“Pollyanna” and The WDFM's New Book Club!

National Education Association's Read Across America is an annual reading motivation and awareness program that calls for every child in every community to celebrate reading on March 2, the birthday of beloved children's author Dr. Seuss. NEA's Read Across America also provides NEA members, parents, caregivers, and children the resources and activities they need to keep reading on the calendar 365 days a year. 

Pollyanna is showcased by The Walt Disney Family Museum this month in celebration of Women’s History Month, which highlights contributions of women to events in history and contemporary society. Paula Sigman Lowery offers this view of the classic book from which Walt’s beloved film was adapted.

Eleanor Hodgman was born in New Hampshire on December 19, 1868. Her mother was an invalid, and she herself was a sickly child and had to be home-schooled. She outgrew her frailty, but drew from her childhood experiences a store of rich memories.

In an era when well-bred young women were supposed to become homemakers and mothers, the artistically inclined Hodgman studied music and singing at the New England Conservatory in Boston. She began performing at church events and Boston choral concerts, both public and private. In 1892 she married businessman John Lyman Porter and they settled in Cambridge, Massachusetts. At 33, she began writing short stories, usually setting them in her familiar New England environment. She was a good storyteller, and as “Eleanor Stewart,” her tales were published in newspapers and magazines, including the ladies’ favorites, Woman’s Home Companion and Harper’s Weekly.

By 1907, Eleanor—now known as “Eleanor H. Porter”—published her first novel, Cross Currents: The Story of Margaret. It was a long-form version of the type of story she had been writing, about a mother and young daughter who are separated by accident and find each other at the end, but it touched on the all-too-common issues of child labor and the ill-treatment of orphans. Porter continued to write novels for children and adults, and in 1913 she produced her most popular creation: Pollyanna.

(From L to R): First Edition of Pollyanna, 1913. // Eleanor H. Porter (1868-1920), author of Pollyanna. // Title Page of First Edition of Pollyanna, 1913.

Porter’s sunny, eternally optimistic orphan taught not just a town but an entire country and eventually the world to play her “Glad Game,” as the book topped the best-seller list for two years and was translated into twelve languages. “Glad” clubs sprang up, “Glad Game” merchandise was produced, and Porter wrote a sequel, Pollyanna Grows Up, as the first of a series of “Glad Books” issued by her publisher. (The publisher obviously knew a good thing, and eventually produced fourteen sequels, written by others. These include the improbably-titled Pollyanna in Hollywood, Pollyanna’s Castle in Mexico, and Pollyanna and the Secret Mission. One can just imagine!) 

Paula Sigman Lowery is an historian, author, and former archivist for The Walt Disney Company. She was one of the founders of Disney Character Voices, and founding director of the Walt Disney Collectors Society. She was part of the core team that developed the story and content for The Walt Disney Family Museum, where she continues to serve as a Consulting Historian.

On Saturday March 17 at 3:00pm, you can join A Conversation with Nancy Olson, the delightful co-star ofPollyanna and Academy Award® nominee for Sunset Boulevard. Ms. Olson will share a personal view of her experiences in Hollywood, on Broadway, and with Walt Disney, illustrated with rare photographs and film clips from her many projects.

Walt Disney’s Pollyanna screens daily through March at 1:00pm and 4:00pm (except Tuesdays, and March 17). Further program information and tickets are available at the Reception and Member Service Desk at the Museum, or online by clicking here.