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Little Ideological Annie
Comics historian Ben Schwartz writing at Bookforum finds the roots of Reaganism in that adorable li'l gamine, star of stage, screen, and the comics page, Little Orphan Annie. An excerpt:
“I hate professional do-gooders with other people’s money,” [Annie creator Harold Gray] once wrote. In 1932, the Depression brought to power one of the world’s great professional do-gooders, FDR. Roosevelt’s aggressive new liberalism transformed Gray into the new breed of Republican: a pro-business, small-government tax cutter. Feeling that the New Deal destroyed rugged individualism with its programs designed to uplift, Gray spoke out. He never named FDR in Annie. But in 1934, when prosecutor Phil O. Bluster jailed Warbucks on phony tax charges, readers knew why. Inspired by fugitive Chicago millionaire Samuel Insull, then in Europe evading the IRS, Gray torched the New Dealers he saw as hounding businessmen for their success.
One Annie storyline Schwartz described makes you wonder whether Ayn Rand had been reading the funnies with notepad in hand in the 1930s, when you think about Atlas Shrugged's Rearden metal:
Annie befriends a homeless scientist, Eli Eon, inventor of Eonite, a cheap, easy-to-produce, indestructible material. Warbucks envisions it ending the Depression. Millions will work to mass-produce it, creating materials for housing that millions more will build. A corrupt union, led by John L. Lewis look-alike Claude Claptrap and liberal, long-haired journalist Horatio Hack, demands Warbucks give Eonite “to the pee-pul” or they’ll strike. Their workers burn down Warbucks’s factory (he hadn’t gotten around to building it out of Eonite yet), killing Eon. The secret of Eonite, and to ending the Depression, dies with him.
Let us all revive "Horatio Hack" as an insult to journalists we don't like, shall we?
Mad Max|9.9.08 @ 7:01PM|#
There are more things in Heaven and Earth, Horatio
Than are dreamt of in thy welfare/warfare state philosophy.
beavis|9.9.08 @ 7:03PM|#
Maybe Eli Eon should have gone into genetic engineering and made Little Orphan Annie some normal eyeballs.
|9.9.08 @ 7:06PM|#
Now I'm wondering if Eonite might also have inspired Al Capp's
shmoos.
beavis,
For little, empty ovals, those peepers were sure expressive,
eh?
|9.9.08 @ 7:15PM|#
Alas! poor Warbucks. I knew him, Horatio; a fellow of infinite
jest, of most excellent fancy; he hath borne me on his back a
thousand times; and now, how abhorred in my imagination it
is!
(damn you Max for beating me)
Dagny T.|9.9.08 @ 7:29PM|#
For my Horatio reference, I was going to go with the up-by-the-bootstraps stories of Horatio Alger. It's a fun name, no matter how you slice it.
Dagny T.|9.9.08 @ 7:38PM|#
Horatio Hornblower is made with 100% more
FUNNIERITE®
Indisputably so. But Horatio Alger stories are somewhat
on-ideological-topic, with their Reagan-esque work ethic, etc.
|9.9.08 @ 7:49PM|#
Indeed. I felt the awesome bolts shooting out of my hand as I typed it. I must've been possessed by my muse, Rick James.
|9.9.08 @ 7:51PM|#
All you whippersnappers getting a chuckle out of "ho ratio" and
the like are missing the point of having enjoyed Little Orphan
Annie, her dog, Sandy, and Daddy Warbuck's loyal people: The Asp
and Punjab.
There was a lot to love, and it was deeep!
Ruthless
|9.9.08 @ 8:00PM|#
But Horatio Alger stories are somewhat
on-ideological-topic
But no one reads Alger stories any more. However, we could then
pirouette off of the "Alger" to Alger Hiss and start a huge
flamewar over whether he was or was not a KGB sleeper agent. We
probably shouldn't.
|9.9.08 @ 8:13PM|#
I recall a Little Orphan Annie story in the mid-60s which had
Daddy Warbucks blowing up the factory he had built in some banana
republic rather than let it be seized by the local strong man, who
we all recognized as Fidel Castro.
