itself. In the June 1950 comics, Annie questions, “You mean to say now that

Ivan has told all he knows, your boys are blowin’ up all his gang’s secret bomb plant an’ munition factories? . . . But I thought it was only a Cold War” (Gray 15:55). Annie here questions the nature of the war and what it means, while Daddy Warbucks provides short

! 20 answers in small thought bubbles. The plight of the American people is here reduced to the quantity of a thought bubble. Brief responses address the many questions that Annie hurls at

Daddy Warbucks. Rather than representing children at the time, Annie asks questions for the

American people. Although a noble enterprise to relate to the American people, this use of

Annie’s character once more places her in the agency of the adult position, where she gets the opportunity to ask questions and receive proper answers. Gray once more pushes the American child out of the picture, focusing his comics on the adults in question. For the orphans in

America at the time, they received no answers. Little Orphan Annie does not reference the hurt of her peers during the 1950s and 1960s, but she rather serves as a political vessel to comment upon the Cold War.

In addition to Annie’s use for social commentary in this volume, the character finds herself on yet another journey through the wilderness in the June 1951 comics, where she experiences an independence of which American orphans could only dream. As she wanders alone, escaping the clutches of the villain Nikoli, Annie halts along her path to consider her current dilemma. She says in a single frame, “But s’posin I don’t know where I’m goin’... just sorta drift, with no plans…” (Gray 15:212). If Harold Gray concluded the comic here, then the fate of the 1950s-1960s orphan would be realized. Drifting along through the system, these children held no option or plan. However, Gray gives false hope. In the consecutive frame,

Annie says, “I figger findin’ anybody like that is th’toughest job on earth! So-o-o… Guess I’ll go that way for a while. . . Till I change my mind…” (Gray 15:212). Annie provides herself with two forms of agency: the direction she gets to go and the opportunity to free herself from that decision. Annie chooses the way in which she wants to go, a luxury that children at the time failed to possess. Her agency does not stop there. Rather, she provides herself with the option to

! 21 “change her mind.” This simplistic phrase can quickly be overlooked, but it notes both Annie’s inner sense that she knows that she can change her mind as well as Annie’s knowledge that her opinion counts. She is able to have her own mind and make her own decisions, a choice that orphans did not have in 1950s America. Annie may represent a source of hope for orphans, but the false agency she associates with them, as well as the overshadowing of the children’s dilemma in the eyes of adults, trumps the viability of optimism.

When Annie stumbles upon yet another villain, “The Doctor,” during her journey, Gray takes the opportunity to acknowledge Annie’s orphanhood, an attempt at returning to her roots that only further separates Annie from her realistic counterparts. In the July 20, 1951 comic strip, the “Doctor” discovers Annie in his home and asks her who she is. When Annie introduces herself as an orphan, the man replies, “Orphan, eh? Then why aren’t you in an orphanage? And those clothes… worn… but too good for a nameless orphan…” (Gray 15:233). Annie introduces herself as an orphan, but at this point in her story, she has no resemblance to orphans of her time.

Her rich clothes, her relationship with Daddy Warbucks, and her self-sufficient attitude all set her apart from an orphan, and the “Doctor” ensures that Annie recognizes just a bit of this through her clothes. Gray’s attempt to claim Annie as an orphan in this sequence only proves that she is nothing of the sort. She is independent, out of the system of the orphanage, and generously sponsored by a loving father figure. Annie’s claim to orphanhood at this juncture is ironic, but nothing more.

Lastly, this volume showcases another savior trope, as Annie finds herself rescued from her dire circumstances. After Annie inevitably defeats the Doctor, she lays unconscious in a field alongside Sandy. A boy called “Simple Samson” finds Annie and carries her back to his farmhouse and grandmother. As he rescues Annie, Samson speaks to his cat, “Such a nice, pretty

! 22 little girl… but hurt so bad.. I must be so… so careful not to hurt her anymore” (Gray 15:271).

Once more, Annie is saved at the last possible moment by a benefactor who will erase her hurts and prevent more harm from coming her way. American orphans at this time were anything but out of harm’s way. If anything, they were suffering the hurt of World War II and the Cold War more strongly than ever before. Gray’s attempts to humanize Annie only distinguish her as unrelatable to American orphans during the 1950s and 1960s, for she possesses the agency and the means for rescue that her counterparts do not.

Post-World War II: 1950-1968 Historical Context

Following World War II, the psychological and social situation of the average American orphan drastically differed from Annie’s positivity toward the various families she encounters.

Prior to the 1950s comics, Annie’s sense of agency, particularly with her encounters with Daddy

Warbucks, strongly differentiated from orphans in orphanages during this time, also called “war orphans.” During this time, “both the social upheaval of World War II and anxieties accompanying the advent of the cold war culminated in a romanticization of American nuclear family life” (Curran 62). Annie as a popular comic strip only furthered this idea with her somewhat nuclear situation with Daddy Warbucks. Because of the “romanticization” of this lifestyle, social workers honed in on the idea of preserving families, “promot[ing] the merits of maintaining dependent, neglected, or abused children in their own homes” (Curran 62). Although

Annie showcases the lifestyle of an ideal nuclear family, the true families during this time period were very unlike her and Daddy Warbucks. Rather, the AFDC (Aid to Families with Dependent

Children) had to become more actively involved in American families, with the government lending minimal financial aid to struggling families (“What” 1). The 1950s and 1960s saw an

! 23 increase in children with the AFDC and within foster care, a fact that continued to separate

Annie from her real counterparts.

Children in the AFDC increased greatly in the 1950s and 1960s during the end of Gray’s comic and “expanded to 1,660,000 in 1950, 3,241,000 in 1965, and 6,093,000 in 1970” (M.

Jones, “Decline” 466). Jones notes that although the number of AFDC children increased rapidly, the “placed” children in foster homes increased at a slower pace, from “223,000 in 1951,

245,000 in 1961, 325,000 in 1971” (466). For these children in the AFDC, their dependency upon the government was proof of further rejection from home, for rather than death of both parents, like Annie, they had the possibility of being forced to leave their homes for financial reasons. Annie provides no sense of financial burden in the comic. Whether Gray’s method is to provide a sort of escapism for the reader or not, Annie always finds a means for provision, whether from the hands of Daddy Warbucks or from another benefactor. Once again, with an increase of children in the care of the AFDC, placed as orphans into the foster care system due to their parents’ or single parent’s inability to care for them, Annie skims over the true circumstances of real orphans of her time.

Foster care as an organization in the United States has existed and thrived since the

American Revolution (J. Jones 1), but during the 1950s and 1960s, with the steady decline of orphanages, foster care became more widespread. According to Jones’ analysis, the 1960s in particular ushered in an era of deinstitutionalization of orphanages across the United States (M.

Jones, “Decline” 470). Due to the common, although not necessarily accurate, view of orphanages as places for abuse, children’s homes decreased significantly in number within the deinstitutionalization movement (M. Jones, “Decline” 470). Thus, more children were placed into foster homes. Foster care numbers skyrocketed in the 1960s, increasing in placed children

! 24 from 165,000 to 394,000 (M. Jones, “Decline” 474), showing that children were displaced during this time period. Annie also finds herself displaced, running from the “bad guys” in volume 15 of

Gray’s comics, but those comics are much more concerned with the displacement surrounding adults involved in the Cold War versus children in the foster care system. Annie’s continuous running away, a standard motif over the course of the past decades of comics, merely overshadows the consistent number of children who ran away during the late 1960s. Jones calls this an “epidemic,” as some children were even thought to be told to run away by parents who no longer wanted them (“Decline” 474). Annie always finds something or someone at the conclusion of running away, but for these children, their end was the unsettling environment of foster care. As previously mentioned, the mental health of these children suffered tremendously in foster care, or “placement” (M. Jones, “Decline” 465). Unlike Annie, who mentally pushes through every tough situation, these children did not possess the resources to just push through their circumstances. They were placed into a foster care system with the purpose of reuniting them with their families, who may not want them. Laura Curran discusses a case study regarding families and welfare in Philadelphia in the 1950s, noting that in the foster care system, “family reunification was not a reality for the majority of its [Philadelphia Department of Public Welfare] wards” (69). Annie, as a character, always holds to someone who wants her: the ever-arriving presence of Daddy Warbucks. Again, Gray’s comic strip portrays an empowered character with the capability to run away and to find a place to call her own. For the foster children in the 1950s and 1960s, they found themselves stuck in the system, unable to return to their families and in some cases, unwanted even if they could return.

