A real Hooverville in Seattle

Whatever the real causes of the Great Depression may have been, many people blamed the current president, Herbert Hoover, for the country’s inability to pull itself out of the depression ("We'd Like to Thank You, Herbert Hoover"). By 1933, when Annie is set, thousands of banks had failed and well over 15 million Americans were out of work, many of them living in "Hoovervilles" —makeshift villages—in shelters of cardboard, paper, and castoff lumber. The Great Depression’s effects in the U.S. were felt for years to come.

More information on FDR

Franklin Delano Roosevelt: In 1932 Franklin Delano Roosevelt was elected to the presidency and within a year had instituted his "New Deal" ("New Deal for Christmas"). Roosevelt, who had been partially paralyzed by polio eleven years earlier and often needed to use a wheelchair to get around, is often pictured with his friend and aid, Louis Howe. Publicly, Roosevelt often camouflaged his disability by only allowing himself to be photographed sitting down or in head-and-shoulders shots. 

FDR took advantage of the growing popularity of radio to communicate with the American people through his frequent "Fireside Chats" which were intended to feel comfortable and "folksy" to the people.  During the depression the fireside chats often concentrated on the need for people to maintain an optimistic outlook ("Cabinet Tomorrow").

FDR was president for twelve years until his death 1945, leading the United States through the Great Depression and most of World War II. Roosevelt is credited with making sweeping changes in the way the federal government manages the U.S. economy.

In Roosevelt’s time the health dangers of cigarette smoking were unknown, and his long cigarette holder became one of his trademarks.   His appearance here with his trademark cigarette holder should not be taken as an endorsement of cigarette smoking.

More information on the New Deal

One of these projects was the Civilian Conservation Corps which annually employed over 500,000 young men, providing them with food, housing, and pay ($30 a month) in exchange for their work on public projects. During the New Deal years, the CCC built 46,854 bridges, 800 state parks, 5,000 miles of water supply lines, 27,191 miles of fences, 204 lodges and museums, relocated over 45 million trees for landscaping, planted over 3 billion new trees, and was heavily involved in flood control and fighting forest fires and coal fires. Big Basin Redwoods State Park in Saratoga was a CCC project, and YMCA Camp Campbell in the Santa Cruz Mountains was originally a CCC camp.

One of the members of our cast was a member of the CCC in 1939 and participated in a number of their projects in Kansas.

In the late 1930's Americans began to realize that it was more important to nurture children than to institutionalize them.  This led to today's foster-care programs in which orphans are housed with families while they await adoption.

Official Little Orphan Annie home page

Annie finally  made it to the New York stage in 1977 where the show ran  2,377 performances in its original engagement and won 7 Tony awards including Best Musical, Best Book, and Best Score as well as the New York Drama Critic’s Circle Award. The original cast album also won a Grammy.