Annie would become one of the first radio serials to appeal directly to kids by focusing on adventures featuring kids. (If Gray had lived to see the 1982 film adaptation of the popular stage musical loosely based on his strip, the sight of FDR and Warbucks singing and dancing together surely would have killed him on the spot.)īy the time "Little Orphan Annie" was adapted for radio, premiering on WGN in Chicago in 1930, the comic was among the top five newspaper strips in the country. Cartoonist Gray was so conservatively libertarian in his politics (attitudes which eventually leaked into the strip) that he even killed off the Warbucks character at one point and brought him back only after the passing of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt. He was ruthless in his quest for money and influence - the crash of 1929 had knocked him somewhat off his pedestal - and would brook no dissension with "the rabble" he even had a pair of cold-blooded assassins, Punjab and the Asp, to deal with any potentially threatening opposition.
The Warbucks character was one of the most fascinating to appear in the 'funny pages' creator Gray tried to present him as a symbol of "rugged capitalism" but oftentimes he came across as a two-bit gangster. With her dog Sandy as her only companion, she was making her way through the world by sheer pluck and determination when she crossed paths with Oliver "Daddy" Warbucks, a "self-made man" who had acquired his vast wealth in munitions during the First World War. When the strip premiered, Annie had recently escaped from an orphanage. Patterson ordered Gray to change the gender of the character, after observing that Otto looked "like a pansy." "Put skirts on the kid," Patterson barked and, lo and behold, "Annie" was born. It was originally titled "Little Orphan Otto" before Chicago Tribune owner Joseph M. Click on the 'Special Features' tab for simple instructions!Īugmarked the auspicious debut of one of the most popular comic strips ever to appear in newspapers: "Little Orphan Annie", created by cartoonist Harold Gray. You can decode these messages by printing out and assembling your own personal 1936 decoder badge.
Five of the Little Orphan Annie broadcasts in this collection contain secret coded messages intended only for members of Annie's Secret Society.
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