Across Indiana
Was Raggedy Ann a Hoosier?
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Raggedy Ann is a classic and was created by a Hoosier!
Johnny Gruelle, creator of Raggedy Ann and Andy, grew up in Indianapolis. The influential artists he grew up around undoubtedly inspired his own art. Learn more about the origins of this beloved doll with Across Indiana producer Thomas Beeler in this classic episode from 1991.
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Across Indiana is a local public television program presented by WFYI
Across Indiana
Was Raggedy Ann a Hoosier?
Clip | 4m 54sVideo has Closed Captions
Johnny Gruelle, creator of Raggedy Ann and Andy, grew up in Indianapolis. The influential artists he grew up around undoubtedly inspired his own art. Learn more about the origins of this beloved doll with Across Indiana producer Thomas Beeler in this classic episode from 1991.
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Learn Moreabout PBS online sponsorship(gentle music) - [Narrator] She doesn't have Barbie's looks or wardrobe, and she doesn't have Chatty Cathy's gift of gab.
But for 75 years, Raggedy Ann has remained one of the young girl's most cherished friends.
Raggedy Ann's story begins in 1880 with the birth of her creator Johnny Gruelle.
In 1882, his family moved to Indianapolis where the great influences on his life would take root.
- His father was R.B.
Gruelle, who was one of the Hoosier Group painters along with T.C.
Steel.
Was it Ottis Adams?
And so on.
In Indiana, you had this golden age of what is called the golden age of literature and art.
You had a number of painters that were working in the area that are now becoming very well known.
Gruelle grew up in this, and not only was he in Indiana when all this is happening, but his father being a member of the painting group and this literary group basically knew a number of these people.
So there was a lot of exposure to these people.
- [Narrator] Gruelle worked for a number of Indianapolis newspapers, including the "Indianapolis Star" before moving on to Cleveland, then to New York, becoming a cartoonist for the "New York Herald".
- One of the comic strips that he originally did was called Mr.
Twee Deedle.
And in the Mr.
Twee Deedle strip, there were two characters, Dicky, a little boy and Dolly, a little girl.
And Dolly was seen throughout the panels of the comic strip, which ran in about 1911 to 1918 or 1919, carrying, dragging behind her a doll, a rag doll.
Sometimes the rag doll was blonde.
Sometimes the rag doll showed some very, was very reminiscent of Raggedy Ann.
Eventually in 1915 there was a patent.
The patent was for a doll called Raggedy Ann.
Raggedy Ann was somewhat different, you know, in the patent than she appears to us today or even in the first book.
- [Narrator] Raggedy Ann folklore relates that Gruelle found an old rag doll in his attic and gave her to his daughter Marcella.
He would then entertain Marcella with stories of the adventures of Raggedy Ann and her friends.
In 1918, Gruelle collected these tales in his first book, "Raggedy Ann Stories", and it became an immediate success.
"Raggedy Andy Stories", tracing the adventures of her brother, followed two years later.
- In the first book, "Raggedy Ann Stories", there was one of the stories talked about how Raggedy Ann got her sisters.
And it was an explanation of how all the rag dolls, why that there was more than one Raggedy Ann.
Why there was a Raggedy Ann here that Marcella owns in the book, but why you can go into the store and buy a Raggedy Ann.
And the story talks about a man coming to visit Marcella and taking her doll and taking her to a workshop and stitching her and taking her stuffing out and making patterns and then putting them back in.
And how they put in the candy heart and how they put on the shoe button eyes.
And it explains why there are a number of rag dolls out there.
- [Narrator] By 1926, Johnny Gruelle was writing at least one new Raggedy Ann story a year.
His untimely death in 1938 couldn't stop the wheels he'd set in motion.
Gruelle's son Worth and brother Justin continued to illustrate the new Raggedy Ann and Andy stories.
In the years that followed, Raggedy Ann spawned a wealth of toys and games and her books have been translated into countless foreign languages.
Legends say Raggedy Ann's heart was originally made of candy, though there's no substantive proof one way or the other.
A recent x-ray of one of the oldest Ann dolls shows that she does indeed have a heart.
Quite large, in fact.
Guess that explains her success rate at cheering up little girls.
But then why is she still so popular with adults?
- Raggedy Ann, I think caught on because of the emotional attachment that people got to her.
You have something that was basically good, basically emotional, something that a person, an adult during their child, who's adult today, during their childhood could trust in.
Even though Johnny Gruelle had left Indiana by the time that he had developed Raggedy Ann.
Still his upbringing and his philosophies and his spiritual being was all formed while he was in Indiana during this golden age.
- [Narrator] Thanks to the Indiana State Museum exhibit, Magical Hearts, Johnny Gruelle and Raggedy Ann, now through May 16th, we can all learn more about a special Hoosier and his very special friend.
(gentle music) - [Announcer] For more "Across Indiana" stories go to wfyi.org/acrossindiana.
(upbeat music)
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