In addition to the overshadowing of the situation of foster children in America during this time, this volume of the Little Orphan Annie comic strip does not mention race, an issue that

! 25 animated the 1950s and 1960s. Due to racial tensions in the United States over the early twentieth century, African American children were often overlooked in the adoption process.

Annie, as a white female orphan, does not reference any orphans of color in this volume. Rather, she focuses on herself and others most like her. During the 1950s, the National Urban League

(NUL), “was also among the first to endorse color-blind interracial adoption for African

American children” (Curran 145). In the past, social workers found themselves bound to an idea of the “adoptable” child, a type of child most desirable and likely to be adopted. Although they moved away from this concept in the 1950s, they failed to deviate from their ideas of “acceptable adoptive parents” (Curran 146-147). As a result, African American children were at a significant disadvantage to their white counterparts in moving through the adoption process. Adoption boomed during the 1950s and 1960s, increasing from 91,000 in 1957 to 135,000 in 1964 in spite of the high numbers of those within the foster care system (M. Jones, “Decline” 466). However, adoption agencies faced the issue of the smaller number of supposedly ideal “white, healthy, adoptable infants -- among a much larger demand from white adoptive parents” (Curran 147). In spite of civil rights activism towards eliminating the barriers for orphans of color in the adoption process, these children still faced obstacles that Annie cannot begin to fathom. Orphans during the 1950s and 1960s were not just white orphan children. Not only did Annie fail to represent those in foster homes, but she also failed to comment upon the barriers of her African American orphan counterparts.

As Gray’s era of the Little Orphan Annie comic strip ended in 1968, the gap between

Annie and other orphan children only widened. For the first half of the twentieth century, she failed to uncover the plight of the Great Depression orphan, the war orphan, the African

American orphan, AFDC children, and foster children. Gray, ever the social activist, commented

! 26 on issues within America, such as World War II and the Cold War, but this commentary only furthered the issue of eliding the true identity of the American orphan. Annie as a character displayed an unrealistic orphan with agency and fierce optimism, traits that only continued to deceive Americans as her popularity expanded to other media forms in the late twentieth century.

! 27 Chapter Two: “Little Orphan Annie” in the Media ______

“The sun will come out tomorrow.” -Annie Background: 1970-2000

Although James Whitcomb Riley and Harold Gray established the foundation for the

Little Orphan Annie character for the first half of the twentieth century, the modern understanding of Annie stems from her existence in other media forms. It is necessary to note that Annie appeared as a character in mediums other than poetry and comic strips prior to Gray’s death in 1968, but these did not propel her popularity in the same way as later mediums. She did find herself as the subject of a radio show in the 1930s, and she debuted in two movies in 1930 and 1938 (Seemayer 1). However, due to the popularity of Gray’s comic strip during these decades and Annie’s prominent representation via the comic strip, this thesis will not delve into these earlier media forms. This chapter of the thesis instead explores the famous Annie musical, the 1982 Annie movie, and the 1999 Annie movie, mediums that have survived in popularity and distribution in modern America.

Media Form: The Musical

American theatre, particularly of the Broadway variety, threads throughout the twentieth century as its own unique medium. Broadway as an experience and theatre district originated in the eighteenth century, providing shows to New Yorkers for the past two centuries (McNamara

125). With over 70 theaters at the start of the twentieth century and the means to produce over

250 productions a year, Broadway serves as the bloodline for American theatre, with off-

Broadway and off-off Broadway shows stemming from its productions (McNamara 125). During

World War I, Broadway also served as the center for national tours, a trend that has since

! 28 diminished with the rise of television but still continues in modern America (McNamara 126).

“Everybody across the country knew Broadway and followed its lore,” a popularity that spiked many popular musicals of the twentieth century, like Oklahoma (McNamara 126). In the 1940s,

Broadway saw its Golden Age with the popular composers Rogers and Hammerstein, creating musicals that continue to be performed on current stages (“Timeline:100” 2). Although the

Broadway show and the Broadway musical remain an essential thread in the fabric of American society, the system underwent several changes that provide insight into the creation of Annie as a musical form.

After the Golden Age of Broadway in the 1940s, the district entered a slump that birthed the musical Annie (“History of Broadway” 2). Partly due to the rise in drug dealing and prostitution, the 1970s and 1980s Broadway shows saw much fewer crowds than in previous years (“History Theater” 3). During this time, “the optimism of the postwar era was fading,” so

Annie proved the ideal solution to bring back American optimism (Thomas 2). As the 1980s saw a renewed interest in Broadway, Annie was one of the last musicals of the 1970s that propelled

Broadway into the 1980s (Thomas 2).

In spite of the decline of Broadway during the 1970s, Annie found a place due to the need for another commercial endeavor (McNamara 127). According to Thomas Meehan, writer of the storyline for Annie the musical, “comic strips and musical comedies . . . are similar forms of popular culture in that each, by its nature, must tell an uncomplicated story in broad strokes”

(Meehan 2). In short, musicals sell. Meehan took Annie away from being a “comic-strip musical” and rather simplified the plotline to the standard musical comedy that Americans would enjoy (Meehan 2). This adherence to musical comedy and taking Annie’s character onto

Broadway allowed Annie to endure, as Broadway’s commercial business employed revivals to

! 29 reignite interest in a musical, a situation from which Annie later benefited (McNamara 127).

Because Annie found a place in the medium of the musical, she found a new version of herself: a character whose personality was taken from Gray’s comics but whose story was simplified into a commercial musical comedy (Meehan 2).

Annie’s rebirth in 1977, when writers Martin Charnin, Thomas Meehan, and Charles

Strouse chose to turn the comic strip into a musical, propelled her to new heights as a representation of the American people (Culwell-Block 2). According to writer Thomas Meehan,

"there was a growing sense of cynicism and hopelessness among millions of Americans, including me. And it struck me that Annie could in the musical become a metaphorical figure who stood for innate decency, courage and optimism in the face of hard times, pessimism and despair” (Culwell-Block 2). Once again, Annie represented hope for the American people, yet the choice to maintain the Little Orphan Annie character only furthered the orphan myth and dismissed the state of orphans in the late twentieth century.

Annie proved a success on the Broadway stage. It was the third-longest running musical in the 1970s, with 2,377 performances on Broadway (“Show History” 2). It was revived in 1997, running for another 239 performances, and once again revived in 2012, with over 300 performances by July 2013 (“Show History” 2). In 1977, the musical was nominated for eleven

Tony Awards and won seven of those awards (Culwell-Block 2). Additionally, the Annie musical produced four national American tours (Culwell-Block 2). With this staggering number of performances, as well as its multiple revivals, the popularity and success of Annie as a musical is clear. The American people adore the Annie story, and the attractive narrative of hope connects with adults and children alike.

! 30 Annie: The Musical - 1970s Analysis

From a literary standpoint, Annie the musical follows its own plotline, diverting from the original adventures of Gray’s comic strip. This choice to stray from Gray’s original plotlines stemmed from the writers’ own understanding that the storyline would fail to sell if made into a musical format (Culwell-Block 2). According to writer Thomas Meehan in an article in the New

York Times, the musical is “in no sense a literal adaptation of ‘Little Orphan Annie,’” claiming that the only words by Gray in his musical are “leapin’ lizards” (Meehan 1). This musical follows the adventures of a newly-created Annie, who does land a home with Daddy Warbucks, but the musical merely addresses her switch from the terrible orphanage of Miss Hannigan, resident New York drunk, to Oliver Warbucks’ lovely mansion. Annie does attempt to discover her parents in this version of the musical, but she winds up the daughter to Oliver Warbucks and adopted by him instead, with the premise of living happily ever after.

