Long John Silver's Reference Website

Forum Archives - History

The following are some moments in history as told by some of our Forum regulars.

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Aileen Quinn

"Aileen Quinn was 14 when she did Annie on the stage in North Carolina with Harve Presnell, but she still looked much younger. Even today at 27 years old, she is only about 4 feet 9 or 10. Unfortunately, this puts her at a disadvantage for getting adult parts, and many former Annies and Orphans on the short side as adults have discovered this.

"The production in January 1986 was a community theater production at Fort Bragg, NC, but since the owner of the theater is a relative of the Quinns, Aileen traveled down from New Jersey and played there several times in different roles (another of which besides Annie was Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz). They were also fortunate to be able to hire a big name like Harve Presnell to be Oliver Warbucks opposite Aileen, as the two of them were second to none, as you can imagine.

"Community theater is much more lax in hiring Annies who may be a little too tall or a little too old, compared to Broadway and the professional tours. Martin Charnin personally prefers very young and small Annies and Orphans (e.g., Brittny), but other directors aren't that strict about it. I have encouraged many kids over the years who think a part in Annie has passed them by to not give up and keep on trying. The problem with a kid who is Equity is that they have to get special permission from the Union to perform in non-Equity community theater." - Jon Merrill

"The first Little Orphan Annie movie, starring Mitzi Green, came out in 1932 and is (or at least used to be) available on videotape. She was a very fine actress, and the plot of the movie was modeled after a couple of the comic strip stories of the time. Mitzi Green died in May 1969.

"There was another Little Orphan Annie movie in 1938, starring Ann Gillis. This movie, unfortunately, is not available on videotape, and I do not know anyone who has ever seen it. I have a couple of the lobby cards from it, but that's all. About 15 years ago an Annie People reader traced Ann Gillis in Belgium and did a short interview with her for our newsletter.

"The 1982 Aileen Quinn movie of course was the third movie about Annie. (Many fans did not know at the time that there were two movies about Annie before 1982!) The shortened Disney TV movie last year was the fourth Annie movie." - Jon Merrill

"Jennine Babo played in about 2,000 performances of Annie on Broadway in various roles. She was one of the very few who escaped the infamous "Saturday Night Massacre" cast changes on Broadway in January 1980 and kept going in the cast, having started about 1978.

"Jennine understudied Tara Kennedy in a professional Annie run at the Paper Mill Playhouse in Millburn, New Jersey in the fall of 1983. I saw her perform twice as Annie while Tara was ill. Playing Annie was a dream come true for Jennine, because she had done other Orphans for so long that it seemed unlikely she would ever have a crack at the title role.

"Jennine had performed in a short Allison Smith post-Broadway tour in spring 1983, which I saw twice, once at Westbury Music Fair in New York and once at Valley Forge Music Fair in Pennsylvania. Jennine's last Annie show, I believe, was the 1984 National Tour with Lisa Lynne as Annie, when Jennine was 13." - Jon Merrill

"Ah, yes, the notorious Saturday Night Massacre! In early January 1980 Martin suddenly decided that the show on Broadway needed some revitalization, so he got rid of almost the ENTIRE cast all at once and replaced them. Sarah Jessica Parker was replaced by Allison Smith, and almost every other role was changed as well, with the exception of Ray Thorne and Jennine Babo, I think. a few of the ensemble people stayed too, I believe, and of course Sandy stayed, but a large bunch of cast members got the ax. Martin made this decision very suddenly and gave the cast very little warning, and many were NOT happy, including Robert Fitch, the originator of the Rooster role who had been with the show since the very beginning. I'm not sure who originated the nickname, but of course it was used to parallel the famous Watergate incident of that nickname in 1973 when President Nixon cleaned house in his staff very suddenly." - Jon Merrill

"As an addendum to the story, several of the principle actors were asked to stay several weeks after the firing date because Martin couldn't get a cast together. The same thing happened with the non-equity tour. Martin decided that anyone who didn't want to sign on for the next year had to leave in June. He soon backtracked and several principles were asked to stay for 3 weeks. History repeats itself.  Equity has the 'Just 'Cause' clause in the contracts now as a result of the 1980 event." - Patrick Cogan

"I covered the Annie 2: Miss Hannigan's Revenge auditions for Annie People for three days in September 1989. Many children I knew from other shows and auditions were camped out in the open call line in front of the theater even before I arrived. Martin asked me to help out and hand out Annie favors to the children in line.

