The Sun’ll Come Out
YESTERDAY, TODAY, AND TOMORROW.
LITTLE ORPHAN ANNIE ENDURES AND INSPIRES
BY HANNAH SPINA
A spunky, red-headed orphan, a wealthy,
conservative businessman, and a lovable dog. Put
them together and you have the making of one
of the world’s most popular and beloved musicals
—and it turns out that, much like the character
herself, the phenomenon of Annie had relatively
humble beginnings.
The musical Annie is basedon a comic strip
created by Harold Gray that debuted on August 5,
1924 in the New York Daily News, “Little Orphan
Annie”. The title came from a poem written in
1885 entitled, “Little Orphant Annie” by James
Whitcomb Riley, which was inspired by a real life
orphan. According to a 2014 article in The Paris
Review, her name was Mary Alice “Allie” Smith.
She was a neighbor of the Riley family in Indiana.
Her father was killed in the Civil War and at the
age of 12 she went to live with the Rileys. Allie
would entertain the Riley children, including James,
FALL MARQUEE | theatrecr.org
with scary stories, which intrigued the young writer
to pen his poem “Little Orphant Annie”. (Orphant is
an archaic spelling of the word ‘orphan’.) The poem
was comprised of the cautionary tales Allie would
tell, the major theme being that children should
do what they are told. Riley originally intended
to publish the poem with Allie’s real name, but a
typographical error changed Allie to Annie and the
name has stuck for 132 years.
When searching for ideas for a comic strip, Gray
met a young girl on the streets of Chicago who
impressed him with her ability to take care of
herself, out of necessity. He wanted to write about
a girl because so many strips were about boys.
Making her an orphan would give her freedom and
no permanent attachments to hold back story ideas.
With this idea and his recollection of Riley’s poem,
the world’s most famous orphan was born.
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