I have no use for "political correctness"--make no mistake about that--but I've always (as a boy and as a man) found something irresistible in the "Girls are smart" theme as used in children's media. One place it's done very well is on Cinar's Little Lulu Show which started in 1995, with Lulu voiced by Tracey Ullman. They've made 52 half-hour shows, each containing three 7-minute Lulu cartoons plus a few minor extras. I wasn't paying attention then, having no spare time for TV, but I assumed that they were new stories; as to whether they were good or bad, I assumed nothing, of course.

However, Classic Media recently released two DVD's, distributed by Sony Wonder, each having five complete LL shows (the first ten shows, in fact). I bought them and was delighted to find that all of the 30 stories they contain were taken right out of the original Little Lulu comic books of the 1940's and 50's. They used the stories unchanged, except for minor adaptations in the wording. It's no ripoff--the credits do say "in association with Western Publishing".

But, as I feared, they didn't credit John Stanley--the original writer. They didn't have to, since he was paid for his work by Western and was never credited at all. He had died in 1993, not long before the new show debuted--not that he would have gotten any money from it, but at least he might have lived to see his own stories on TV; it's a pity he didn't. Further irony, there were Little Lulu animated cartoons in the 1940's too; but Stanley had no hand in them, and next to his masterpieces they were far inferior, being mere "formula" fairy-tales similar to those of Little Audrey.

Lulu goes back to 1935, when Marge Buell--a woman cartoonist--began drawing her in a magazine. Over the following decades, Lulu became the subject of children's books, games, puzzles, coloring books, activity books, greeting cards, dolls, and countless other merchandise items, while starring in the above-mentioned 40's cartoons and a 50's-60's syndicated newspaper strip, as well as advertisements for Kleenex.

But in the meantime, starting in 1945, Stanley wrote something like 800 to 900 stories of her in the comic books--the only medium, until Cinar's recent cartoons, in which Lulu showed herself as a "complete" girl. A child with a heart of gold and a brilliant mind which she was always ready to use in defense of herself or anyone else who was wronged or in trouble. It wasn't all about girls against boys--Lulu had nothing against boys and would help them too; she just didn't let them walk all over girls. Similarly, she had nothing against adults but might take on and outwit a particular adult if it was called for.

Compared with the present, that was a period of what you'd call "extreme sexism". Women were considered dumb, they couldn't get decent jobs, and so on. And yet, at the same time, the "smart girls/stupid boys" story was a tidbit loved by children everywhere, boys included. I guess children just knew that society's male-superior model was artificial, and that the real world was much closer to that of Lulu's (and their own) streets and playgrounds than to the "theoretical world" shown to them by the other media and by the schools.

Lulu and her associated characters (Annie, Tubby, Willy, Eddie, Iggy, Gloria, Wilbur, and Alvin) live in a suburban setting, with plenty of woods, streams, vacant lots, parks, lakes, and so on. The boys' clubhouse is a little wooden shack standing alone in a lot between a road and the woods--the kind of private retreat that so many kids today have never known. The town is unnamed (though they've called it Elmridge on the TV show). However, in the 1980's, when I was corresponding with certain comic scholars, some of them figured out from clues in the comic books (highway route signs and such) that the model for Lulu's home town was Peekskill, about 40 miles from New York City. Looking in and around Peekskill, they then found all the sites and landmarks regularly seen and mentioned in the Lulu stories.

In all--counting various series and special issues of all kinds--about 350 comic books starring Lulu and her friends were published over a 40-year period, including some by other writers; Stanley did the regular Lulu issues until about 1961. His "golden period"--when Lulu was at her best--was from about 1949 through 1954. Most of the stories that Cinar used were from that period, so they're 50 to 55 years old; if your parents don't remember them, your grandparents might! Among the 156 cartoons they made, I've recognized 83 as his stories; the rest came from their own writers. And, though you can usually tell that the cartoons weren't made long ago--they put in new lines here and there, sometimes with present-day references--they are faithful to the original comic books in the way they depict the characters and their surroundings. They try to preserve Lulu in a 1930's setting, out of respect for her 70-year-old "roots", just as Stanley did.

For example, some of the old clothing styles look strange today and are thus a hint that some other time period is involved, for viewers who don't at first know it. Some of the boys wear old kinds of hats and pants. The dresses, such as were sometimes worn by little girls long ago, are very short and stiff, sticking out sideways. That's why you see their panties frequently--nothing else is meant by it! (Note that the other characters never show any reaction.) And that was true in those comic books, too. Lulu had two "signatures"--her brains and her panties--and she signed every comic page with both of them. Take either one away, and she wouldn't be Lulu any more.