The musical as a medium added a new element that increased Annie’s popularity with the average American: music. With a soundtrack that has survived, Annie the musical showcases

Annie’s optimism in a three-dimensional and auditory way, a new format that further exacerbates the issue of overshadowing the real American orphan. For the purpose of this thesis, the lyrics and musical quality of a few of Annie’s most popular songs will be examined in order to discuss the new medium conveying the familiar Annie message.

Perhaps the most famous of all of the musical’s songs is “Tomorrow.” Sung in the streets of New York as Annie runs away from Miss Hannigan’s, the song occurs right as Annie finds

Sandy, a stray whom she adopts as her own, in the street.

The sun will come out Tomorrow Bet your bottom dollar

! 31 That tomorrow There'll be sun!

Just thinking about Tomorrow Clears away the cobwebs, And the sorrow 'Til there's none (“Annie - Tomorrow” 1)!

These refrains in the song set Annie apart with a theme of hope. Annie’s determined outlook in these lyrics convinces the audience that the sun has to come out tomorrow. She refuses to admit that there is another option besides something better coming her way, clinging to that hope with the assurance that the listener could even “bet” on a better future. In addition to this refusal, the lyrics also convince the audience that just “thinking” about what the future might hold will destroy all “sorrow/ Til there’s none”! Although this hope is appealing to the listener, it still diminishes the story of orphans both in 1977 America and, as already seen, in the Great

Depression era. For many orphans, the future was not bright, nor did they possess the agency to will it to be so. Annie adds later in the song that she will “stick out my chin/ And grin” because of the hope of tomorrow (“Annie – Tomorrow” 1). She provides herself the agency for optimism, even when her situation seems hopeless. The environment of the situation also establishes a false sense of hope. Annie physically removes herself from her terrible situation by running after

Sandy. She holds her dog in this scene, a creature that other children her age might have had to give up at this point. Additionally, Annie herself discards the orders of a police officer in this very scene. Annie provides a sense of agency and control that other children during the musical’s era simply failed to possess.

After Daddy Warbucks saves Annie from the orphanage, she arrives on Bert Healy’s radio show, where he sings the popular song “You’re Never Fully Dressed Without a Smile.”

Through this commercial, Annie’s plea to find her parents is distributed over national radio. This

! 32 situation once more sets Annie’s world apart from the American orphan’s reality. In her fantasy world, she can reach out to her potential birth parents over the radio, while her counterpart orphans suffer in the AFDC with struggling parents, stumble from foster home to foster home, or return to parents who then ask them to leave. Although Bert Healy’s version of the song is upbeat and exposes Annie’s stark differences from realistic orphans during the 1970s, the true irony of this song arises later, when Annie’s orphan friends sing it in the orphanage. Each orphan takes a turn, singing the following lyrics:

Hey hobo man, Hey Dapper Dan, You've both got your style But brother, you're never fully dressed Without a smile

Your clothes may be Beau Brummelly They stand out a mile But brother you're never fully dressed Without a smile (“Annie - Fully” 1).

In this song, the lyrics attempt to provide a sense of equality no matter a person’s background. The orphans establish this equality through the names “hobo man” and “Dapper

Dan,” equalizing these two figures. To further the message, the orphans claim that the only real thing that one needs is a smile. Although this is a heartwarming sentiment, it fails to acknowledge the true situation of class differences and the poverty of orphans. Escapism and imagination are necessary for the orphans to survive their situation, but the message of this song, as they listen to their friend on the radio, provides a false sense of agency. This scene in the musical, where Annie’s friends, trapped in the orphanage, replicate Annie singing the song, free and comfortable on a radio show, exposes a mirror to the situation of real orphans listening to the musical. There is a sad irony in seeing fictional orphans dancing to such a hopeful song while knowing that the same song and story misguides real orphans.

! 33 Annie, the 1977 musical, debuted a score that continues to grace stages across the United

States. Its music is uplifting, providing hope to children of all ages. However, what does that hope cost? The continual false agency given to orphans may provide temporary hope, but the misguided perception that a child can will their way out of an orphanage merely by “sticking out their chin” leads to the consequence of inevitable hopelessness, given the state of orphans in

1977. Hope fuels the human spirit and is necessary to keep individuals going; it also sells.

Thomas Meehan’s purpose was to create a musical that people would want to watch (Meehan 2).

This musical removes Gray’s purpose for social commentary and merely creates a blockbuster

Annie character with an ever-optimistic persona, a false sense of agency, and a misguided perception of rescue. Although a new decade and a new media form, Annie’s unwavering character continues to mislead and overshadow the state of orphans in society. Not only does she provide a misguided image of the situation of the Great Depression, but Meehan’s choice to set this musical in the Great Depression, rather than keeping Gray’s evolution of Annie in each decade that arrives, proves to overshadow the narrative of 1970s orphans altogether.

Annie: The Musical - 1970s Historical Context

When Annie debuted in 1977, depicting Annie as a young girl during the Great

Depression once more, orphans’ lives had simultaneously bettered and worsened in the early

1970s. Although a 1953 mandatory reporting law assisted with the ever-increasing issue of child abuse in the United States, it also increased the number of children in the American foster system

(M. Jones, “Decline” 474-475). This influx of orphans placed the foster system into what

Marshall B. Jones calls a “crisis,” as only 12 percent of children were expected to return home, while merely 13 percent were expected to ever be officially adopted (M. Jones, “Decline” 475).

! 34 With these staggeringly low numbers, Annie’s quick adoption into Oliver Warbucks’ home, as showcased by the 1977 musical, overshadows the true situation of the American foster child in the 1970s. As in past variations of her narrative, Annie does not have to work at attaining a parental figure. She is all but handed one when she is a little girl, providing her with a family that does not mirror other children’s lives in the 1970s. These children, in spite of child welfare’s dual goal to preserve the family and protect the child, found themselves the subject of neglect with slim chances to get out of the system (Gordon 7). Even though the system existed to assist them, these children did not hold the same access to a loving and caring family like Little Orphan

Annie. Annie the musical creates an image of the orphan in a more animated way than the comic could, with its music, design, and choreography. With this medium, it would seem as though the opportunity to display a realistic orphan Annie is more attainable. However, this animation in the musical only distances the watcher from the truth, as Annie’s fictional reality serves as the blinders with which to ignore the truly devastating overcrowding within the foster system at the time (M. Jones, “Decline” 475).

Media Form: The Movie

Following the musical and the change of Broadway’s audience to a more business class realm, cinema proved an accessible medium for the average American citizen (McNamara 126).

Since the Golden Age of Hollywood in the 1920s and the reign of the silent movie, Hollywood has proven itself as pinnacle entertainment for Americans (History.com Editors, “Hollywood” 1).

Even during the Great Depression, weekly movie ticket sales averaged at 80 million (History.com Editors, “Hollywood” 2). Although the wars, particularly the Cold War, set back Hollywood’s progression as an institution, the era of “New Hollywood” and the “Second

Golden Age” arrived in the years 1967-1975 (Alaesser 37). Popular films like Bonnie and Clyde

! 35 debuted in these years, propelling the movie industry forward (Aleasser 37). However, this

Golden Age of cinema was short-lived, as the 1980s brought a period of decline in Hollywood.

With the rebirth of Broadway during this time, it is ironic that the period of decline in Hollywood aligned with the period of growth for the theatre.

