Little Audrey (full name: Audrey Smith) is a fictional animated cartoon character, appearing in early 20th century comics prior to starring in a series of

Paramount Pictures Paramount Pictures Corporation, commonly known as Paramount Pictures or simply Paramount, is an American film production company, production and Distribution (marketing), distribution company and the flagship namesake subsidiary of Paramount ...

Famous Studios Famous Studios (renamed Paramount Cartoon Studios in 1956) was the first animation division of the film studio Paramount Pictures from 1942 to 1967. Famous was established as a successor company to Fleischer Studios, after Paramount seized contr ...

cartoons from 1947 to 1958. She was devised after Paramount decided not to renew the license on '' Little Lulu'', the comic strip character created by Marjorie Henderson Buell (a.k.a. "Marge"). Despite some superficial similarities between the two characters, the Famous animators were at pains to design Audrey in contrast to Lulu, adopting an entirely different color scheme and employing the stylistic conventions common to Famous Studios' later 1940s repertoire, as opposed to Buell's individualistic rendering of Little Lulu. Veteran animator Bill Tytla was the designer of Little Audrey, reportedly inspired by his daughter Tammy (who was also his inspiration for Famous' version of Little Lulu, on which he also worked and for which he directed several shorts). The original voice of Little Lulu was performed by actress

Cecil Roy Cecil H. Roy (October 2, 1900 – January 26, 1995) was an American actress who was well known in radio broadcasting of the 1930s and 1940s as The Girl of a Thousand Voices.DeLong, Thomas A. (1996). ''Radio Stars: An Illustrated Biographical Di ...

(who also provided the voice of '' Casper the Friendly Ghost''). Little Audrey was, instead, voiced by Mae Questel, who also voiced most of Paramount's other major female cartoon characters, including Betty Boop and Olive Oyl from the

Popeye Popeye the Sailor Man is a fictional cartoon character created by E. C. Segar, Elzie Crisler Segar.First World War World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

In cartoons and juvenile humor

According to B.A. Botkin's ''A Treasury of American Folktales'': One of the most famous goes like this:

Pierre Berton Pierre Francis de Marigny Berton, CC, O.Ont. (July 12, 1920 – November 30, 2004) was a Canadian historian, writer, journalist and broadcaster. Berton wrote 50 best-selling books, mainly about Canadiana, Canadian history and popular cultur ...

, in ''The Dionne Years: A Thirties Melodrama'' (1978), offers this example of a ''Little Audrey'' joke as was in fashion around the time of the Dionne quintuplets' birth in 1934:

Animated cartoons

Audrey first appeared in the '' Noveltoon'' ''Santa's Surprise'' (1947), where she was the most prominent member of a multicultural child cast working to clean Santa's workshop while he was asleep, and was briefly seen in the January 1948 ''

Popeye Popeye the Sailor Man is a fictional cartoon character created by E. C. Segar, Elzie Crisler Segar.Olive Oyl for President''. Her first appearance in her own series was the short ''Butterscotch and Soda'', released on July 16, 1948. In common with many animated shorts of the period, childlike fantasy played an important role in Audrey's early cartoons, which often used dream sequences as the basis of the storylines. In this way, Audrey could attend a wedding in Cakeland (''Tarts and Flowers'', 1950), ride the clouds with Mother Goose (''Goofy Goofy Gander'', also 1950), or face an underwater tribunal of outraged catfish (''The Seapreme Court'', 1954). Slapstick humor crept into the series with the release of ''Surf Bored'' (1953), which pitted the precocious little girl against a hulking, but ultimately brainless, lifeguard. A total of 16 cartoons starring Audrey were produced for theatrical release, several of which were re-packaged for television from the late 1950s on. She was the only character in the series to have her own theme song with vocals ("Little Audrey Says", by Winston Sharples and Buddy Kaye). Some other characters (and certain one-shots) in the series had their own themes, but were entirely instrumental. Two ''Noveltoons'' spin-offs, '' Casper the Friendly Ghost'' and '' Herman and Katnip'', had their own vocal themes, but only after leaving the series. For ''Little Audrey'', the pre-October 1950 cartoons were sold to television distributor U.M. & M. TV Corporation in 1956, which in turn would be acquired by