It was quite a shock to those of us who cut our teeth on the comic
strip to find Annie as a huge FDR supporter in the 70s musical.
Dagny T.|9.9.08 @ 8:13PM|#
start a huge flamewar
Are you feeling alright? You don't want to start a
flame-war?
But no one reads Alger stories any more.
Some of my more anti-capitalist profs would reference in passing,
as an example of why working hard is such a kooky idea: "See? That
old dude with the funny name wrote about it! Those capitalists are
so zany!"
loli|9.9.08 @ 8:25PM|#
It was quite a shock to those of us who cut our teeth on the
comic strip to find Annie as a huge FDR supporter in the 70s
musical.
When my high school put on Annie when I was 16, I passed a
few excerpts of Lawrence Reed's "Great Myths of the
Great Depression" pamphlet around the cast. The rest of the
kids were mostly uninterested. If I had only been familiar with the
comics, perhaps I would have gotten through!
|9.9.08 @ 8:33PM|#
Let us all revive "Horatio Hack" as an insult to journalists
we don't like, shall we?
Sure thing, Horatio.
|9.9.08 @ 8:35PM|#
Forgot to mention, what need for Horatio Alger stories when we are living witness to the greatest of Horatio Alger stories, Obama.
TallDave|9.9.08 @ 8:41PM|#
Let us all revive "Horatio Hack" as an insult to journalists
we don't like, shall we?
Sorry, he's already better known as "Dan Rather."
|9.9.08 @ 8:50PM|#
Are you feeling alright? You don't want to start a
flame-war?
You caught me. By mentioning it, I have the possibility of
starting a huge flame war. Which is my fondest desire. Stay out of
my head!!!
|9.9.08 @ 8:59PM|#
While I'm young enough not to have read much Little Orphan
Annie, I do recall a couple of parodies--one from Mad
and Little Annie Fannie.
What's Ho Bama's ho ratio, anyway? Anyone know?
Brian Doherty|9.9.08 @ 9:12PM|#
JTUf---Read Schwartz's article---it is in fact framed as a review of the first volume in a new, ongoing series reprinting Gray's ANNIE in toto.
Fidel Castro|9.9.08 @ 9:51PM|#
"Some of my more anti-capitalist profs would reference in
passing"
Whilewe're on he subject of anti-capitalists and passing, did you
hear the one about Kim Jong Il?
http://news.yahoo.com/story//ap/20080910/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/us_nkorea_15
Orange Line Special|9.9.08 @ 10:28PM|#
Gosh, who could have guessed that one of the world's most jejune ideologies could have its roots in a kids comic?
Metal Messiah|9.9.08 @ 10:36PM|#
Interesting that Daddy Warbucks doesn't want to pay taxes. His
name would imply that he was a part of the military-industrial
complex and a big time war profiteer.
I can't say I know much about little Orphan Annie, but wasn't Daddy
Warbucks generally using his wealth and influence to bail Annie out
of trouble? Doesn't seem like much of a proponent of rugged
invidualism to me.
And, when I was a kid, those blank pupils everyone had seriously
gave me the willies.
Dagny T.|9.9.08 @ 10:39PM|#
TAO,
Wow, I resisted the urge to make the Ludacris reference. I admire
your courage. I just wish that song wasn't in my head now.
Robert|9.9.08 @ 10:43PM|#
But no one reads Alger stories any more. However, we could then pirouette off of the "Alger" to Alger Hiss
Maybe nobody reads the Horatio A. stories any more, but they're
still rehashing A. Hiss. Among other things, the 1st season of
Smallville on TV contained an allegoric retelling of that
story -- with Clark Kent representing an "alien" subversive! They
made it pretty obvious when they named one character Roger
Nixon.
Bertrum|9.9.08 @ 10:54PM|#
"His name would imply that he was a part of the
military-industrial complex and a big time war profiteer."