The 1980s decline of Hollywood was not only commercial but also thematic: “The counter-cultural, ‘progressive’ politics of the first New Hollywood were replaced in the 1980s by films and cycles whose primary function was ‘reactionary’. . . with story-lines that were not only politically conservative and flag-wavingly patriotic. They also unapologetically affirmed the virtue of being dumb” (Aleasser 60). For several critics, the presidential initiative

“Reaganomics” served as the “death of the movies” during the 1980s (Aleasser 61). With these thematic elements in mind, as well as the national patriotism and simplistic plot lines of 1980s cinema, the conversion of Annie’s story into a 1982 movie seems fitting. Since Meehan’s musical focused on Annie as a symbol of the American people, the movie did the same, promoting this 1980s ideology of patriotism in film. Not only did Annie grace cinema with her presence in the 1980s, but she also reappeared at the close of the twentieth century in a 1999 film. During the 1990s, movie ticket sales declined; however, Annie proved to survive the decline of the 1980s and to have her 1999 movie succeed as a take-home Disney classic, aligning with the movement of VCR, Blu-Ray, and DVD (History.com Editors, “Hollywood” 4). Similar to her adaptation into a musical comedy, Annie progressed with the times during the 1980s and

1990s, aligning herself within the media of cinema and blockbuster films.

! 36 Annie: The Movie - 1982 Analysis

As 1977 saw the boom of Annie’s character in musical form, 1982 yielded a cinematic treasure that continues to run on American television. Annie the movie was produced as a $40 to

$50 million film, starring headliner names Carol Burnett, Tim Curry, and Alberty Finney

(Burrell 53, ONeill 2). It was produced as the most expensive musical at the time, mostly due to the steep price to purchase the story’s rights from the Broadway musical version (ONeill 2). This film showcased the classic Annie plot from the musical, complete with song and dance, but it

“dramatically enhance[d] the spectacle of the story” (53). The musical movie took Annie’s character to the next level, providing more accessibility for the average American with its ability to be watched multiple times. Around 8,000 girls auditioned for the role of Annie, a staggering number that only confirms the widespread popularity of the character with children at the time

(Burrell 53). Annie was considered a difficult and important role to play, as she represented an ideal American personality and stood as a symbol of hope for the American people (ONeill 17).

According to actress Aileen Quinn, she was surprised that she received the role, as the directors called her back on eight separate occasions to ensure “she was the perfect combination of grit and sweetness” (ONeill 17). The film showcased Annie’s optimism just like the musical, but the choreography and cinematography solidified the unrealistic expectation Annie creates for the

American orphan.

To further understand this, examination of the popular songs “It’s a Hard Knock Life” and “I Don’t Need Anything but You,” two musical pieces that appeared in the musical but truly came to life in the 1982 film version, proves necessary. In the song “It’s a Hard Knock Life,” which occurs towards the beginning of the movie, the orphans sing about their predicament as orphans as they dance throughout Miss Hannigan’s Home for Girls. This song presents a

! 37 dissonance between the lyrics that the orphans sing and the environment in which they sing them, proving the false sense of agency that the Annie movie gives to children.

The song commences with the words “It’s a hard knock life for us / It’s a hard knock life for us/ ‘stead of treated / we get tricked / ‘stead of kisses / we get kicked” (Quinn 1). In spite of these honest words about the state of orphans in many of the homes in which they were placed, the music holds an upbeat tempo with a full orchestra, presenting a bright tune that aligns the listener with Annie’s natural spunkiness. The orphans sing in anger and frustration, but in the very first stanza, they all giggle, sliding down the banisters as they clean the orphanage. This insistent giggling continues throughout the song, as the girls make light of their situation while they perform their chores. Although all of the girls are scrubbing the floors with dirty water in metal buckets amidst a home with peeling paint and old floors, they play with one another as they work, flipping among sewing machines and jumping over one another. These choreography choices create a cognitive dissonance to the actual lyrics: these children are singing about the terrors of their lives as orphans while dancing and playing with one another. Unlike Gray’s few moments of honesty about orphans’ status in his comic strip, this moment in the film ignores reality in an almost sick fashion, showcasing that if the orphans have anything, they have each other. Annie and her friends’ environment almost appears fun, encouraging the watcher that the orphans possess an agency to make the most of their circumstances.

Specifically within this song, three moments of cinematography deserve further analysis.

In the bridge of the song, Annie starts with a few lines, and her counterparts join in:

No one's there when your dreams at night are creepy! No one cares if you grow or if you shrink! No one dries when your eyes get wet and weepy

From the crying you would think this place's would sink! Ohhhh

! 38 Empty belly life! Rotten smelly life! Full of sorrow life! No tomorrow life (Quinn 1)!

Ironically, when the orphans talk about crying, they actually are shedding tears, but they do so because of onions they are peeling in the kitchen sink. Annie storms through the kitchen as she sings, almost allowing the viewer to miss the irony of the situation. The girls rub their eyes incessantly, making it seem as though they are upset, but a further look exposes the bowls of onions next to them. This cinematography and directorial choice belittles the orphans’ situation.

With words about crying and lack of care from either parents or society at large, the film holds the opportunity for vulnerability in this moment. However, it instead twists the situation, commercializing orphanhood.

Secondly, this song loses vulnerability with another moment between Molly, the smallest orphan, and Annie herself. Amidst the chaos of the home, the flips, and the intense choreography, Molly sits on the stairs alone and sings, “Santa Claus we never see” (Quinn 1).

Annie joins her on the steps for a split second to say “Santa Claus, what’s that? Who’s he”

(Quinn 1)? She then takes Molly’s hand and leads her back into the fray of children. This moment depicts the standard Annie trope in allowing a brief moment of vulnerability before overshadowing it. Annie acknowledges that the orphans fail to possess any connection to Santa

Claus like other children at the time, but she does not allow Molly to dwell on it. Within seconds,

Molly is back on track with the other orphans, singing and dancing in hopes to make light of their terrible situation.

As a third complement to the dissonance of this piece, Molly takes on the role of Miss

Hannigan while the other orphans file into a line like soldiers. As the girls line up, they salute

Molly and start marching to their beds. This moment appears to reference Annie and her Junior

! 39 Commandos in Gray’s World War II comic strip. Similar to that comic strip, this single moment provides the girls with an image of power, like they can fight for justice in their lives, when in actuality they have no means to do so. They conclude their marching line with a pillow fight.

Whether they are soldiers or simply children remains unresolved. In this scene, the orphans portray a childlike innocence as they play, even though the words they sing contradict their actions. This irony points to the issue of Annie as a character in prior years. No matter what the actual circumstance, she brushes over the bad in order to shed light on the good, misleading the

American public. The movie does not overlook the state of the orphans as greatly as previous mediums, but it does employ its cinematography to distract from the issues at hand with the primary goal of entertaining the audience.

At the conclusion of the film, the popular song “I Don’t Need Anything But You” creates a picture of the ideal American family, sharply contrasting the cinematography of “It’s a Hard

Knock Life” at the start of the movie. Annie and Daddy Warbucks perform this song together, tap dancing down the enormous staircase of the Warbucks’ mansion, both dressed in their finest attire. As they enter the courtyard, a spectacle of fireworks greets them, complete with men on unicycles, bright flashing lights, and all of their friends. These bright colors differ greatly from the neutral and dirty brown’s of Miss Hannigan’s home, providing a clear distinction between the home and Annie’s good fortune in finding a family. The song centers around the duet between Daddy and Annie, pointing out their glee at finally having found one another. Although the bright colors and circus-like environment distinguish Annie from her prior self, the true message of this song appears when the chorus enters in, singing the following lines:

She’s like the fizz in a coke A buck when you’re broke, and more When woes and worries take hold Who gives them the old front door?

! 40

We got Annie I wish she were my kid We got Annie and she’s got it all (“I Don’t” 2).

In a literal sense, the servants and chorus in this scene take on the American attitude, singing together about the hope Annie has brought as a central figure for the American people.

