Kankakee was not that far from Chebanse and young Harold had many memories of his grandparents. Rosencras in 1893 and fathering Harold the following year. Certainly Ira Gray didn’t move far from his parents even after marrying Estella M. Gray’s father, Ira Lincoln Gray, was the youngest of six children and perhaps was delegated the traditional role given to the family baby of looking after the mother and father in their old age. The original “Gray homestead,” near the small town of Chebanse, Illinois, was first cleared by the cartoonist’s grandfather, William Wallace Gray, in 1870. He was born in Kankakee, Illinois, a small burg nestled in farmland just outside of Chicago, on January 20, 1894. To look at his life is to see the foundation and building blocks of his work. Like his famous creations, Gray was a fighter and a straight-shooter. Everything in Gray’s early life-his family background and upbringing, his schooling and military service, his wide-reading and early career-went into the making of Little Orphan Annie. Rather, the strip was the culmination of many years of hard work and ambitious planning. This confidence came from the fact that Little Orphan Annie didn’t just spring up full-blown in a fit of wild inspiration. Harold Gray was thirty years old when he created Annie and, despite the occasional storytelling misstep and moments of uncertainty, he knew what he was about. When one is wounded, the other jealously acts as a sentinel and nurse. Similarly, the love between Annie and Sandy derives from shared characters traits: as is often noted in the strip, both are orphaned mongrels who have had to fend for themselves from an early age and both possess an instinctive gallantry that keeps them loyal to friends and willing to do battle with enemies. An intuitive alliance is forged between Annie and “Daddy” at their first meeting. Annie is a little girl in need of love and protection “Daddy” a gruff but decent man, successful in business but unlucky in his marriage, hungers for the warmth of family.
Just as Annie suffers at “the Home” (her name for the Orphanage), “Daddy” also has an unhappy home, his wife a social climbing shrew who cares more about pleasing Society than taking care of either him or their adopted daughter. Annie and “Daddy” immediately recognize each other as kindred spirits. The emotional bonds that unite these characters are established almost instantaneously. Compared to the elaborate and carefully-conceived novel-length narratives Gray created in the 1930s and 1940s, the early Annie strips might seem a bit crude: the drawings are roughhewn (although his line fluid), the plotting has a shambling, seat-of-your-pants haphazardness, and there are occasional longueurs as Annie dawdles around while Gray waits for the next bit of inspiration to hit. The trick for Annie is to keep watchful and alert, with an eye out for opportunities, a willingness to speak out when necessary, and a heart stout enough to fight for what’s right.įrom the very first strip, which debuted today, ninety six years ago in the New York Daily News, Harold Gray established the emotional tenor that would distinguish Little Orphan Annie. If today you’re eating gruel and being pushed around, the next day might deliver something better, as it does for Annie when she’s taken under the wings of the good-hearted Miss Fair and, eventually, “Daddy” Warbucks, her long-term guardian and perennial savior. She lives a day-to-day existence but is always hopeful for what tomorrow might bring. An orphan, without even the luxury of a family name (“just Annie” as she’s quick to say), constantly under the stern glare of the orphanage’s bullying headmistress (the prune-faced Miss Asthma), forced to eat mush and scrub the floors, Annie remains not just resilient but even buoyant and chipper as she prays for some nice adopted parents. When we first meet her, Annie is, appropriately enough, in a tight and uncomfortable spot, as she’ll be time and again for the duration of her event-filled existence.