Chicago Tribune from Chicago, Illinois • 17

Chicago Tribune, Thursday, March 31, 1977 Section 2 Ann Andy grow from rags to I By Elaine Markoutsas HE'S NEITHER glamorous nor so- she's cute in a homespun sort of She's not a clothcshorse: she has worn variations of a simple cotton frock for more than SO years. She's a tad clumsy. Her body hangs limp, her arms and lpgs dangle. Her hair has a tendency to get mussed. Once upon a time she didn't even have a face.

Yet even then there was something downright huggablc about her. That magical something has lasted from generation to generation since 1914, and it probably will endure for some time. She is Raggedy Ann, and her smile has brought smiles to millions of faces all over the world. Since 1919 it has been estimated that more than 200 million Raggedy Anns and the doll faces known tTmiliions are now siarOnheirowrfanrmaleifTeaujr Andys have been sold. The Knickerbocker Toy which has manufactured the dolls since 1962, has sold approximately 30 million since then.

Last year the which come in eight sizes and retail for $1.50 to $250, generated almost $4 million in sales. MILLIONS HAVE bought the 31 Raggedy Ann books that have been translated into 156 languages. There are about 500 Raggedy Ann-related products licensed by the Bobbs-Merrill an International Telephone Telegraph subsidiary. It reports retail sales in merchandise alone last year hit $60 million. An animated feature film, "Raggedy Ann and Andy," produced by 20th Century-Fox and underwritten by Bobbs-Mcrrill-ITT, opens Friday in the Chicago area.

Actually, Raggedy Ann's creator never had dreamed of sharing her with anyone but his daughter. Even the doll's discovery was quite an accident. On a gray December day in 1914, 8-year-old Marcella Gruclle was rummaging through the attic of the family's farmhouse in Connecticut. She dashed downstairs, skipped into her father's office, and proudly presented a doll. JOHN GRUELLE.

33, a political cartoonist, looked up from his drawing board. He had been struggling to meet ft deadline and his wastebasket was filled, -with crumpled rejects. His only daughter's intrusion 'was almost welcome. Gruelle examined the doll and figured It probably had belonged to his mother. Marcella wished aloud that the doll had a face.

Her father smiled, swivclcd his chair around to his ink pens, and went to work. A simple line became a smile with a flick of the red inked pen. A red triangle followed, the nose. Gruelle paused. Then he combed through the paper clips, rubber bands, and pins in his desk drawer.

He spotted two old buttons. Presto. Eyes. Marcella applauded with delight. But her father wasn't finished.

He gently unfastened the dress and painted a heart on her chest. Under the heart he printed, "I love you." All that was missing was a name. Gruclle eyed a book of poems that had been illustrated by his father, Richard. The titles of two James Whitcomb Riley poems, "The Raggedy Man" and "Little Orphant were combined, and Raggedy Ann was born. GRUELLE SPUN tales of the doll's ad-.

ventures for his frail daughter, who had developed a chronic illness following a vaccination. She died in 1916 with Rag- gedy Ann clutched to her chest. The grief stricken artist decided to write and illustrate a book of all the stories he had told Marcella, as well as those still to come. He hadn't planned to publish them, but later a fellow employe at the Indianapolis Star borrowed the stories one weekend and his children loved them. Gruelle thought, "Why not?" A NEW YORK dealer decided that sales of the book, published in 1919, might bo better if a doll were displayed.

His wife stitched one, patterned after the Raggedy Ann illustrations. Customers be- gan demanding both book and doll. Eventually the Gruelle family started manufacturing the dolls. When an old childhood friend of John Gruelle's mother' sent the faded male mate to the original, Raggedy Andy was woven into the For a I6ng time the books outsold "Alice in Wonderland" and took a backseat only to the Bible, according to John Gruelle's son, Worth, 67, who lives with his wife, in Rockledge, Fla. (Another son, Richard, 62, a retired restaurateur, has settled in Balsam, N.C.

Their father died at 57 in 1938; their mother, Myrtle, in 1968. The sons continue to receive royalties.) Worth, a commercial artist, says the Gruelle children and grandchildren have Raggedy Ann dolls "coming out of their ears." His wife goes to swap meets and buys Raggedy Anns of all sizes, provided they're not homemade designs, which he says are "kind of false." HIS FAVORITE, perhaps, is a rather dilapidated specimen that was stuffed with a candy heart. "It was kissed and loved and cried on and wet on so much the heart turned into a big glob of sugar. It was cute as pie." As for the two nals. Worth sadly acknowledges that they probably were tossed out because they had practically disintegrated.

(Two very old dolls are kept in sealed cages in a Coral Gables, library.) There was a fuss over the first dolls marketed, according to John Noble, curator of toys at the Museum of the City of New York. "Distressed parents said their children searched all night and couldn't find Raggedy Ann's heart." For awhile, until it became economically unfeasible, red celluloid hearts were inserted beneath the stuffing. (Today's doll is stamped with a heart and "I love These vintage dolls, circa 1919 through 1923, are rare now. Noble owns two, which are on special exhibit at the Indianapolis Children's Museum. (The New York museum also loaned its own 1919 doll.) Raggedy Ann has grown up with many famous people.