This entire scene occurs in the Warbucks home, separated from the streets where the average

American lives, but it provides a sense of unity and alignment with the American people. The line “a buck when you’re broke” exposes Annie’s purpose as a character in this film: a beacon of hope for the American people in dark times. However, this optimism not only is unrealistic, as it showcases a dream that Americans would not achieve, but it also overshadows the true scenario of the orphan. Orphans were not rescued to Annie’s lovely life, tap dancing with their father figure. Annie’s situation is idealized, occurring in Warbucks’ fine home with amenities and entertainment. The chorus even sings, “We got Annie and she’s got it all,” a phrase that implies the American mindset of Annie as savior, while simultaneously showcasing that Annie receives everything she could ever want. The last picture of the film depicts Daddy Warbucks with his arm around Grace, his lover, standing next to Annie, who is petting Sandy, her dog. They are

“together at last,” and this portrait creates a false sense of agency and hope for orphans in the

1980s (“I Don’t” 1). Annie’s “fizz in a coke” personality is one that only she as a fictional character possesses. She concludes her story in the most spectacular way possible, with Miss

Hannigan at the reception in good spirits, her friends surrounding her, and a family to last for a lifetime. The 1982 film expanded the story from the musical, creating scenes of irony that presented Annie as a hero in a fairytale. Once more, this film sugarcoats the orphan situation, furthering the orphan myth.

! 41 Annie: The Movie - 1999 Analysis

Complementing its 1982 counterpart, Disney’s 1999 version of Annie presented the same popular plotline, only modifying the movie with more recent actors. As a whole, this movie served as a replication of the 1982 movie with more updated technology. Because of its creation at the end of the twentieth century, it seems oddly nostalgic to end the century the same way it began: with the story of a spunky redhead making the world fit into her optimistic outlook. This version of the movie was “made for television instead of mainstream cinema,” and its standard

Disney relatability made it an easy sell (Burrell 53). Even its casting proved relatable to its mainstream audience, pushing the movie to win two Emmys and a Golden Globe nomination

(Burrell 53). Although this version served as a remake of the 1982 movie, it provided an honesty in cinematography unseen in prior Annie movies and musicals, a trait that makes the 1999 movie in particular more harmful to the spread of the orphan myth.

In contrast to the 1982 movie, this film highlights the horror of Miss Hannigan’s Home for Girls and the unkindness of New York City. During the “It’s a Hard Knock Life” sequence, the girls fail to dance around the house in a choreographed number. Instead, they stay in their bedroom, scrubbing the floors and stripping the beds for the entire sequence, surrounded by grime and filth. This honest depiction of the orphanage differs greatly from the upbeat, ironic version of the song in the 1982 movie. Similarly, as Annie wanders the streets of New York, the dull colors and dirty buildings with a darkened film wash create a coldness and hardness that the

1982 film overlooks. Annie sits on the ground between broken boxes, hiding from the police, and as she returns home from her classic song “Tomorrow,” she finds herself soaking wet and shivering. In all of these images, the spunky redhead is reduced to a humanity with which audiences can empathize, a trait which the prior versions do not depict. New York appears as a

! 42 harsh place for a child, and the film shows the struggles Annie must overcome through the grimy and bustling image of poor New Yorkers.

Although the commencement of the film showcases a different side to the story, the numbers “I Think I’m Gonna Like It Here” and “NYC” return to the 1982 fantastical cinematography. Switching to vibrant colors and passer-bys with smiles on their faces, the film transforms into a perfect world, differing greatly from its initial faded wash. Unlike other numbers in the film that use lyrics to push forward the standard Annie optimism, this movie uses film-making to create an unrealistic ideal. During “I Think I’m Gonna Like It Here,” Annie finds herself inside Warbucks’ mansion, surrounded by resources, including tennis instructors, maids, pool instructors, and personal servants to dress her. Frames of Warbucks’ servants bustling throughout the house, smiling at Annie, provide a sharp contrast to Miss Hannigan’s. Here,

Annie is noticed, not ignored, and every part of the house is sparkling clean without her having to lift a finger. This stark contrast to her status within Miss Hannigan’s home, scrubbing the grimy floors, creates an even larger gap between reality and ideal than in the 1982 film. Here, the honesty of the first few scenes at Miss Hannigan’s merely gives the opportunity for a larger jump in Annie’s status, providing watchers with the expectation that this can occur for them. As this is a television-based movie, the accessibility for its watching is that much greater than in previous years. With the Disney film, children of all ages can watch as Annie’s life transforms from something truly terrible into something fantastical, like a Disney Cinderella. This proves more harmful than the 1982 film, for its brief moments of vulnerability at the commencement of the film only show the extreme of the other end of the spectrum once Annie lives with Daddy

Warbucks.

! 43 As previously discussed, the 1982 film isolates the watcher by showing Warbucks’ mansion at the end of the film as a spectacle. The 1999 film also plays on the resources that

Warbucks offers to Annie, but it spends more time showcasing this on the streets of New York during “NYC.” This is the second time that the audience sees Annie on the streets, and this time,

Grace Farrell and Daddy Warbucks escort her. With an upbeat tune, the entire city is covered in snow, rather than rain. Annie does not shiver, for she has a new, beautiful coat from Bergdorf’s.

Rather than eating a corn on the cob between broken down boxes, where she literally has to fight off dogs, Annie now has Daddy Warbucks paying for her meal at a food stand. Bright colors and window displays greet the three of them, as they practically waltz down the New York sidewalk.

Instead of being chased by a cop, Annie rides in a carriage down the street, covered in a blanket.

A panoramic view of the city showcases not dirty buildings but rather a fresh snow, covering lit windows. In an almost Mary Poppinsesque magical trip into an animated world, this number quite literally comes from a fantasy land. Annie holds a title, a family, and a new outlook on

New York, all because she was drawn from a hat to be adopted by Warbucks. Although this stark contrast in cinematography provides a sense of escapism for the American orphan, it is a tired motif. It provides Annie with the resources she needs to live a completely different life, and this fails to align with her peers at the time. Instead of remaking the entire film to be more realistic, the directors chose to keep the bright and shiny aspects of the second half of the film, employing new technology to make the frames that much more appealing.

Lastly, this film truly provides a false sense of agency through the closing scene with

President Roosevelt. In this film, President Roosevelt promises all of Annie’s friends that he will personally assist them in getting adopted into lovely families. At this juncture, all the orphans run into his arms and hug him. This provides a false sense of the American orphan’s agency.

! 44 Similar to previous years, not all children got placed with a good family during the 1990s. Here, the president himself gets involved on their behalf. Even though the government does get involved in child adoption in the latter half of the twentieth century, the promise of a good home comes framed within Warbucks’ mansion in the movie. Not all orphans can have a future like

Annie or receive families like Annie’s, and FDR’s promise in this closing sequence only furthers the orphan myth. This movie creates the delusion that if one orphan can stumble upon a perfect family, then the United States government must possess the ability to provide solid homes for all orphans. This was simply not the case. Once more, Annie as a character and as a film provides a misguided representation of the adoption process, as well as the ability of the orphan to attain a better life. With stark contrasts in cinematography between the beginning and end of the film, simultaneously paired with a closing scene that promises hope for all the orphans, the 1999

Annie film continues the century-long myth that the American orphan possesses agency and that

Americans care for orphans to their utmost ability.

Annie: The Movies - 1980-1999 Historical Analysis

As Annie took over cinema and television in the late twentieth century, the tide seemed to finally begin to turn for American orphans. Each decade of the twentieth century had continued to overshadow those within foster care and the orphanage system, but the 1980s and 1990s founded legislation that placed the orphan on what appeared to be a priority list. Ironically, the orphanage had all but ceased to exist as an institution in the United States in 1980, largely due to the 1980 Adoption Assistance and Child Welfare Act (M. Jones, “Decline” 476). Due to an overcrowding issue in foster homes, with many foster families housing two or more unrelated children, Congress passed this act to alleviate the stress on foster families and to provide a more

! 45 permanent solution for orphans (476). In light of this act, the 1982 resurrection of Annie as a character seems appropriate, showcasing the benefits of the adoption process and highlighting the government’s desire to create homes with intact families, whether biological, foster, or adopted (476). However, Annie’s situation of immeasurable wealth and provision with Daddy

Warbucks promotes a false representation of American children. During the early 1980s and the birth of Reaganomics, the country as a whole suffered an economic depression, touching the lives of nine million in 1982 alone (History.com Editors, “1980s” 2). This state of economic affairs affected children in a way that the passers of the Adoption Act could not have anticipated.