"Danielle Findley, being a professional actress, had a separate audition independent of the open call. I had seen her perform earlier that year in an Annie show in Michigan. Danielle was a very personable child with lots of talent and was well deserving of the role.

"Juliana Marx gave a very tentative audition, but Martin kept asking her to sing again and again. I was sitting in the audience during the auditions, and when I saw Martin and Juliana's mom go past me out to the theater lobby to discuss Juliana, I suspected that Martin was very interested in hiring her because of her looks. The original script called for two look-alike Annies , and I had a feeling he had already picked Danielle or at least had a feeling she would be the one, so he had to find a look-alike in the open call. Juliana was hired as the alternate Annie, but much of her work on stage was done by Danielle instead. The only time Juliana was on stage was at the end when one Annie was chasing the other Annie. (The plot of Annie 2: MHR was so complicated and confusing that it destined the musical to failure from the beginning, but that's a different story.)

"Courtney Earl was in the show as well as a street kid (and Annie's understudy) as was a young boy whose name I can't remember. Two weeks into the run, Orphans were added into the show because of negative audience reaction that there were no Orphans. Jennifer Beth Glick and others were auditioned on Monday, were taken to Washington on Wednesday, and performed on Friday. This was mid-January 1990.

"Annie 2 played in Washington for only one month, ending in January 1990, and the March 1, 1990 opening on Broadway was cancelled, due to abysmal reviews in Washington. Several months after Annie 2 closed, Juliana performed the title role in an Annie production somewhere down South and kept up contact with us at Annie People.

"It was extensively revised during a workshop in Connecticut through the spring and summer of 1990, this time with Lauren Gaffney in the title role. By this time, the character of Miss Hannigan had completely disappeared from the show. In 1992 the show resurfaced, with extensive revisions, as Annie Warbucks." - Jon Merrill

"Louanne's last name is Sirota. It means 'orphan' in Russian, which is quite a coincidence, considering Louanne's Annie history! Louanne has three sisters; she and her older sister are Sirotas, and the younger two are Evanses, born after Louanne's mom remarried.

"Louanne began her show biz career at age 7 by singing 'Ma, He's Makin' Eyes At Me' on The Gong Show with Chuck Barris. Chuck described her later as 'the only Gong Show winner ever to make it.' Barris always introduced her as 'Lou - AAAANNNNNNE!' without her last name. So, the single name stuck, and the media began using it too, and her mom decided to keep using the single name professionally throughout Louanne's childhood career, much in the manner of Madonna or Prince or Cher.

"We all know what Louanne did in theater. She became the swing Orphan in the 2nd National in 1979 and was immediately moved up into the title role. This was a 'tour,' but actually she spent her entire 7-month run in Los Angeles at the Shubert Theatre. She has been widely called by critics and people who saw her perhaps the best Annie ever. That is subjective, of course, but what is factual is that at the age of nine she was by far the youngest ever to play the title role. Martin Charnin had never considered anyone that young before, but Louanne paved the way for many others down the road, like Kristi Coombs, Allison Smith, and Brittny Kissinger. In 1981 Louanne again played Annie for several months in the 1st National at age 11.

"While she was in Annie in 1979 she took a week off to film a television movie with David Jones, The Long Days of Summer, a highly-acclaimed film about Nazi sympathizers infiltrating the U.S. at the dawn of World War II in the late 1930s. At the end of 1979 she was plucked out of Annie by talent scouts to star in the George Burns movie Oh God, Book II. Just after its release she sang an Annie medley and was interviewed on The Merv Griffin Show. After Oh God, in 1980, she filmed another TV movie, this time with (Wonder Woman) Lynda Carter, called The Last Song, a thriller about domestic terrorism at a chemical plant, kind of like Silkwood. Annie, Oh God, Book II, and the two TV movies all occurred before her 11th birthday. No one, before or (likely) since, has ever done so much and received so much critical acclaim by that age.