The buildings and stores also look old-fashioned. Similarly with dialogue, there are some old expressions in it--the group of boys on Lulu's street are called "the fellers," and a rival group is called "the West Side boys." The characters have primitive telephones, movie projectors with film, and "record players" that you wind up with a crank.

And when things are bought and sold, the prices tend to be too low for our time; in one cartoon, the "fellers" build an elaborate setup to stage a trick show, and then "make money" by charging other kids five cents to see it. Today, that would be a good way to LOSE money. Kids sell lemonade on the street for two cents; the "record players" sell for five dollars. (Those Lulu comic books were ten cents!) In one story, Lulu and Annie ask a teenage boy if he wants his sidewalk shoveled for a quarter, and he says "If I had a quarter I wouldn't be hangin' around HERE!" (In those days you could get into the movies for a quarter--and stay there all day.) For the TV show, Cinar sometimes raised the prices; they made the lemonade 15 cents, and the snow shoveling a dollar.

Through this past-era world romps Lulu, smarter than anyone else in town, taking on the whole world and twisting it around her little finger, "doing what you gotta do to survive"--but with a deep, strong sense of justice and fairness; not doing wrong, not hurting anyone unless they really deserve it, and always using her brains to help others too if they need it. A superhero without having any super-powers or needing them. No fantasy, no science fiction. Lulu's adventures are things that COULD really happen. That's their charm!

The fact that these 50-plus-year-old stories could be a hit for a new generation only proves--if it needed any further proof now--that they ring true to the juvenile ear, just as they did in the comic books so long ago. Maybe the Little Lulu Show's success was what it took to prove Stanley's genius; he was finally inducted into the Comics Hall of Fame in 2004.

Following are summaries of a few other great Lulu stories. All of these are from the comic books, and most of them have been on the TV show as well.

The covers to the DVD releases of the Little Lulu Show

The Bill Collector (1951)
Lulu's younger friend Annie has lost her beloved doll--the boys stole it to use as a target for arrows, and it's ruined. Lulu demands that the boys pay Annie what the doll cost (two dollars) and they just laugh. So Lulu puts up a sign saying a new building is going up on the lot containing the boys' clubhouse, and then mentions to them that the girls would like a clubhouse. Thinking their clubhouse is about to be torn down for a new building, the boys gladly sell it to Lulu. Then, when they find out the sign was phony and want the clubhouse back, she makes them pay two dollars more than she paid them, and gives the two dollars profit to Annie to pay for the doll.

Business Girl (1951)
Lulu and Annie are out selling lemonade on the street on a hot day. (The price was two cents in the comic book; for the TV show they made it 15 cents.) The boys are trying to do the same, but nobody will pay for their lemonade because it's lousy. They decide to put the girls out of business so they'll have no competition. They put a frog in the girls' lemonade. The girls sell the frog and buy more lemons. Then the boys put ink in their lemonade. Finally the girls decide that THEY have to eliminate the competition. Annie buys a glass of the boys' lemonade and pretends to die of poisoning. The boys run off in panic, afraid of being arrested.

The Balloon Derby (1952)
The deli owner, Mr. Kohlkutz, gives a contest for the kids. He releases ten red balloons with the numbers 1 through 10 on them in white paint, representing their value in dollars if you find one and bring it back to him unbroken--and one marked "0" which is worth nothing if you find it. Whenever girls find one, boys try to take it away from them and usually it gets broken. Then the boys see Lulu heading for the deli with a "0" balloon and follow her, thinking she's too dumb to know that it's worthless. But when they get there, Lulu rubs off the red lipstick with which she covered up the "1". It's the "10" balloon, worth ten dollars!

Tub's Big Moment (1951)
Tubby is crazy about Rita Rosebud, a child actress who appears in movies as a female stereotype--all shy and polite and dainty and "ladylike". She's appearing at the local theater, and Tubby is moping about not having the money for a ticket, when he meets a strange girl who's just like a boy. She's dirty and messy, wears pants, and talks sassy. She says she can do anything boys can do, and humiliates him by doing everything better than he can--wrestling, climbing trees, and so on. She's just teasing him and wants to make friends, but he wants no part of her. Finally she gives him a free pass for the theater, where he finds out that SHE'S Rita Rosebud.

