Johnny Gruelle

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Gruelle began his career as an illustrator and cartoonist for Indianapolis newspapers. His work was eventually syndicated nationwide. He also completed commissions for illustrations of well-known fairy tales, as well as writing and illustrating his own stories. Gruelle is best known as the creator of a series of stories about a rag doll named Raggedy Ann and her friends. He also created the iconic Raggedy Ann and Raggedy Andy dolls. In addition to becoming a successful commercial artist and illustrator, cartoonist, writer, and businessman, Gruelle was a nature-lover, storyteller, and spiritualist.

In the early years of his career Gruelle created political cartoons and single-frame sports comics that appeared in Indianapolis newspapers such as the Indianapolis Star and the Indianapolis Daily Sentinel. In 1903 he became assistant illustrator for the Star. Within a few months his political cartoons of a top-hatted crow began to appear on the front page of the Star with witty comments for the day. Gruelle's crow figure also became the Star's weather bird and continued to appear on the newspaper's front page even after Gruelle's death in 1938. (The bird was initially named "Jim Crow," but it was renamed "Joe Crow" in the 1950s.)

From 1906 to 1911, his cartoons, usually signed as Grue, appeared in other city newspapers, such as The Toledo News-Bee, the Pittsburgh Press, the Tacoma Times, the Spokane Press, and the Cleveland Press. Gruelle's big break came in 1910–1911, when his two entries for a full-page, comic-drawing contest sponsored by the New York Herald won first and second place among the submissions from 1,500 entrants. His first-place entry, "Mr. Twee Deedle", was syndicated in weekly installments nationwide until 1918.

As Gruelle earned notoriety as a cartoonist for the Herald, he also pursued writing and illustrating his own fairy tales. His first major illustrating commission was a single-volume edition of Grimm's Fairy Tales (1914) that included Gruelle's artwork for eleven full-color plates. In other early commission work he illustrated and retold other fairy tales that included the stories of "Cinderella," "Little Red Riding Hood," and "Hansel and Gretel," among others. He also wrote and illustrated My Very Own Fairy Stories (1917), published by P. F. Volland Company, a publisher of inspirational cards, gifts, and books. Beginning with these early stories, Gruelle typically used a "fairy-story-with-a-moral format" to teach the ethical lessons that became a trademark of his work. Gruelle also created a cartoon series in 1917 called Quacky Doodles, produced as part of Bray Productions' weekly Paramount Pictograph productions.

The exact details of the origins of the Raggedy Ann doll and related stories are uncertain. Gruelle biographer Patricia Hall notes that according to an oft-repeated myth, Gruelle's daughter, Marcella, brought from her grandmother's attic a faceless rag doll on which the artist drew a face, and that Gruelle suggested that Marcella's grandmother sew a shoe button for a missing eye. Hall says the date of this supposed occurrence is given as early as 1900 and as late as 1914, with the locale variously given as suburban Indianapolis, Indiana, downtown Cleveland, Ohio, or Wilton, Connecticut. More likely, as Gruelle's wife, Myrtle, told Hall, Gruelle retrieved a long-forgotten, homemade rag doll from the attic of his parents' Indianapolis home sometime around the turn of the 20th century, a few years before the couple's daughter was born. As Myrtle Gruelle recalled, "There was something he wanted from the attic. While he was rummaging around for it, he found an old rag doll his mother had made for his sister. He said then that the doll would make a good story." She further explained that her husband "kept [the doll] in his mind until we had Marcella. He remembered it when he saw her play [with] dolls.... He wrote the stories around some of the things she did. He used to get ideas from watching her."

Hall notes another unproven legend states that Gruelle began writing and illustrating the Raggedy Ann stories while his daughter was gravely ill after receiving a routine smallpox vaccination at school, which was given without parental consent, and her death at age 13 inspired him to publish the stories and create the rag doll as a tribute to her memory. Another version of the doll's origins suggests that it appeared as a character in an illustrated poem in one of Gruelle's earlier books. Some journalistic sources have continued to repeat the various myths and legends.

A few of the details about the Raggedy Ann doll and its origins are documented. On September 7, 1915, the U.S. Patent Office approved U.S. Patent D47789, Gruelle's May 28, 1915, patent application for the design of the prototype that became the Raggedy Ann doll. Gruelle's patent application for the doll's design was already in progress around the time that his daughter, Marcella, became ill. The artist received final approval for the U.S. patent the same month as her death. On June 17, 1915, Gruelle applied for a trademark logo for the Raggedy Ann name, which he formed from a combination of names from two James Whitcomb Riley poems, "The Raggedy Man" and "Little Orphant Annie." The P. F. Volland Company published Gruelle's Raggedy Ann Stories (1918), the first in a series of books about his Raggedy Ann rag-doll character and her friends. Both became major successes. The book's first edition also included Gruelle's own version of the doll's origins and the related stories.

Although the female members of Gruelle's family may have made initial versions of the Raggedy Ann doll in Norwalk, Connecticut, to help market the related books, Gruelle soon established a merchandising agreement with P. F. Volland Company, his primary publisher, to begin manufacturing, selling, and promoting a mass-produced version of the doll. Raggedy Ann books and dolls became major successes. Two years later Gruelle introduced Raggedy Ann's brother, the mischievous and adventuresome Raggedy Andy, in Raggedy Andy Stories (1920). Gruelle also patented his design for a generic male doll (U.S. Patent D56149). A short time after its literary debut, Raggedy Andy appeared as a Volland-made doll. Gruelle was also awarded design patents for two duck toys in 1915. U.S. Patent D47787 is based on his character "Quacky Doodles" and U.S. Patent D47788 is based on his character "Danny Daddles." In addition, Gruelle applied for a stuffed elephant toy (U.S. Patent D56608) in 1920 and a stuffed bear toy (U.S. Patent D59553) in 1921.

In addition to the Raggedy Ann books, Gruelle continued to write and illustrate other works for children that included Friendly Stories (1919), another volume of his fairy stories. During the 1920s and 1930s he wrote and illustrated The Magical Land of Noom (1922), published by P. F. Volland Company, and the Orphant Annie Story Book (1921) and Johnny Mouse and the Wishing Stick (1922) for Indianapolis-based publisher Bobbs-Merrill Company. (Bobbs-Merrill became the authorized publisher and licensor for Raggedy Ann-related literary works in 1962.) The success of Gruelle's early books launched his career as a children's author/illustrator. While continuing to work on commissions for newspapers and magazines, he authored and illustrated at least one Raggedy Ann and Raggedy Andy story each year.

On November 27, 1929, the New York Herald Tribune Syndicate launched "Brutus," a domestic-comedy comic strip with elements of fantasy. Gruelle continued to work on this comic strip until his death in 1938.

Gruelle also wrote lyrics for musical compositions that were published as sheet music and songbooks for children. His lyrics in "Raggedy Ann's Sunny Songs" (1930) was set to music by William H. Woodin, a former U. S. Treasury Secretary. (It is likely that one of Gruelle's characters, "Little Wooden Willie," was named for the politician.) Other sheet music included "Beyond the Moon" (1931) with lyrics by Gruelle and Johnny Mercer, music by Guy Stevens; and "Beneath the Southern Skies" (1931) with lyrics by Gruelle and Joan Jasmyn, music by M. K. Jerome. Other Gruelle children's songbooks and recordings include the Richard Wolfe Children's Chorus performing on a recording of "A Raggedy Ann Songbook" (1996).

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