National Telefilm Associates National Telefilm Associates (NTA) was a distribution company primarily concerned with the syndication of American film libraries to television, including the Republic Pictures film library. It was successful enough on cable television between 19 ...

the following year. After their failure to renew the copyright for the pre-October 1950 noveltoons, the cartoons themselves has been in the Public Domain ever since. The post-October 1950 cartoons would be sold to Harvey Comics, when they acquired the rights to the character in 1959. Today, they are the property of

DreamWorks Animation DreamWorks Animation LLC (DWA, also known as DreamWorks Animation Studios or simply DreamWorks) is an American animation studio, owned by Comcast's NBCUniversal as part of Universal Pictures, a division of Universal Studios, Inc, Universal Stud ...

(via DreamWorks Classics), a subsidiary of

NBCUniversal NBCUniversal Media, LLC (abbreviated as NBCU and Trade name, doing business as NBCUniversal or Comcast NBCUniversal since 2013) is an American Multinational corporation, multinational mass media and Show business, entertainment conglomerate (comp ...

, and distributed by

Universal Television Universal Television LLC (abbreviated as UTV) is an American television production company that is a division of NBCUniversal Television and Streaming#Universal Studio Group, Universal Studio Group, a division of NBCUniversal, which, in turn, is ...

. Meanwhile, the Popeye cartoon '' Olive Oyl for President'' would become property of Warner Bros. (via Turner Entertainment Co.), and distributed by Warner Bros. Television. Audrey is one of the three (later four) main characters in the DreamWorks Animation Television's animated series ''Harvey Street Kids'', which was re-titled '' Harvey Girls Forever!'' in its second season. Little Audrey has been modernized, as her classic outfit has been replaced by more contemporary clothing. She also has brown hair, which is more akin to the comics, as opposed to having red hair, like in the theatrical shorts. Unlike her comic-book counterpart, Audrey is tomboy-ish and energetic. She was voiced by Stephanie Lemelin. Some of her companions from the comics, like Melvin Wisenheimer, Tiny, and Lucretia also appeared in ''Harvey Girls Forever!''

The Famous/Harvey character

''Little Audreys last name is Smith. Little Audrey has reddish brown hair with ribbons making three pigtails (two low and one high). She wears a little dress with puffed sleeves, white ankle socks, and black Mary Jane shoes. In the short subjects, the dress and ribbons are blue, but by the time of her Harvey Comics runs, they are red. In '' Harvey Street Kids'', she wears a pink shirt with jeans. The comic "Cousin Suzie's Dance Party" (''Little Audrey and Melvin'' #29, March 1967) reveals that Audrey has a cousin named Suzie, who has a friend named Bubu. The first several issues of the comic book also reveals she has a brother nicknamed "Patches".

In other media

While the jokes remained popular well into the 1980s, the Famous/Harvey character had an entirely different career: Little Audrey was going to have a cameo in ''

Who Framed Roger Rabbit ''Who Framed Roger Rabbit'' is a 1988 American fantasy comedy film directed by Robert Zemeckis from a screenplay written by Jeffrey Price and Peter S. Seaman. It is loosely based on the 1981 novel ''Who Censored Roger Rabbit?'' by Gary K. Wol ...

'', but rights to the character could not be obtained in time.

Comic strip

Animation historian Jerry Beck notes that

' animator Steve Muffatti drew a short-lived "Little Audrey" comic strip for magazines in 1951, which were syndicated by King Features. These strips were also reprinted in 1952-55 by Harvey Comics."Paramount/Famous Studios Original Titles
, Cartoon Research website. Accessed December 12, 2011.

