Daddy Warbucks

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Daddy Warbucks
Daily News, September 1924
Created byHarold Gray
In-story information
Full nameOliver Warbucks

Oliver "Daddy" Warbucks is a fictional character from the

New York Daily News in the Annie strip on September 27, 1924.[1]
In the series, he is said to be around 52 years of age.

Biography

Childhood

Warbucks was born about 1894, near the fictional small town of Supine. (In

typhoid
. He was put on the outbound Limited on the night of the funeral. Presumably, he later spent some time in the city, for he and Paddy Cairns were companions in the old 8th Ward.

For a few semesters, he attended college, studying

lodge.[2][3]

Career, family, and pursuits

He eventually became a foreman in the rolling mill, married Mrs. Warbucks, and worked and planned for a family and house of their own. When "Daddy" began to make big money during World War I, the marital happiness was lost, but he retained his identity with the common people.

After the war, Warbucks continued as an industrialist but became a philanthropist as well—his fortune had built to "ten billion dollars". His wife instigated the taking in (no adoption ever took place) of Annie while Warbucks was away on a business trip. On his return, he was smitten with Annie and, as her father figure, offered the girl support as needed. He often intervened in Annie's life during crisis, always returning in time to save the day.

During World War II, Warbucks and his bodyguards Punjab and The Asp joined Allied forces. Warbucks became a

three-star general
.

He was knighted by the Queen of the United Kingdom later in life.

Views

Warbucks was often a platform for cartoonist Harold Gray's political views, which were free market-based, opposing the New Deal policies of the Democrats. He sometimes expounded on the need for wealthy men to work hard—lest the masses have no employment. At the same time, capitalists who underpaid or mistreated their workers were portrayed negatively, with corrupt businessmen often being shown as villains. In 1944, Gray briefly killed off Warbucks because it was widely thought capitalists were obsolete. Warbucks was resurrected, however, after FDR's death.[4]

His portrayal in the 1977 stage musical and subsequent film adaptations differs from this, showing him as an associate of

Franklin Delano Roosevelt and embracing the New Deal. The musical (and Meehan's novelization of it) takes steps to reconcile this by explaining that Warbucks is a self-made, self-reliant millionaire who prides himself on never asking anyone for help. The depression was eating into his financial empire, and although still a long way from poverty, he was lobbying Roosevelt to take steps to resolve the Depression. Warbucks is fiercely adamant that even this does not constitute asking for help; he lobbies on the basis that "if I'm not making money then no one is." Warbucks is finally forced to abandon his stance and ask Roosevelt for help when he needs to rapidly disprove the "Ralph and Shirley Mudge" claim to be Annie's parents, which Roosevelt gives without reservation.[5][6]

Portrayals in media

References

  1. ^ "1924 'Little Orphan Annie' comic strip". The page only says this is from 1924, but a small "9-27" appears in the fourth panel. Note that "Daddy" and his given name, "Oliver", both appear in these strips.
  2. ^ Hodapp, Christopher. "Orphan Annie and Brother Warbucks Retiring After 85 Years", Freemasons For Dummies, 15 May 2010. Retrieved on 2 February 2012.
  3. ^ Alphonse Cerza: The Truth is Stranger than Fiction, page 20. Masonic Service Association, 1980.
  4. ^ "Analysis". xroads.virginia.edu. Retrieved 2022-08-08.
  5. ISBN 0025838504
  6. ^ Annie by Thomas Meehan 2014 Puffin Edition on Google Books
  7. ^ Little Orphan Annie#Broadway and films.[circular reference]

External links

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