"Later on, Louanne did yet another TV movie with Elizabeth Montgomery, Missing Pieces, in 1983. When she was about 13 she starred in a TV series called Two Marriages. I have a picture of her in the series, which I haven't put up on my Web site yet. She also did an unreleased pilot called Lean Jeans and made guest appearances on The Love Boat and also Mork and Mindy. She sang on a Gong Show reunion show when she was about 14. At 16 she starred with the late River Phoenix in A Night in the Life of Jimmy Reardon. On the movie poster and videocassette box she is in the lower right, dressed in red. Around that time she did another TV pilot with Patty LuPone called Cowboy Joe. The pilot was aired, but the series wasn't picked up.

"After becoming the only child star in the history of Hollywood to make it big in all three media (theater, movies, television) before her 11th birthday (with no formal training), Louanne left the business in 1986 after about nine years. She went on to graduate with honors from University of California at Santa Cruz in literature and journalism in 1997. Today she is 30 years old, single, living in Los Angeles, and working as a copy editor in the entertainment industry while she contemplates trying to come back into show business. It will be difficult for her, since she has nothing on her resume since 1986, and agents tend to forget people's names if a lot of time goes by.

"I know Louanne very well and know deep down that show biz is in her blood, so don't be surprised if after a few years her name is 'back in lights' in Hollywood. If she does return to the business, I believe she will use her full name Louanne Sirota. I will continue to expand my Web site on Louanne to include as much of her career as I can. It is my goal to work with her to sort out the chronology of her work (much of which she is fuzzy on, as is the case with child stars who did as much as she did in a short length of time), and then eventually I will write her biography." - Jon Merrill

"Shelley was born Michele Merklinghaus. She took Bruce as her professional name, which is her father's first name. Shelley left Annie in 1979 after two years on Broadway; one as an Orphan and Andrea's understudy, and another in the title role. She developed leukemia in 1981 when she was 16, and she spent six weeks in the hospital and went into remission. Check your library for Shelley's autobiography, Tomorrow Is Today, published in 1983, which gives her complete account of her hospital stay and recovery. It is also a great look at the second year of Annie on Broadway, sort of a companion to Martin Charnin's Annie: A Theater Memoir, which is a comprehensive look at Andrea's year on Broadway.

"After Shelley recovered, she performed club dates in a rock band called AKA, did some more theater, and became a spokesperson for the American Cancer Society, traveling around and giving speeches and appearing on TV talk shows. She also participated in the reunion of all five Broadway Annies in March 1986 at an Annie show in New Jersey, and they were also all on Regis and Kathie Lee that same week.

"In December 1986 Shelley celebrated five years of remission, which, for all practical purposes, means she is free of the disease. Shelley attended opening night of Annie20th on Broadway in March 1997." - Jon Merrill

We have talked a lot in this Forum about the Broadway/National Tour Annies and Orphans and
what they have done after that in fields other than Annie. It might be interesting to take a look at
some of the local and community productions of Annie over the years and see what famous people
have come out of them. As I've often thought as I covered dozens of local productions of Annie
for Annie People, "you never know who in this cast might become famous some day."

I hope some people on the Forum will be able to add to my list of famous people who got their
showbiz start as an Annie or Orphan in a community theater production.

DEBBIE GIBSON - International pop superstar who had two multi-platinum albums on the chart in
1987-89: Played July in 1983 at the Broadhollow Theatre in Farmington, New York when she was 13.

STACI KEENAN - TV star of My Two Dads and Step By Step: Played in an Annie production at
Stagedoor Manor at Loch Sheldrake, New York when she was about 10.

KELSI OSBORN and KASSIDY OSBORN - Currently riding the top 10 in country music singles and
albums as two-thirds of the group SHeDAISY: Kelsi played Annie at Robert Redford's Sundance
Theater in Utah in June-July 1987 whens she was 12. Both Kelsi and Kassidy were Orphans in a
production in December 1988 at the Promised Valley Playhouse in Salt Lake City when they were 14
and 12, respectively.

MONICA LEE GRADISCHEK - Played Frenchy in Grease on Broadway in 1995-96 opposite Brooke
Shields: Monica played Annie several times in Pittsburgh to much critical acclaim, most recently in
1987 at Market Square Playhouse. P.S. Her producer in that show was Jude Pohl, who a couple of
years later discovered Christina Aguilera and was the first to have her sing on stage when she was
about 9.