Comic books

''Little Audrey'' was never as successful as Famous' best-known creation, '' Casper the Friendly Ghost'', but the character had considerable success in printed form. The first ''Little Audrey'' comic book series was St. John Publications from April 1948 to May 1952. Featuring stories which depended more on situation comedy than on fantasy, the comics featured artwork done in a style approximating the original Famous character designs (most of them by Steve Muffati). The series met with moderate success on the newsstand, running for approximately 24 issues until ''Little Audrey'' was licensed by Harvey Comics in 1952. Initially, Harvey's comic-book version closely followed its animated template, but the character was redesigned during the mid-1950s to conform more closely to the company's in-house style. The general storyline was simultaneously overhauled to provide Audrey with supporting characters such as Melvin Wisenheimer, her prankish arch-enemy/frenemy, and Tiny, an imaginative and eager but somewhat insecure young

African American African Americans, also known as Black Americans and formerly also called Afro-Americans, are an Race and ethnicity in the United States, American racial and ethnic group that consists of Americans who have total or partial ancestry from an ...

boy. Domestic comedy gradually took over the scripts, as Audrey was shown in conflict with parents, teachers, and other authority figures. Harvey purchased the rights to all of Famous' original properties - ''Little Audrey'' included - in 1958, also acquiring the rights to the post-1950 ''Audrey'' cartoons. It was during this time that the "definitive" Audrey came into being, taking on the signature red dress and appearance most often associated with the character. By 1960, Little Audrey was the best known of Harvey's female characters due to her multi-media presence (comic books, television/theatrical animation and - briefly - newspaper strips), although her popularity was later eclipsed by the company's other female characters, Little Dot, Wendy the Good Little Witch and Little Lotta. Later comic series were titled ''Playful Little Audrey'' (the name under which the character had been

trademark A trademark (also written trade mark or trade-mark) is a form of intellectual property that consists of a word, phrase, symbol, design, or a combination that identifies a Good (economics and accounting), product or Service (economics), service f ...

ed in 1961) and ''Little Audrey & Melvin''. In the latter, Audrey and Melvin become less antagonistic and Audrey demonstrates affections for and jealousy towards him, much like Little Lulu had done with Tubby Tompkins. During her most successful period, Audrey starred in at least four of her own titles and was a back-up feature in '' Richie Rich'', ''Casper'', and ''Little Dot''. The character lasted until 1976, when an industry-wide distribution slump brought an end to most of Harvey's line and most children's comics in general. Since that time, the character has undergone several revivals and made scattered television and video appearances, most notably in '' The Richie Rich Show'' (1996) and '' Baby Huey's Great Easter Adventure'' (1998).

Famous Studios filmography

All cartoons listed are entries in the series unless otherwise noted. Credited directors for each short are noted.

References

External links

Little Audrey
at

Don Markstein's Toonopedia Don Markstein's Toonopedia (subtitled A Vast Repository of Toonological Knowledge) is an online encyclopedia of print cartoons, comic strips and animation, initiated February 13, 2001. Donald D. Markstein, the sole writer and editor of Toonopedi ...

Archived
from the original on November 10, 2015. * Archive.org:
Song of the Birds (1935)
(does not have Audrey but inspired the later adaptation)
Santa's Surprise (1947)

Butterscotch and Soda (1948)

The Lost Dream (1949)

Tarts and Flowers (May 1950)

Goofy Goofy Gander (August 1950)

Seapreme Court (1954)
*YouTube:
Little Audrey Riding Hood (1955)
{{Famous Studios Animated human characters Child characters in animated films Child characters in comics Comics about children DreamWorks Classics Famous Studios series and characters Female characters in animation Female characters in comics Fictional characters from New York City Film characters introduced in 1947 Comics characters introduced in 1947 Fictional tricksters Film series introduced in 1947 Harvey Comics series and characters Humor comics Slapstick comedy Animated characters introduced in 1947