50 Fun Facts About Pollyanna

In Pollyanna, what came in a missionary barrel instead of the doll Pollyanna wanted, inspiring the glad game?

A pair of crutches was all the barrel held for a child, so her father taught her to be glad she didn't need them. That first round became the game she plays all through the book.

Which child actress won a special juvenile Oscar for playing the title role in Walt Disney's 1960 film Pollyanna?

Hayley Mills received the Academy Juvenile Award for the part, the first of six films she made for Disney. Her accent was explained by giving the heroine parents from overseas.

In and around Philadelphia, the word Pollyanna is a colloquial name for which holiday gift-exchange tradition?

Secret Santa is often called a Pollyanna in the Philadelphia area. In the tradition, members of a group are each randomly assigned one person to give a gift to.

In Eleanor H. Porter's novel Pollyanna, what strikes Pollyanna on her way home from school, leaving her unable to walk?

A motor car hit her as she crossed the road, and nobody could say afterward who was to blame. Disney's 1960 film replaced the accident with a different one.

Thanks to Eleanor H. Porter's famous heroine, calling someone a Pollyanna suggests that person is unfailingly what?

Optimistic to a fault is what the word implies today, often as a put-down for naivety. In the novel the idea is gentler: always look for the good side of a situation.

In Pollyanna, which man, estranged from Aunt Polly for years after a lovers' quarrel, becomes her husband at the end?

Dr. Chilton had stayed away from the house for years out of pride, until Aunt Polly finally sends for him to treat her niece. The couple marry at Pollyanna's bedside.

In Pollyanna, which plain meal in the kitchen does Aunt Polly order as punishment when Pollyanna misses the supper bell?

Bread and milk backfired as a punishment: Pollyanna said she liked both, and liked eating with Nancy the maid. Aunt Polly was left baffled that anyone could be glad to be punished.

In Disney's 1960 film Pollyanna, how is Pollyanna badly hurt while sneaking back into the house after the town bazaar?

Falling from a tree as she climbs to her bedroom window replaced the novel's accident, which the film's writer-director called too coincidental. She drops her new doll at the window, then falls from the ledge.

In Pollyanna, which runaway orphan boy does Pollyanna try to find a home for, until John Pendleton agrees to adopt him?

Jimmy Bean had walked out of the Orphans' Home, saying he was never wanted there. Aunt Polly and the church women both turn him away before he finally gets a home.

In Eleanor H. Porter's novel, Pollyanna's mother made up her daughter's name by joining the names of which relatives?

Her two sisters, Polly and Anna, supplied the name, even though the family had opposed her marriage. Aunt Polly, the only one still alive, thinks the name ridiculous.

In Pollyanna, which bare, carpetless part of Aunt Polly's grand house becomes Pollyanna's bedroom when she arrives?

An attic room with no carpet or pictures was Aunt Polly's choice for her niece. Pollyanna consoles herself that the view from its high window beats any picture on a wall.

Beldingsville, the fictional town where Aunt Polly's mansion stands in Pollyanna, lies in which New England state?

Vermont is the setting, though Eleanor H. Porter herself was born in the state next door. Pollyanna reaches Beldingsville by train from a small town in the far West.

In Pollyanna, what is Pollyanna glad she cannot see, since her bare new bedroom has no looking-glass?

Her freckles bother her, so a bedroom without a mirror counts as a blessing. It is one of the first things she finds to be glad about in Aunt Polly's house.

In Pollyanna, what injury has John Pendleton suffered when Pollyanna finds him lying below a ledge in the woods?

A broken leg had left him helpless, so he hands Pollyanna his keys and sends her to telephone for a doctor. The rescue begins her friendship with the town's gruff recluse.

In Pollyanna, which dish does Aunt Polly send with Pollyanna on her first visit to the bedridden Mrs. Snow?

Calf's-foot jelly was the gift, and Mrs. Snow at once said she had hoped for lamb broth. On a later visit Pollyanna brings jelly, broth and chicken together so nothing is missing.

Which silent-film superstar played the young heroine in the hit 1920 film version of Pollyanna, directed by Paul Powell?

Mary Pickford scored a major success with the part, and the film came to be regarded as one of her defining pictures. It took in about $1.1 million.

Which sequel is the only other Glad Book that Eleanor H. Porter wrote herself, the rest being left to other authors?

