“The Gobble‐uns’ll git you ef you don’t watch out!”
| Little Orphant Annie | |
|---|---|
 | |
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Real name |
Mary Alice “Allie” Smith, Annie |
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First appearance |
The Indianapolis Journal (30 Sept. 1882) |
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Original publisher |
Indianapolis Journal Co. |
|
Created by |
James Whitcomb Riley |
Origin[]
Mary Alice Smith, a.k.a. Orphant Annie and Orphant Allie, is an orphan child who helps keep house for the kind family who have taken her in, and when work is done, tells chilling horror stories to her younger housemates. In her first appearance (“Where Is Mary Alice Smith?,” 1882), she tells the children a grisly story of murder by decapitation and then later introduces them to her soldier friend Dave who is soon killed upon going off to war. In her third appearance (“The Elf Child,” 1885), she tells them horror stories of misbehaving children who are abducted by goblins. According to Wikipedia, the character is popular with Indiana children, particularly at Halloween.
The 1918 movie Little Orphant Annie indicates that she had previously told her scary stories to fellow orphans in an orphanage, depicts her unfortunate family situation before moving to her benefactors’ home and illustrates two of her stories.
In 1921, author Johnny Gruelle further expanded Annie’s origin story in The Orphant Annie Story Book, which depicts in greater detail the winter day of her arrival at her benefactor family’s home. Gruelle goes to great lengths to cast a magic fairylike glow about her, describing her, for example, as “a strange, mysterious, fancy‐filled little girl” who “seemed to come direct from the "Land of Fairies” and who “seemed a creature … whose place was with Gnomes and Elves as they formed their Fairy Rings and danced in the shimmering moonlight.” In addition to horror stories, she also tells much less frightening stories about fairies, gnomes, magicians and anthropomorphic animals.
Public domain literary appearances[]
- “Where Is Mary Alice Smith?,” by James Whitcomb Riley (30 Sept. 1882)
- “Granny” (poem), by James Whitcomb Riley (10 May 1885)
- “The Elf Child” (poem) by James Whitcomb Riley (15 Nov. 1885)
- Reprinted as “Little Orphant Annie” and “The Gobble‐uns’ll Git You Ef You Don’t Watch Out!”
- Expanded version (1908)
- Sunshine Annie, by Josephine Scribner Gates (1910)
- “The Real ‘Orphant Annie’,” by Edmund H. Eitel, The Ladies’ Home Journal (Nov. 1915)
- “James Whitcomb Riley” (poem), by Edgar A. Guest (1916)
- “The Gobble‐uns’ll Git You,” by Hester Rosalyn Hoffman, The Smith College Monthly (Feb. 1917)
- Home Again (play), published as Home Folks, by Robert McLaughlin (1918)
- Orphant Annie Story Book, by Johnny Gruelle (1921)
- Riley Readings with Living Pictures (1921)
- Sing a Song of Sleepy Head (play), by James W. Foley (1922)
Public domain movie appearance[]
Little Orphant Annie (1918)
Notes[]
- The character is based on a real girl named Mary Alice Smith (1850–1924) who, similar to the character, lived in the author’s home and did housework.
- Raggedy Ann was named after Orphant Annie in 1915, and Orphan Annie was named after her in 1924.
- Any illustration of Annie first published in 1929 or later is probably not in the public domain, and elements of the character and of her appearance introduced in those illustrations may need to be avoided.
Gallery[]