James J. Hill and Amtrak. Compare and contrast.
|9.9.08 @ 10:57PM|#
I'm young enough to grow up watching Annie the movie everyday, so this post is a strange revelation to me. How on earth did such a pro-FDR, pro-New Deal propamusical spring from such Randian roots?
|9.9.08 @ 11:29PM|#
I wonder how many of you even know what conditions your states
were in before and during the Great Depression. Before FDR, Texas
didn't even have roads west of Austin, and few enough east of it.
There was no electricity, no sanitation, no FDA to make sure the
food you were eating was safe and no regulatory agencies to make
sure that water stayed clean when it was sanitized. The state was
mainly agricultural, but only the wealthiest planters along the
coastal plain could afford to buy a tractor, and because of the
thinness of the soil west of those plains and the expense of
fertilizer, plowing was always a crap shoot anyway. The only
state-wide police force was the Texas Rangers, which meant that a
force numbering in the dozens was tasked with stopping crime and
hunting down criminals within a state big enough to stuff New
England into with room to spare.
Thanks to the infrastructure built through New Deal programs, many
of which were contracted to private corporations not this fantasy
anti-New Dealers seem to have of socialist handouts, Texas has been
a leader in high tech industries since the 1960's is currently and
one of the fastest growing states in the Union. Houston, Dallas,
San Antonio, and Austin, towns which would barely have deserved the
name in the 1930's, are now some of the biggest and most
economically dynamic metropolitan areas in the Union. Something
else you can think the New Dealers for? All those vaccinations you
got as a child, for free, which meant you never had to worry about
dying of polio or the mumps.
As to this concept that it stifled innovation and "rugged
individualism", show me a study that shows a drop in business
creation over the course of FDR's, Truman's, and Eisenhower's
presidencies (though a Republican, he mostly continued the New Deal
policies of his predecessors).
|9.9.08 @ 11:31PM|#
bah! That should be "thank" not "think", and there should be an 'and' after "1960's".
|9.9.08 @ 11:43PM|#
Something else you can think the New Dealers for? All those
vaccinations you got as a child, for free, which meant you never
had to worry about dying of polio or the mumps.
Oh praise Jesus and pass the mashed potatoes. What we would ever
have done without SuperFDR and his ability to save us all from
certain doom?
As if there was no incentive outside of governmental ones to cure,
say, freakin' polio.
|9.9.08 @ 11:45PM|#
All those vaccinations you got as a child, for free, which
meant you never had to worry about dying of polio or the
mumps.
You heard it here, folks. There is such a thing as a free
vaccination.
|9.9.08 @ 11:46PM|#
Wow, I resisted the urge to make the Ludacris reference. I
admire your courage. I just wish that song wasn't in my head
now.
Southern Ho-spitality.
|9.9.08 @ 11:46PM|#
You heard it here, folks. There is such a thing as a free
vaccination.
TANSTAAFV :-D
SIV|9.10.08 @ 12:21AM|#
Before FDR, Texas didn't even have roads west of Austin, and
few enough east of it.
Roads? This is a libertarian blog's comments and you should be
mindful of our sheer, boiling, incendiary hatred of such
collectivist things:)
|9.10.08 @ 2:16AM|#
I recall a Little Orphan Annie story in the mid-60s which
had Daddy Warbucks blowing up the factory he had built in some
banana republic rather than let it be seized by the local strong
man, who we all recognized as Fidel Castro.
It was quite a shock to those of us who cut our teeth on the comic
strip to find Annie as a huge FDR supporter in the 70s
musical.
As someone whose second-favorite Heinlein book was Starship
Troopers, I'm tempted to once again mention the disgust I felt
upon watching Paul Verhoeven's version and its subtle ideological
inversion, but I'll resist it.
|9.10.08 @ 2:18AM|#
PS: If it wasn't for FDR, we wouldn't need those roads, because by now we'd have cars that fly!!!
|9.10.08 @ 2:42AM|#
If it wasn't for FDR, we would've found the Monolith by now (it'd be near our moonbase) and would all be Star Children.
Abdul|9.10.08 @ 7:31AM|#
I don't know about flying cars and star children, but we know
that FDR killed the Eonite dream.
the bastard.