AS PALACE decorations for Monaco's centennial, Princess Grace ordered hundreds of Raggedy Anns, recalling the favorite toy of her Philadelphia childhood. Caroline Kennedy often was photographed with her Raggedy Ann dragging behind her. Margaret Truman recalls in her "Souvenir" memoirs that when her father was elected to the Senate in 1934, she asked an aunt to sew a new dress for her Raggedy Ann so the doll would be "fit to appear in Washington society." Actor George Segal wrote the doll's manufacturer: "I want you to know that one of the disappointments of my childhood was that 1 never had a Raggedy Ann or Andy. With my own children; -however, I've always made sure to have one in the house." Red Skelton. Cher, and Marie Osmond have played the characters on television.

During one of his Christmas shows for Continued on following page Charity benefits take faith, hope, and fl IKE DEATH and taxes, benefit parties are an 1 1 inevitable part of America's lifestyle. So 1 1 much so they have become built into budgets, 13 whether an infant welfare circle needs $3,000 or the Women's Association of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra seeks $400,000. The benefit ball (balletconcert-supperdance) was launched with dazzling elegance and style by women of Wealth and charitable inclination. The success of such upper-crust ventures inspired a broad base of political and social action groups and smaller charities to flatter the social leaders by imitating them, buying out movie, theater, or concert nights, or even producing something of their own. In competition for today's charity dollar, the benefit planner must be a go-getter to land an opening night for a play or a movie, says Joan Flanagan, whose book on fund raising will be published in June.

"You've got to be aggressive, and know someone in Hollywood." FRANK CASEY ot Warner Bros, concurs, adding. "The benefit committee must approach the film company, and from the film studio's point of view it must have something saitable for the charity involved." He cites the recent Art Institute Junior Board sponsorship of the premiere of "A Star Is Born," brought about when John B. Coleman sought a benefit that would involve his Cricket's restaurant. He approached Casey for the premiere and tied it to the museum. Coleman donated the restaurant supper; Warner Bros, donated the theater; and the museum group sold tickets at $35 each and made $25,000.

From her considerable experience in fund raising, Lois Weisberg of Business and Professional People in the Public Interest (BPI) is high on benefits in such off-Loop theaters as the Body Politic or St. Nicholas Theater. She is against fashion shows. "They're out," she says, although in numbers and attendance they can't be counted out yet. And she approves having the benefit committee produce an entertainment of its own, "something that can be seen only once.

The public doesn't like to buy tickets at benefit prices if it can go another time," she explains. IT TAKES STEADY nerves to pot on an entertainment such as the BPI did last year when it presented conductor Antonia Brico and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra in the Auditorium Theatre. The expenses were frightening for this first-time endeavor, and other arrangements getting the or chestra to play in the auditorium rather than Orchestra Hall, negotiations with the musicians, the manager, the unions seemed endless. But the larger house (by 1.500 seats) was necessary. Weisberg felt, to price the tickets low enough for wide public appeal.

Under the heading of expenses for advertising and promotion came $600 for the purchase of a TV film of Brico, which was shown at about 75 parties to interest ticket sellers and buyers (the film later was donated to the Chicago Public Library). The film, plus a projectionist, flowers, refreshments, and photography, came to $1,717.65. Other costs were air fare and miscellaneous expenses for the conductor advertising printing, mailing, postage, invitations, flyers and art and photography for a toUl Of $5,794.88. DIRECT REHEARSAL and concert expenses were even larger conductor's fee symphony members' fee Orchestra Hall rehearsal rental auditorium rehearsal and performance rental stagehands for rehearsals ($1,400) and for performance tickets program art work ($253) and printing photography rehearsal pianist ushers and conductor's air fare for a tout of $23,820.90, or a grand total of $29,615.78. Tickets were priced from $3 to $100 and produced enough revenue ($54,800) to calm Jitters a net profit of $25,184 22.

The BPI enjoyed a secondary benefit from this venture. By having tickets picked up at headquarters instead of the theater box office, "we gave them our literature and got the names and addresses of 2.000 potential supporters," says Weisberg, who is director of development for this public-interest law firm. THEATER BENEFITS are Mg ketiaeti far the Drury Lane Theaters and account for loo nights of the year (but never on Saturday) at Drury Lane South, says William Corcoran of that organization. "It's a good repeat business, with many groups reserving a year ahead." he reports. "They don't even know what star or what show will be playing.

We work out discount if all 830 Mats are taken (smaller discount for fewer seats), and the charity board Mils the tickets for a few dollars more." TO FIND ENTERTAINMENT compatible with a charity, Flanagan, author of "Crass Roots Fund -Raising," recommends reading Variety or the daily papers, studying the financial pages for developments that could lead to a benefit, such as store and restaurant openings, wine tastings, or boutique fashion displays. No matter how desperately in need the organization might be, an Important result Is the publicity. Whether or not the sum raised is all that was hoped for, the charity is placed in the public eye. And to some groups, educating the public is about as Important as gelling its dollars. The, rise and gall of press agentry Winnie McGuire: She taught Al what tough is all about By Jimmy Breslin AST AURORA, N.Y.-She was in the kitchen making dinner when she heard the floor squeak in her bedroom.