Jumping Beans (1950)
This is one of the most complicated Lulu stories, as well as one of the funniest. Lulu passes Tubby's house and his mother asks her as a favor to get her some string beans since Tubby isn't around. She brings the beans to the boys' clubhouse hoping Tubby will be there so he can bring them home. The boys are waiting for Tubby to arrive, planning to give him a task as a penalty for not paying his club dues. They tell Lulu that Tubby will be right back and they'll give him the beans. When Tubby arrives, they make him fill a bag with bugs and then tell him to go and give it to his mom. Actually they're just pulling a harmless prank on him; they switched bags, and the one they're giving him is really the beans. Then Lulu passes by again and they give HER the bag of bugs, saying Tubby's mom wants to exchange them for lima beans. They laugh about the trouble she'll be in when the bugs get loose in the vegetable shop. But she runs into Tubby and asks him to finish his own errand by exchanging the beans. He'd just as soon not be there when his mom gets the bugs, so he gladly agrees to do it, asking Lulu to give his mom the bag he has, which he thinks is the bugs. So Lulu brings the beans to Tubby's mom, and he brings the bugs to the vegetable man.

The Snowball War (1949)
This one is 56 years old, the oldest of the stories used on the show. It's a classic in Lulu comic-book fandom, because it marked the beginning of the girls-vs-boys rivalry with the girls usually coming out on top thanks mainly to Lulu's cleverness. But what she does in this story is no big deal. The girls are tired of being attacked by boys with snowballs. They take the boys' snow fort by luring them away from it, and all the boys' efforts to get it back are foiled, much to their humiliation. Lulu's final trick ends with the boys buried up to their necks in the snow. The boys beg not to be left there as laughingstocks, and promise not to bother the girls with snowballs any more. But the girls cheerfully reply "We don't believe you!" and walk off.

Lulu's Umbrella Service (1950)
Wilbur, the stuck-up rich boy who's always playing mean tricks on the other kids, hires Lulu to walk him home with her umbrella on the condition that she must refund his money if his hat gets wet. Then he runs, jumps, climbs, and tries every trick to get his hat wet, but Lulu keeps after him everywhere he goes. By the time he gets home he's soaked and muddy and his clothes are all torn, so he's in for some punishment. But Lulu has succeeded in keeping his hat dry, so she still wins the bet!

The Picnic Pirates (1950)
When the girls go to the park for a picnic they are followed by boys who hope to steal their basket of food. The girls row over to an island, and the boys are so determined to "win" that they take off all their clothes and swim over. They succeed in grabbing the basket and rowing back with it, but in the meantime another boy has brought their clothes over in another boat as a "favor" to them. The girls catch him and make him row them back to the park, where they get their picnic lunch back by holding the clothes hostage. The boys have to go back to the island and get their clothes down from the trees where the girls put them.

Rich Little Poor Boy (1953)
Boy actor Gregory Gallant is at the local theater to present a scene from his next movie, and the girls are going wild over him--except Lulu, who is above such foolishness. Passing the theater, she trips on the sidewalk and happens to fall right in front of Gregory. A photographer takes a picture and it appears in the paper, captioned "Lovesick little girl throws herself at feet of movie star!" Lulu gets into the theater to see Gregory (by telling the stage door attendant that she was "in a picture with him") and demands that he tell the public the truth, but he laughs her off. She walks onto the stage during his act and he attacks her, destroying the whole set. In a fury he chases her all the way outside, where he falls in front of her and another picture is taken. Now the news media think he's in love with Lulu. She decides that they're even.

Beautiful Lulu (1949)
Lulu is sad because the boys don't think she's pretty. Her mother gives her such a total makeover that the boys think she's a new girl in town and flip out over her beauty. Soon, to her disgust, they're in an all-out fist fight over which one should buy her an ice cream cone. Lulu decides she liked them better before.

From Hero to Zero (1952)
Tubby hopes to win Gloria's heart by becoming a hero. He goes rowing with Lulu and arranges for her to get stranded in the boat without oars so he can "rescue" her in front of spectators. Botching the plan, he ends up stranded in the boat himself and in danger of going over the waterfall and getting killed. Lulu becomes the hero by saving HIM.

Housekeeper Wanted (1949)
The boys are tired of hearing about how silly they are by not allowing girls in their club. So they pretend to want Lulu as a member, and give her "initiation" tasks that they're sure she can't do. She embarrasses them by passing every one of their tests. Finally, deciding to make the best of it, they let her join and appoint her "housekeeper", meaning she has to clean up their clubhouse every day after they've made a mess of it. She wants no part of their club after that.