Elemenope|9.10.08 @ 8:11AM|#
Wow, we have Hamlet riffs and Randian jokes, but
no:
"Secret decoder pin"
and
"besuretodrinkyourovaltine"
jokes?
A strange and sad group.
Elemenope|9.10.08 @ 8:13AM|#
I'm tempted to once again mention the disgust I felt upon
watching Paul Verhoeven's version and its subtle ideological
inversion, but I'll resist it.
Subtle? Say what you will about the film and its "ideological
inversion" (I personally found it amusing, but I can see why a guy
would hate it), but absolutely nothing about that film was
subtle.
|9.10.08 @ 8:35AM|#
but absolutely nothing about that film was subtle
Verhoeven is the opposite of subtle. Ever seen De Vierde Man
(The Fourth Man)?
As an aside, Cronenberg was originally on board to do Total
Recall. As much as I love Verhoeven's version, a Cronenberg
version would have been fucking awesome.
Elemenope|9.10.08 @ 8:58AM|#
Ever seen De Vierde Man (The Fourth Man)?
Sadly, no.
As an aside, Cronenberg was originally on board to do Total
Recall. As much as I love Verhoeven's version, a Cronenberg version
would have been fucking awesome.
Yeah, I remember reading that. I dunno; Cronenberg can't usually
resist making a film grosser than it has to be. He's mellowed some
these days and restricts his gross proclivities to portrayals of
the physical consequences of violence (A History of Violence,
Eastern Promises). Except for ExistenZ. Fucking
exception breaks the rule.
p.s. Did you see Fringe?
|9.10.08 @ 9:01AM|#
Before FDR puppies couldn't wag their tails and a kittens were
50% less cute. Before FDR merciless robots hunted infants by
moonlight. Before FDR everyone had to drink their own urine and
thought a car was a mythical beast from a far off land that ate
dirt and shit out silver ingots. Before FDR people only had sex
outside in the pouring rain and only conceived when passing horse
splashed muddy semen into a woman's vagina. Before FDR everyone ate
with their hands and mixed rocks and twigs in with non-FDA approved
corn and tomatoes. Before FDR most people worshiped the burning sun
and stared at it for hours a day.
All hail the Most Holy of Holies FDR! May He Roll Forever!
|9.10.08 @ 9:04AM|#
Did you see Fringe?
TiVo'ed, not watched yet. I was busy watching Vic Mackey hunt for
Lem's killer, and watching Shane freak out about it.
|9.10.08 @ 9:08AM|#
FDR is John Connor?
And Jesus Christ, Muhammad Ali, Superman, The Sun King, 16 Popes
(the good ones), MLK, JFK, RFK, Willy Wonka, and Cato the Elder all
rolled into one. Don't you know anything?
|9.10.08 @ 9:10AM|#
Seriously. A can marked "Food 4
Kidz." Really?
Please. Someone tape up my sides. They are about to burst.
|9.10.08 @ 9:16AM|#
But not Pliny the Younger?
Pliny the Younger? Fuck that bitch-ass punk! He's all like "Oooo...
I witnessed the eruption of Vesuvius! I'm so much better than alls
y'all!"
No, seriously... fuck him.
|9.10.08 @ 11:21AM|#
Sugarfree, you forgot Ghandi, Buddha, the Great Gatsby, and
Underdog.
But seriously, how can you argue with the assertion that "you're
never fully-dressed without a smile"?
|9.10.08 @ 11:23AM|#
Although being fully-undressed generally tends to make me break out into a full raging "M-O-O-N, that spells moon" smile.
|9.10.08 @ 2:14PM|#
Thanks to the infrastructure built through New Deal
programs,
Yeah, the gargantuan oil wealth that began flowing in the '30s had
nothing to do with it. Texas was built on handouts from
Washington!
Nice try, but not sale to this Texan.
Before FDR, Texas didn't even have roads west of Austin, and
few enough east of it.
This, of course, is an outright lie, as
this depiction of my town, San Angelo,
demonstrates.
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