Little Orphan Annie tells the story of an 11-year-old orphan named Annie as she goes on a number of adventures with her dog Sandy and her benefactor Oliver “Daddy” Warbucks. Beginning as a comic strip in 1924, its success led to TV and film adaptations, but before those came around, a radio show helped expand the reach of Annie’s audience.
On this day, April 6th, in 1931, the Chicago radio feature of Little Orphan Annie aired on WGN AT 5:45 pm. The show made history as the first comic strip to be adapted to radio, and the first to be aired from coast to coast. Little Orphan Annie’s 15-minute radio broadcast appealed to over six million children, making it the biggest children’s program of that time.
Harold Gray was the creator of the comic strip. He continued illustrating for the comic until his death in 1968, when a number of other cartoonists took his place. The first two film versions of Little Orphan Annie came out in 1932 and 1938.