Pollyanna Grows Up followed two years after the original and carries the heroine to the age of twenty. Porter died in 1920, and every later Glad Book came from another writer.

In Pollyanna, which word does Aunt Polly keep giving as her reason for taking in an orphaned niece she never wanted?

Duty is Aunt Polly's watchword, repeated so often that Pollyanna decides she is going to hate the word. Her aunt even hands out lessons and new clothes in its name.

In Pollyanna, what does John Pendleton have strung across his sunny bedroom window as a treat for Pollyanna?

Prisms taken off an old brass candlestick scatter rainbows around the sickroom. Pollyanna says the sun itself is trying to play the glad game.

What is the surname of Pollyanna, the orphaned minister's daughter in Eleanor H. Porter's best-selling novel?

Whittier was her father's name. Harrington, the surname many readers guess, belongs to her mother's family and to Aunt Polly.

In Pollyanna, Nancy wrongly decides John Pendleton once courted Aunt Polly, but which woman had really refused him?

Jennie, Pollyanna's mother, chose a poor young minister over the wealthy suitor her family preferred. Pendleton confesses it when he tells Pollyanna whose hand and heart he once wanted.

The final chapter of Eleanor H. Porter's Pollyanna, announcing that Pollyanna can walk again, takes which written form?

A letter from Pollyanna to her aunt and new uncle closes the book, written after almost ten months of treatment. In it she reports walking from her bed to the window.

In Pollyanna, what job does Old Tom, who remembers Pollyanna's mother as a girl, do for Aunt Polly?

Gardener is his job, and Old Tom delights Pollyanna with stories of her mother. His son Timothy also works for Aunt Polly, driving her buggy.

In Pollyanna, which church group helped bring up Pollyanna out West and taught her to sew?

The Ladies' Aid of her father's small mission church brought Pollyanna up alongside him. Its members once argued over whether to buy her a black dress or put the money toward a red church carpet.

In Pollyanna, Beldingsville's church women turn away a local orphan, preferring to fund boys in which far-off country?

India got the money because foreign missions earned the society credit in its annual report. Pollyanna is dismayed that a boy in their own town counts for less.

In psychology, the Pollyanna principle is the tendency for people to remember which kind of items more accurately?

Pleasant ones stick better, a bias the psychologist Margaret Matlin and a colleague described in 1978. People also tend to recall their past as rosier than it really was.

Which Hollywood star plays the rich and strict Aunt Polly in Walt Disney's 1960 film version of Pollyanna?

Jane Wyman plays Polly Harrington, whose wealth controls most of the town in the film. Walt Disney called the cast the most important in his studio's history.

In Pollyanna, what does John Pendleton ask Pollyanna to do, an offer she refuses out of loyalty to Aunt Polly?

Come live with him was the plea, because his great stone house had never felt like a home. Pollyanna's counteroffer is the orphan boy she has been trying to place.

In Pollyanna, where does Pollyanna go to sleep one stifling night, making Aunt Polly fear a burglar is about?

The sun parlor roof, a little way below another upstairs window, was cooler than her hot bedroom. Aunt Polly telephoned for help, and the men came with lanterns to find her niece instead of an intruder.

In Pollyanna, which household pet nudges open a bedroom door so that Pollyanna overhears she may never walk again?

A cat called Fluffy, a stray Pollyanna had talked her aunt into keeping, pushed the unlatched door ajar. Aunt Polly's anguished cry in the hall then carried straight to the bed.

In Pollyanna, which kind of Bible verse did Pollyanna's father count eight hundred of when he was feeling low?

Calls to rejoice or be glad were so many that he decided God must want people to do it. Hearing this, Reverend Ford scraps a harsh sermon he had been drafting.

In Pollyanna, which old-fashioned name does Pollyanna tell Nancy she can be glad her parents never gave her?

Hephzibah was the name of a Mrs. White back West, whose husband shortened it to Hep, which she disliked. Nancy later admits the thought makes her own name easier to bear.

In Pollyanna, what does Aunt Polly promise her niece to read after Pollyanna throws open her bedroom windows?

A pamphlet on flies and their danger to health was meant as a rebuke for letting insects indoors. Pollyanna simply thanked her aunt, saying she loved to read.

In Pollyanna, which flower does Pollyanna tuck into Aunt Polly's hair while dressing her up one rainy afternoon?