In spite of the long-awaited provision of the government in assisting orphans and practically de-institutionalizing orphanages with the 1980 Adoption Assistance Act, the act’s push for intact families failed to recognize the impact on children. Although the initial end of the orphanage and the governmental move for action appears encouraging, the end of the 1980s and early 1990s saw the true negative effect on American children. The 1980 Adoption Assistance

Act defined child welfare as “protecting and promoting the welfare of all children preventing the unnecessary separation of children from their families; and placing children in suitable adoptive homes where restoration to the biological family is not possible or appropriate” (H.R.3434 2).

With the dissonance between child protection and family preservation, it comes as no surprise that some children found themselves worse off, even if adopted into a new family or returning to their biological family (Gordon 7). The Temporary Assistance to Needy Families legislation of

1996 temporarily supported single parents while they sought employment, but these jobs often paid minimum wage and left the family and the children more impoverished than before (Gordon

7).

! 46 With facts like these, the Annie narrative becomes almost laughable. As children in these two decades suffered unrest and poverty, Annie quite literally dances on marble staircases without a care in the world. Child poverty remains an ever-present issue in American society, and the status of child poverty increased during the 1990s, widening the gap between the years

1999 and 2004 by 12 percent (Gordon 7). Even with reform for orphans, children still suffered in low- income positions, forced back into their homes as a result of legislation. Each of the Annie movies gives false hope to American children in the late twentieth century in a way that prior

Annie mediums de-emphasize: economic stability. Annie’s status is enviable while simultaneously unrealistic. A character of hope, Annie shows the positivity of the American people while overshadowing the truth of children’s fates. Each child can get a home, but the true state of the home they arrive in is one that cannot provide for them, much less give them access to resources like Daddy Warbucks.

For the duration of the 1980s and 1990s, children’s familial status improved with legislation, but the same legislation placed them into poor economic conditions. Transitioning into the twenty-first century, America holds one of the highest relative child poverty rates

(Gordon 7, Fisher 2). Annie cannot possibly represent the true story of the American orphan of these times. With every step forward in orphan advocacy during these two decades, it seems that the state and agency of American children worsened. Even in the making of the Annie movie itself, the government cut corners, altering the child labor law to allow the children to work past

11:30pm (ONeill 8). These last two decades should have concluded the Annie story for good, placing the optimistic orphan narrative to rest. However, the turn of the century only encouraged the popular character’s dispersion, allowing the American people to believe in the false agency of the orphan as the state of American children continued to be problematic.

! 47 Conclusion: The Afterlives of Annie ______

“Yesterday was plain awful, but that’s not now, that’s then.” -Annie and Daddy Warbucks

During the twentieth century, Little Orphan Annie propelled the orphan myth and provided America’s youth with a false sense of agency while simultaneously overshadowing the actual state of youth in America. As demonstrated through this thesis, Annie’s optimism took on different themes for each time period, whether as a source of stability during the Great

Depression, a source of confidence during the World Wars and the Cold War, or as a promise for economic prosperity during Reaganomics. In spite of all of these symbols of hope, Annie remains one of the most harmful characters in twentieth-century American literature. To the

American people at large, she gave a false sense of the state of the orphan. Her narrative continually diminished difficult realities at the times her mediums were published. At the close of the twentieth century, Americans were still enthralled with an orphan from the Great

Depression and her ultimate transformation into a millionaire’s daughter. At what point do

Americans take a step back and observe their blindness to American children’s needs? It would seem with the era of technology and the turn of the century that the Annie narrative would die.

Rather, it has lived on. Americans’ obsession with a character who attains everything she ever wants provides a sense of escapism, but it ultimately distracts the country from the truth surrounding America’s children.

Annie’s afterlives are alarmingly current. The Little Orphan Annie comic strip only concluded running in the Sunday papers as of 2010 (Kelly 3). Even more alarming than this,

2014 saw the release of yet another Annie film, this time adapting the story into a modern day

Annie in foster care with a new soundtrack. Starring big names like Jamie Foxx and Cameron

! 48 Diaz, this film provided the world with another Annie, but the end result of this film is once again the same as previous Annies (Burrell 53). Despite being a diverse film and finally representing demographics other than the white American child, this movie is merely a reiteration of the same story: a poor orphan girl gets adopted by a wealthy man and lives an effortless life. Contributing to this idea, the film casts aside the old Annie in the first scene of the movie, showcasing a red-headed singer, who the class boos off the stage (Burrell 53). She is replaced by charismatic and African American 2014 Annie, whom the class loves (Burrell 53-

54). This film may believe it discards the twentieth-century Annie through modern references and updated songs, but the narrative is the same (Burrell 54). The movie deceives the watcher into believing that the Annie narrative has changed. If anything, it is more dangerous, for the modernized Annie provides current American foster children and orphans with a more relatable agent for false hope. Americans ought to have noticed the incorrect story of the Annie narrative and the unrealism of the Annie character, but the story of a child pulling herself up by her bootstraps is just too appealing. Not only does the Annie narrative allow Americans to overlook the issues in the twentieth century that children faced as described by this thesis, but it also provides Americans with the ability to not take action towards any of the current issues facing

American children today.

In modern America, the orphan situation is anything but solved, and the current status of

American children exacerbates the need for a new narrative to represent them. Although it may seem like orphan and youth struggles are just a recurring issue in society, the situation is actually deteriorating and worsening in modern America. Currently, over 10 million children in institutions represents the status of the American orphan (Kuligowski 1). Additionally, 443,000 children are currently in the American foster system (Kuligowski 1). However, what these

! 49 statistics fail to mention are the children who “age out” of the foster care system at age 18, of which about 20% of all kids in foster care do (Kuligowski 2). International adoption in the

United States has increased, a fact which seems like a positive ideal, for it reduces the global number of orphans (Herrmann 409). However, international adoptions, while overlooking the already large number of American orphans, only increase the risk for children globally.

According to Family Law Quarterly, high demand for international adoption has “created a veritable ‘black market’ children, spurring corrupt practices such as child trafficking, deceit, and kidnapping in the children’s country of origin” (Herrmann 410). Although there is nothing inherently wrong with adopting children from a different nation, child risk at large has increased dramatically. America is spreading its blindness about the wellbeing of the child into other countries, while turning a complacent eye to the issues within America itself. The misperception of youth is not an issue that has just continued; rather, it is one that has evolved and grown more intense over the course of the twentieth century. American adults have been misguided for so long, both by the Annie narrative and by their wish to fulfill the expectations of the American dream, that it has become easier to ignore the issues facing modern American children.

In addition to the high number of orphans both nationwide and globally, the current narrative of the American orphan is dramatically changed due to immigration. As much as

America has tried to move away from orphanages as an institution, these programs have reappeared at the Mexican-American border. As of early 2018, over 2,300 children were placed into orphanage institutions as a form of holding at the border (Fox 1). Child development specialist Nathan Fox notes that “‘They’re imprisoned and separated from their parents, who they look to for safety, security, love and protection. . . That will have a significant impact upon these children’s behavior and upon their mental health’” (Fox 2). These children have become

! 50 American orphans, held in an institution that the United States has been fighting against for over half a century. As previously mentioned, institutions declined in the latter half of the twentieth century (Jones, “Decline” 476); however, America has regressed into re-creating these orphanages, showing once more that America’s misperception of the orphan situation has worsened in modern America.

