Daddy Long-Legs

Daddy Long-Legs is the name of a very popular American novel by Jean Webster (1876-1916), as well as several stage and film adaptations.

Also written Daddy Longlegs, or Daddy Long Legs by some South African sources.

The original text

The epistolary novel for young adults was first published by Grosset and Dunlap in New York in 1912, with illustrations by the author and scenes from the play. It had a sequel called Dear Enemy.

Adaptations and translations

Stage adaptations

The novel was adapted by the author herself from her own 1912 epistolary novel, the play was first produced in the United States in 1914.

Another stage adaptation was the British stage musical comedy called Love from Judy, released in 1952.

A third adaptation, as a two-person musical play, was done in 2009 by John Caird (book) and Paul Gordon (music), and performed by the Rubicon Theatre Company and TheatreWorks in that year. It premiered Off-Broadway at the Davenport Theatre on September 27, 2015.

Film versions

The book was filmed several times, beginning in 1919 with a film starring Mary Pickford, in 1931 with one starring Janet Gaynor and Warner Baxter, in 1935 with an adaptation called Curly Top, starring Shirley Temple and in 1955 aother adaptation of the plot for a dance film called Daddy Long Legs featuring Fred Astaire and Leslie Caron.

In addition there have been two Japanese anime versions, a musical television special (1979) and a Japanese TV serial called Watashi no Ashinaga Ojisan ("My Daddy-Long-Legs"), directed by Kazuyoshi Yokota for the Nippon Animation studio (1990), a Malayalam (India) film movie called Kanamarayathu (1984), a Hindi remake by the same director called Anokha Rishta (1986) and a 2005 Korean film called Kidari Ajeossi which has elements of Daddy-Long-Legs, and has been transferred into a modern setting. (See Wikipedia

Translations

The original play was translated into Dutch and Afrikaans as Vadertjie Langbeen

1918: The American Dramatic Company brought it to His Majesty's Theatre in Johannesburg, South Africa, opening on 21 February 1918. The cast consisted of Eileen Errol (Judy Abbott), Charles H. White (Jervis Pendleton), Ray Brown (Cyrus Wycoff), Albert Lawrence (Jimmie McBride), George R. Montford (John Codman), Richard Scott (Griggs), Edward Donnelly (Walters), Caroline Locke (Miss Pritchard), Florence Roberts (Mrs. Lippett), Naomi Rutherford (Sally McBride), Hilda Attenboro (Julie Pendleton), Martha Rowson (Sadie Kate), Jacky Turnbull (Freddie Perkins). It was directed by George R. Montford, with scenery designed by Frank Tyars.

An Afrikaans translation entitled Vadertjie Langbeen was staged by James Norval in 1934 and a film version directed by Pierre de Wet for Afrikaanse Rolpentproduksies came out in 1955.

198*: Produced by ** with Diane Todd, Bob Courtney, Jill Girard.

Source

Stage & Cinema, 16 February 1918

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