A red rose from the trellis finished the look, along with an old lace shawl around her shoulders. Aunt Polly fled to her room when she saw a caller's gig turning into the drive.

In Pollyanna, Aunt Polly's timetable of reading, sewing, cooking and music leaves her niece no time for what?

Just living, to Pollyanna, means playing outdoors, climbing hills and talking to people. Breathing through her lessons, she tells her aunt, is not the same thing at all.

In Pollyanna, which handicraft does the bedridden Mrs. Snow take up after Pollyanna reminds her she has hands and arms?

Knitting baby blankets for fairs and hospitals gave Mrs. Snow a purpose after a long spell of complaining in a darkened room. Her daughter Milly comes to tell Aunt Polly about the change.

In Eleanor H. Porter's sequel to Pollyanna, the heroine is sent to which city to cheer up the wealthy Mrs. Carew?

Boston is where she charms Mrs. Carew's servants and befriends Jamie, a boy who uses a wheelchair. Nobody tells Pollyanna that she is being sent as a kind of happiness medicine.

Before turning to fiction, Pollyanna author Eleanor H. Porter trained for several years as which kind of musician?

Singer was her first calling, studied at a conservatory. She began publishing short stories only after marrying John Porter in 1892 and moving to Massachusetts.

Which actor plays Reverend Ford, the town's church minister, in Walt Disney's 1960 film version of Pollyanna?

Karl Malden plays the minister, who lets Aunt Polly dictate his sermons until Pollyanna changes his mind. He ends up defying her and backing the town bazaar from the pulpit.

Which American games company published The Glad Game, a Parcheesi-style board game inspired by the novel Pollyanna?

Parker Brothers kept versions of the game on sale until 1967, a sign of how long the Glad Girl craze lasted. Play resembled the British board game Ludo.

Which choreographer directed Polly, the 1989 TV musical retelling of Pollyanna starring Keshia Knight Pulliam?

Debbie Allen both directed and choreographed the film, with her sister Phylicia Rashad playing Aunt Polly. It moved the story to Alabama in the 1950s.

Which American rock band released a song called Pollyanna in 2021, its title a nod to Eleanor H. Porter's heroine?

Green Day released the song more than a century after the novel appeared. George and Ira Gershwin had already slipped the name into a 1930 show tune.

Disney's 1960 Pollyanna explained its young star's accent by making Pollyanna's parents missionaries from where?

British West Indies missionaries became her parents in the script after Walt Disney cast a girl from across the Atlantic. In the novel her father is a poor minister in the American West.

In Pollyanna, which dress described in a telegram lets Nancy pick out Pollyanna at the Beldingsville railway station?

Red-checked gingham stood out because an orphan was expected to wear mourning. Pollyanna explains that the last missionary barrel had held nothing black that was suitable for her.

Which New Hampshire town, birthplace of Pollyanna author Eleanor H. Porter, has a bronze statue of her heroine downtown?

Littleton unveiled the statue in 2002, showing a smiling Pollyanna with her arms flung wide in greeting. Porter was born in the town in 1868.

Disney's 1960 Pollyanna was the final film of which veteran Hollywood actor, cast as the reclusive Mr. Pendergast?

Adolphe Menjou ended a long career as the film's town curmudgeon, the character the novel calls John Pendleton. His part closes with the old recluse adopting an orphan boy.

Walt Disney offered the lead in his 1960 Pollyanna to a young actress after watching her in which British film?

Tiger Bay interested Disney because of her father, an actor he was casting in Swiss Family Robinson. The daughter came away with an offer too.

In Pollyanna, which morning does Nancy learn to be glad about, since the next one is a whole week away?

Monday mornings were what Nancy hated most, until Pollyanna pointed out that the day comes only once in seven. Nancy says the thought has made her laugh every week since.

In Pollyanna, what has Aunt Polly ordered for her niece's bedroom windows, which must stay shut until it arrives?

Screens were on order, and until they came the windows of the hot little room were to stay closed. Pollyanna raised them anyway.

The 1920 silent film Pollyanna was its star's first picture for which studio, which she had helped to found?

United Artists had been formed in 1919 by Charlie Chaplin, Douglas Fairbanks, D. W. Griffith and the film's own star. The picture grossed about $1.1 million.