In addition to orphans, the American child generally faces challenges that Little Orphan

Annie cannot begin to address. Among bullying, anxiety and depression, and drug use, American children face daily issues of uncertainty (Desilver 1). Based on surveys from Pew Research

Center, depression is steadily increasing in American teens age 12 to 17 (Desilver 1).

Additionally, marijuana use has increased, while 55% of students note bullying as a significant issue (Desilver 2). American children are faced with wide-ranging issues, but American adults have been so brainwashed with popular culture’s representation of youth and the orphan myth that they are not taking proper action. These stats necessitate a new role model for the American child. Annie is a tired narrative, and modern children need someone not only relatable but also honest about the issues they face every day. With a new narrative, American adults might be incited to take real action, rather than continuing to misunderstand the status of the American child.

America has taken a step backwards in handling orphans, and children are literally screaming, yet Annie still dances on. Annie as a narrative is a dangerous force, for it allows

Americans to become complacent, believing that the child will overcome their circumstances. It makes Americans believe that the United States is a safe haven for children, when it is not. If not debunked, the orphan myth will continue throughout the twenty-first century, overshadowing more narratives of American children and further spiraling the status of American youth.

! 51 Works Cited

“Annie.” Rob Marshall, Disney, 1999.

“Annie - Tomorrow Lyrics.” Metrolyrics.com. CBS Interactive Inc., 2020. https://www.metrolyrics.com/tomorrow-lyrics-annie.html

“Annie - Fully Dressed- Orphans Lyrics.” Metrolyrics.com. CBS Interactive Inc., 2020. https://www.metrolyrics.com/fully-dressed-orphans-lyrics-annie.html.

Auerbach, Nina. “Incarnations of the Orphan.” ELH, vol. 42, no. 3, 1975, pp. 395–419. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/2872711.

Auster, Donald. “A Content Analysis of ‘Little Orphan Annie.’” Social Problems, vol. 2, no. 1, 1954, pp. 26–33. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/798661.

Blakemore, Erin. “‘Orphan Trains’ Brought Homeless NYC Children to Work on Farms Out West.” History.com. n.p., 2019. https://www.history.com/news/orphan-trains-childrens-aid-society

Blakemore, Erin. “Our Obsession with Orphans: A Short History from Jane Eyre to Annie.” Daily.Jstor.Org, 2014. https://daily.jstor.org/our-obsession-with-orphans/

Brown, Nick, ed. Refiguring American Film Genres: History and Theory. The Regents of the University of California, 1998. https://books.google.com/books?id=d7cwDwAAQBAJ&lpg=PR7&dq=history%20of%2 0american%20film%20popularity&lr&pg=PR4#v=onepage&q&f=false

Burrell, H.J. “From Curls to Color: A Cinematic Evolution of Little Orphan Annie.” Film Matters, vol.8, 2017, pp.52-55.

“Child Labor.” History.com. History.com, 2019. https://www.history.com/topics/industrial-revolution/child-labor

Culwell-Block, Logan. “Cast Changes, Rewrites and More: From Yesterday to ‘Tomorrow,’ Annie’s History on Stage and Screen.” Playbill.com. Playbill Inc., 2020. http://www.playbill.com/article/cast-changes-rewrites-and-more-from-yesterday-to- tomorrow-annies-history-on-stage-and-screen-com-337596

Curran, Laura and Stefani Pfeiffer, "“You Can’t Tie and Untie Love That Fast”: Family Preservation and Reunification in Midcentury Philadelphia," Social Service Review, vol. 82, no. 1 (March 2008): 61-91.https://doi.org/10.1086/527020

Comacchio, Cynthia, et al. Healing the World's Children: Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Child Health in the Twentieth Century, MQUP, 2008. ProQuest Ebook Central, https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/uh/detail.action?docID=3331976.

! 52

Desilver, Drew. “The concerns and challenges of being a U.S. teen: What the data show.” Pewresearch.org. Pew Research Center, 2020. https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2019/02/26/the-concerns-and-challenges-of- being-a-u-s-teen-what-the-data-show/

Elsaesser, Thomas. “American Auteur Cinema: The Last – or First – Great Picture Show.” The Last Great American Picture Show: New Hollywood Cinema in the 1970s, ed. Thomas Elsaesser et al., Amsterdam University Press, Amsterdam, 2004, pp. 37–70. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt46mxhc.5.

Fass, Paula S. The End of American Childhood. Princeton University Press, 2016.

Fisher, Max. “Map: How 35 Countries Compare on Child Poverty (the U.S. is ranked 34th).” WashingtonPost.com. N.p., 2013. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2013/04/15/map-how-35- countries-compare-on-child-poverty-the-u-s-is-ranked-34th/

Fox, Maggie. “Border Separations show why the U.S. doesn’t have orphanages any more.” NBCNews.com. NBC Universal, 2020. https://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/immigration-border-crisis/border-separations-show- why-we-don-t-have-orphanages-any-n884906

GiGgLeBeArSoApBoX. “‘It’s a hard knock life’ ORIGINAL Annie 1982.” Youtube.com, commentary by GiGgLeBeArSoApBoX, 19 Nov. 2011. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-0bOH8ABpco

Gordon, Linda. “Child Welfare: A Brief History.” SocialWelfare.library.vcu.edu. n.p., 2011. https://socialwelfare.library.vcu.edu/programs/child-welfarechild-labor/child-welfare-ove rview/

Gray, Harold. Little Orphan Annie: Open Season for Trouble. Edited by Dean Mullaney and Bruce Canwell, vol. 15, Tribune Content Agency, LLC, 2018.

Gray, Harold. Little Orphan Annie: Will Tomorrow Ever Come? Edited by Dean Mullaney and Bruce Canwell, vol.1, Tribune Media Services, Inc., 2008.

Gray, Harold. Little Orphan Annie: And A Blind Man Shall Lead Them. Edited by Dean Mullaney and Bruce Canwell, vol. 3, Tribune Media Services, Inc., 2009.

Gray, Harold. Little Orphan Annie: The Junior Commandos. Edited by Dean Mullaney and Bruce Canwell, vol. 15, TMS News and Features, LLC, 2014.

Grenby, M.O and Andrea Immel, ed. The Cambridge Companion to Children’s Literature. Cambridge University Press, 2009.

! 53 Hajdu, David. The Ten-Cent Plague: The Great Comic-Book Scare and How It Changed America. David Hajdu, 2008.

“Half of All American Children Born in the 1970s Will Probably Live in One or More Broken Homes.” Family Planning Perspectives, vol. 14, no. 4, 1982, pp. 211–212. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/2134641.

Herrmann, Katherine. “Reestablishing the Humanitarian Approach to Adoption: The Legal and Social Change Necessary to End the Commodification of Children.” Family Law Quarterly, vol. 44, no. 3, 2010, pp. 409–428. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/23034365.

“The History of Broadway.” Historythings.com. n.p., 2017. https://historythings.com/the-history-of-broadway/

“The History of Comics: Decade by decade.” The-artifice.com. n.p., n.d. https://the-artifice.com/history-of-comics/

“History of the Theater District.” Spotlightonbroadway.com. The City of New York, 2013. https://www.spotlightonbroadway.com/broadway-history

History.com Editors. “Hollywood.” History.com. A&E Television Networks, LLC, 2020. https://www.history.com/topics/roaring-twenties/hollywood

History.com Editors. “The 1980s.” History.com. A&E Television Networks, LLC, 2020. https://www.history.com/topics/1980s/1980s

Holmes, Linda. “A Different ‘Annie,’ But Still A Good Kid.” Npr.org. NPR, 2020. https://www.npr.org/2014/12/19/370932001/a-different-annie-but-still-a-good-kid

“Horatio Alger.” Web.Stanford.edu. n.p., n.d. https://web.stanford.edu/dept/SUL/library/prod/depts/dp/pennies/1860_alger.html

“H.R.3434 - Adoption Assistance and Child Welfare Act of 1980.” Congress.gov. n.p., n.d. https://www.congress.gov/bill/96th-congress/house-bill/3434

“I Don’t Need Anything But You Lyrics.” Stlyrics.com. Stlyrics.com, 2020. https://www.stlyrics.com/lyrics/annie/idontneedanythingbutyou.htm

Jones, Jennifer S. “When Did Foster Care Start?” Adoption.org. Adoption.org, 2020. https://adoption.org/foster-care-start

Jones, Marshall B. “Crisis of the American Orphanage, 1931-1940.” Social Service Review, vol. 63, no. 4, 1989, pp. 613–629. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/30012054.