CAROL-ANN PLANTE - Was Sarah in the Harry and the Hendersons TV show: Carol-Ann played an
Orphan in Annie in Westchester County, New York when she was 9 or 10.

Special Mention: Everyone who has seen the Turning Point episodes about Annie knows about
HARLEE OTT. She was the little redhead who auditioned for Annie 20th and got stagefright so bad
she couldn't even finish her audition with Martin. A couple of years later Harlee was seen on
Nickelodeon as the "long lost Brady sister Phoebe" in the commercials for the Brady Bunch
marathon. Harlee has played in a dozen community theater shows, including Annie and Annie
Warbucks, for the Show Kids Invitational Theatre group in New Jersey.

Harlee says she filmed those "Phoebe" Brady commercial segments all in a single day. She is 12 now
and does very well in the family atmosphere of the community theater group she has been in since
she was about 5, but, as evidenced by her meltdown during her Annie20th audition for Martin on
Turning Point, she is not quite ready for the big time yet. Yes, it is true that the town where she
lives in New Jersey is really named Broadway.

ANNA CHLUMSKY - Starred in 4 movies (My Girl, My Girl 2, Trading Mom, and Gold Diggers): played
an Orphan in two different productions in the Chicago area before My Girl.

CRISTINA CONOMOS - Was on As the World Turns for a while: played Annie at the Broadhollow
Theatre in Farmington, New York in 1983. Her Orphan July was DEBBIE GIBSON.

SUSAN CREMIN - On Broadway in Gypsy in 1991: played an Orphan in a local production in
Westchester County, New York.

ALEXANDRA HEILBRON - Currently is Editor of the Anne of Green Gables fan magazine Avonlea
Chronicles: Played an Orphan in a community production in Toronto.

STACEY MOSELEY - Played in an early teen soap opera called Swan's Crossing: played the title role
in 1987 at a dinner theater production in Darien, Connecticut.

SARAH BARKOFF - Young Cosette in 3rd National Les Miserables in 1991 and Gretl in The Sound of
Music National Tour: played Molly at a dinner theater in Michigan at age 5.

LAURA BUONO - Young Cosette in 1st National Les Mis: played Molly in Pontiac, Michigan in 1988.
Later on, after Les Mis, she played Annie with the same theater group (having gotten permission
from Actors Equity to do it).

LINDSEY ALLEY - On The Mickey Mouse Club for a couple of years: played the title role at a dinner
theater in Florida.

CARYN LYN JONES - Won 4 times in a row on Star Search in 1989: Played Molly in Englewood, New
Jersey in 1986. All 5 Broadway Annies, Andrea McArdle, Shelley Bruce, Sarah Jessica Parker,
Allison Smith, and Alyson Kirk were in the audience.

And, of course, both KATHRYN ZAREMBA and BRITTNY KISSINGER played Annie in local
productions in their home states before doing the role in NYC.

(NOTE: When ASHLEY JOHNSON did the movie Annie: A Royal Adventure in 1995, it was
reported that she had played the title role somewhere on stage before that; however, it was
revealed in an interview that I did with Ashley for Annie People that the report was erroneous. The
confusion came when once on Growing Pains she talked about performing the role, but she never
actually did.)

CATHRINE ZETA JONES -  An orphan in the West End production of Annie.

HALLY McGEHEAN - Recently played Tootles and Wendy's Daughter in Peter Pan on Broadway and also did the full tour afterward. Played Pepper on Broadway when Allison Smith was Annie.