There was nothing unusual about Winnie McGuire's being able I 'J. I i. "For the opening ot Disney's Pinocchio in New York it was decided to hire 11 midgets, dress them in Pinocchio costumes, and have them gambol about on top of the theater marquee on opening day. Food and light refreshments, in the shape of a couple ot quarts of liquor, were passed up to the marquee top at lunchtime, and by o'clock in the afternoon a happy crowd in Times Square was treated to the spectacle ot II stark naked midgets belching loudly and enjoying a crap game on the marquee. Police with ladders removed the players in pillowcases." David Nivcn in "Bring on the Empty Horses" By Charles Leroux THE FIRST ONE, the Adam as it were of pre agents, was Harry Rcichcnbach.

He left Bar- num ft Bailey's Circus to Join a then-new industry, moving pictures. He was hired to publicise "The Return of Tarzan," and do that he booked a lion into the Astor Hotel in New York and ordered IS pounds of raw meat from room service. Word got around. Reichenbach was the first but not the last press agent; and Friday through April 7 is Publicity Stunt Week "to alert everyone to the value of publicity stunU in bringing worthy causes to the attention of the public and honor the famed stunt men behind them." Richard Fatk sponsors the week as he has for 13 or so years. "The stunt has a sort of negative Image," Falk said, "but the top firms in the world use stunts.

They sit down around a think tank or something and figure a way to break Into, maybe, the Times. Stunts are a method of utilizing the media; it isnt a hoax well, some ot them are. It creates something fan ciful. There's maybe a grain of truth that you exploit. The week is to recognize the publicity stunt man as a legitimate person rather than a wild character.

i i to hear this; throughout her life, when it has concerned money, she has been able to hear a leaf falling. And she knew this squeak was the start of a delicate financial maneuver known as larceny. She slammed the pot down. In the bedroom of the railroad flat, Johnny McGuire, her oldest son. dived under the bed.

He had been so close, a foot or two away from the pillow that in those days served as Winnie McGuire's safe deposit box. This was when the McGuircs lived in the Bronx and ran a restaurant and kept the receipts in the house. As Johnny flattened out under the bed. he felt himself being kicked. Here came his brother Dick sliding and pushing to safely.

The two held their breath. Into the bedroom stomped Winnie McGuire. She found her youngest. Al, standing there. She pronounced him guilty of attempted burglary.

She grabbed the kid, turned him upside down, and held mm by the ankles out the fifth-floor window. "I shook him out the window, that cured him" she was saying Monday. "You should've shook me," her son John said. "1 didnt know you were there," Winnie McGuire said. SHE TURNED to a neighbor who had stepped In for coffee.

"Do you have a cigaret?" she asked. She grabbed one out of the pack, lit took a deep drag, and drummed her fingers on the dining room table. "Do you know what kind of cigarcU 1 always smoke? Somebody else's." She was here, outside of Buffalo, staying with her daughter Kathleen. Monday, everybody in the house sat and waited for the night to come and the national college basketball championship game. Her son Al, now the famous coach of Marquette University, was involved In the last same of his career.

It was a major event in sports life and It had everybody in the family preoccupied. Except Winnie McGuire. She CMthMed faDtnriRg page The "Miss" technique (in this case, Miss Pickle of 1952) is considered passe as a publicity gimmick. "If celebrated very quietly," Riback said. "It's a time for meditation and contemplation and a time not to bother editors.

Your phone will be almost silent then. Some agents will have a special late lunch-two mar tinis and a bologna sandwich. We had planned to have press agents form a living chain from coast to coast, but this bogged down when we found most wouldn't touch each other with a 10-foot pole." Fatk chuckled In appreciation. "1 know of him vaguely," he said of Ribackl "He may get the bullhorn if he's good enough. We give out a gold-plated bullhorn for the best stunt we hear about I Not necessarily the biggest spacegcUer.

It might be the most In- CMtimed en page 3 wiit iirnib rirwir iw urcniiniy mini ns April Fools Day, but because it's more acceptable. Your publisher wont scream if you aid some crazy stunt because the public accepts it on that particular week. Dur-. Ing the week of April 1, thousands of stunts will, take place." Falk was told that a fellow New York publicist, Milton Hi back, was sponsoring Press Agents Shining Hour from 3:13 to p.m. on way a.

H5 C0A1E5 Th OTHER TAM 1 LOOK. PRETTY TTTf CMAfUE ONE Of LUCVM ea. THEIR --f WHATAtt PLANUS WOU DANG UCK0 ME ON B-rf TH6N056 Smilo It's no fun to suffer in silence unless you have few interested observers. haV? i I TOM 5 Th rc A Friday In' Vccltond From 1he expected (if you consider a 3-foot solid chocolate bunny to the out-of-the-ordinary, we've found a cross-section of Easter edibles and places in Chicago to buy them..