! 54 Jones, Marshall B. “Decline of the American Orphanage, 1941-1980.” Social Service Review, vol. 67, no. 3, 1993, pp. 459–480. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/30012508.

JutubJuzer. “Annie (1982) - Final Medley.” Youtube.com, commentary by JutubJuzer, n.d.,https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jymwZyr6QCI

Kasper, Rob. “Horatio Alger Jr.” Horatioalgersociety.net. The Horatio Alger Society, 2011. https://www.horatioalgersociety.net/131_algerbykasper.html

Kelly, Kate. “Little Orphan Annie, The Comic Strip.” Americacomesalive.com. Kate Kelly, 2020. https://americacomesalive.com/2014/07/08/little-orphan-annie-comic-strip/

Keiger, Dale. “The Rise and Demise of the American Orphanage.” Pages.Jh.edu. n.p., nd. https://pages.jh.edu/jhumag/496web/orphange.html

Kleinberg, S. J. Widows and Orphans First: The Family Economy and Social Welfare Policy, 1880-1939, University of Illinois Press, 2005. ProQuest Ebook Central, https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/uh/detail.action?docID=3414087.

Kuligowski, Susan. “How Many Orphans in the U.S.?: There are millions of orphans in the world today.” Adoption.com. Adoption.com, LLC, 2020. https://adoption.com/how- many-orphans-in-the-us

Kuiper, Kathleen. “Little Orphant Annie: Poem by Riley” Britannica.com. Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc., 2020.https://www.britannica.com/topic/Little-Orphant-Annie

Lost in the Victory: Reflections of American War Orphans of World War II, edited by Calvin L. Chistman, University of North Texas Press, 1998. ProQuest Ebook Central, https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/uh/detail.action?docID=3039555.

MacLeod, Anne Scott. American Childhood. University of Georgia Press, 1994.

Meehan, Thomas. "On Making Little Orphan Annie Sing and Dance: Making Orphan Annie Sing." New York Times (1923-Current file), Apr 17, 1977, pp. 2. ProQuest, http://search.proquest.com.ezproxy.lib.uh.edu/docview/123356026?accountid=7107.

McNamara, Brooks. “Broadway: A Theatre Historian's Perspective.” TDR (1988-), vol. 45, no. 4, 2001, pp. 125–128. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/1146932.

Morton, Marian J. “Cleveland's Child Welfare System and the ‘American Dilemma,’ 1941–1964.” Social Service Review, vol. 72, no. 1, 1998, pp. 112–136. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/10.1086/515735.

“Myth.” Merriam-Webster.com. Merriam-Webster, Incorporated, 2020. https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/myth

! 55 ONeill, Therese. “15 Hard-Knock Facts about Annie.” Mentalfloss.com. n.p., 2017. https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/60530/15-things-you-may-not-have-known-about-an nie

“Orphan.” Merriam-Webster.com. Merriam-Webster, Incorporated, 2020. https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/orphan

Patton, William Wesley. “Child Protective Services: Historical Overview, Current System.” Education.stateuniversity.com. Net Industries and its Licensors, 2019. https://education.stateuniversity.com/pages/1828/Child-Protective-Services.html

Pazicky, Diana Loercher. Cultural Orphans in America, University Press of Mississippi, 2008. ProQuest Ebook Central, https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/uh/detail.action?docID=680056.

Quinn, Aileen. “It’s a Hard-Knock Life.” Genius.com. Genius Media Group Inc., 2020. https://genius.com/Aileen-quinn-its-a-hard-knock-life-lyrics

Ress, Stella. "Bridging the Generation Gap: Little Orphan Annie in the Great Depression." Journal of Popular Culture, vol. 43, no. 4, 2010, pp. 782. ProQuest, http://search.proquest.com.ezproxy.lib.uh.edu/docview/760023003?accountid=7107.

Rhoads, Ellen. “Little Orphan Annie and Lévi-Strauss: The Myth and the Method.” The Journal of American Folklore, vol. 86, no. 342, 1973, pp. 345–357. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/539358.

Riley, James Whitcomb. “Little Orphant Annie” Poets.org. Academy of American Poets, n.d. https://poets.org/poem/little-orphant-annie

Roth, Benjamin J., et al. “Detached and Afraid: U.S. Immigration Policy and the Practice of Forcibly Separating Parents and Young Children at the Border.” Child Welfare, vol. 96, no. 5, Sept. 2018, pp. 29–49. EBSCOhost, search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=lgh&AN=135040244&site=ehost-live.

Seemayer, Zach. “A Look Back at the Many Different Versions of ‘Annie’ Through the Years.” Etonline.com. CBS Studios Inc., 2020. https://www.etonline.com/movies/153495_a_look_back_at_the_many_different_versions _of_annie_through_the_years

“Show History: History.” MTIshows.com. MTI Enterprises Inc., n.d. https://www.mtishows.com/show-history/509

Spence, Matine T. “Whose Stereotypes and Racial Myths? The National Urban League and the 1950s Roots of Color-Blind Adoption Policy.” Women, Gender, and Families of Color, vol. 1, no. 2, 2013, pp. 143–179. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/10.5406/womgenfamcol.1.2.0143.

! 56

“Timeline of Adoption History.” Pages.Uoregon.edu. n.p., n.d. https://pages.uoregon.edu/adoption/timeline.html

“Timeline: 100 Years of Musical Theatre.” Pbs.org. Educational Broadcasting Corporation, 2020. https://www.pbs.org/wnet/broadway/timelines/1943-1959/

Thomas, Steven. “New York’s Theatre History: Broadway.” Topviewnyc.com. TopView Sightseeing, 2020. https://www.topviewnyc.com/packages/new-york-s-theatre-history- broadway

Troy, Maria Holmgren, et al. Making Home: Orphanhood, Kinship and Cultural Memory in Contemporary American Novels. Manchester University Press, 2014. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt1mf71hv.

Vankin, Deborah. “‘Annie’ to close on Broadway.” LAtimes.com. Los Angeles Times, 2020. https://www.latimes.com/entertainment/arts/la-xpm-2013-sep-06-la-et-cm-annie-to-close 20130905-story.html

Vašíčková, Marcela, and Šárka Bubíková. Orphans in American Fiction. Univerzita Pardubice, 2010.

Warren, Andrea. “The Orphan Train.” Washingtonpost.com. The Washington Post Company, 1998. https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/national/horizon/nov98/orphan.htm

“What is AFDC?” Census.Gov. U.S. Census Bureau, Population Division, 2011. https://www.census.gov/population/socdemo/statbriefs/whatAFDC.html

Young, William H. "That Indomitable Redhead: Little Orphan Annie." Journal of Popular Culture, vol. 8, no. 2, 1974, pp. 309. ProQuest, http://search.proquest.com.ezproxy.lib.uh.edu/docview/1297362079?accountid=7107.

Zayas, Luis H., and Luis Zayas. Forgotten Citizens: Deportation, Children, and the Making of American Exiles and Orphans, Oxford University Press, Incorporated, 2015. ProQuest Ebook Central, https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/uh/detail.action?docID=1973786.

Zeenat, Afrin, "The Spectacle of Orphanhood: Reimagining Orphans in Postbellum Fiction" (2015). Theses and Dissertations. 1275. http://scholarworks.uark.edu/etd/1275

! 57