- Jon Merrill et al

In 1986 we did an interview with Martin Charnin for our Annie People newsletter. Of course, one of
the things we asked about was the "Cheese" line, and here is the text of the interview that deals
with what it means and why it is there. - Jon Merrill

ANNIE PEOPLE: One line has been puzzling Annie fans for years and years and years--the "cheese"
line: "Cheese, you know, CHEESE!" I've heard the most ridiculous explanations: (a) the dog likes
cheese, (b) there was an entire scene about cheese, (c) Warbucks is rich, so only he can afford
cheese, (d) cheese goes with champagne. We've heard everything. Now, what is--

MARTIN CHARNIN: At Goodspeed Grace had a song called "He Doesn't Know I'm Alive" that she
sang in the second act. I tried to make it work ten different ways. Sandy Faison was wonderful,
the song was a good song; it was about her feelings for Warbucks. After all the business of the
fake parents having come, it was sung directly at that moment, and it was provoked by Grace
sitting there with her shoes off and Drake coming in and saying, "Can I get you something to eat,
Miss Farrell?" and she said, "Oh, nothing, just some cheese and crackers and I'll be fine." And he
went off and something else happened and he came back with a little tray, a silver tray on which
were some crackers and some slices of cheese. And she simoly sang the song "He Doesn't Know I'm
Alive" while she was eating the cheese. And she kept on eating the cheese and the song got
progressively harder to sing--it was a very interesting idea--

AP: So she was acually eating and singing at the same time?

MC: She was eating cheese; she was eating American cheese and Swiss cheese and Brie and God
only knows what whe was eating AS she was singing! Now it's very hard to sing and eat cheese.

AP: I would think so!

MC: When the song was cut--we had to lose the song, I said to Sandy that I am going to keep this;
it's a memorial to that moment. I thn inserted it as a lyric into "Annie" where they say, "Have they
sent the cheese?" which when the other song was there, was a good laugh. When the other song was
NOT there, it meant nothing. So that's where the "cheese" line comes from.

AP: OK, but I'm talking also about the line that's just before the song ("I Don't Need Anything But
You"), though, when Warbucks says, "We need champagne, caviar..." and Grace goes--

MC: "And CHEESE!" It all had to do with her having done an entire four-minute number about
cheese, and it being so much on her mind that in the middle of champagne and caviar she's still
thinking about cheese.

AP: Some of those explanations I've heard, it's like, "Oh, come on, you're wrong," I always thought,
my personal explanation was that it was just a simple subtext for her that at that moment Grace
was so excited that they were going to adopt Annie--

MC: Sure! I think it is--I mean, the "cheese" line is equivalent--

AP: So it's really an "in" joke, then!

MC: Totally an "in" joke; it belongs to the three authors and Sandy Faison. They're the only four
people who really know, and anybody who has ever played Grace since has wanted to know; has
never been able to deliver the line properly. No one will ever be able to do that line correctly
except Sandy. She owns it. She owns the moment on the stage. And the only people who ever laugh
are Tom and Charles and myself.

AP: So it's a joke where you had to be there--

MC: Boy, did you have to be there!!

AP: That must have been something, with four minutes of cheese! I can imagine--that must have
been so neat--

MC: It was quite wonderful, but the problem with the moment was not how it was done nor the song
nor the joke that we were playing there--the audience simply wanted to know who the kid's folks
were, at that moment. They were not interested in that love story at that particular moment in
time. So it had to go.

(From Annie People #23, September 1986)

The first Annie under the age of 11 to play the role in a Broadway National Tour was Louanne, who started
at 9 years 5 months in 1979 in the 2nd National. No one had ever been cast in the role anywhere that young
prior to Louanne. Morisa Morell, who replaced her in December 1979, was still 9, a month short of her 10th
birthday.

Louanne probably could have played the role for years, but she was seen by talent scouts in LA who raved
about her and plucked her out of the show to star opposite George Burns in Oh God, Book II. Later on, in
1981, she returned to Annie for another run, this time in the 1st National, when she was 11.

Allison Smith was already 10 years 1 month when she started on Broadway in January 1980. The three
previous Broadway Annies started at age 13 and outgrew the part within a year. Having seen Louanne's
extraordinary success in the 2nd National and audiences' reaction to her size and talents, Martin cast a
very young and small Allison on Broadway, hoping that she would be able to do it for a long time, which she
did - over 2-1/2 years.

Kristi Coombs broke Louanne's young age record when she started playing Annie after Marisa in the 2nd
National in December 1980, just 2 days after her 9th birthday. That record stood until Brittny Kissinger
opened on Broadway in 1997 at age 8 years 4 months, setting a new record for the youngest Annie.

The oldest Annie in this category was Sarah Jessica Parker, who left the title role on Broadway in January
1980, age 14 years, 10 months. - Jon Merrill