I'd Always Wondered About the Similarities Between These Two...

[ChiTownScion]

.... and so I did a little online research. Here's what I found, and if I am wrong, please correct me on this:

Lulu (Moppet) was drawn originally by Marjorie Henderson Buell, and first appeared in the Saturday Evening Post in 1935. She later made the transition to animated cartoons and evidently was licensed to Paramount. In 1947 Paramount chose to not seek renewal of the license- thus Audrey (Smith) was created for a cartoon series.

Personally, I always preferred Lulu: she seemed smarter than Audrey, took no crap from Tubby or the other boys, and could keep up with them in the realm of mischief. Audrey was voiced by Mae Questel, and hearing the voice of Betty Boop and Olive Oyl in yet another character seemed lame... plus she never had Lulu's edge, even in the comic books that were based upon the animated cartoons.

 

[LizzieMaine]

And to add another layer to it, the "Little Audrey" name was taken from a comedy voice done by singer Harry Babbitt, lead vocalist with Kay Kyser's Orchestra, who performed the "Audrey" character, an annoying little girl, on radio and on a number of recordings during the early 1940s. The name was pinched by Paramount without any payment or acknowledgement to Babbitt or the Kyser organization, even though most people in the Era would have recognized the source.

Marge Buell was an excellent magazine cartoonist, probably the most accomplished of the handful of women who worked in that field during the Era, but she had nothing to do with Lulu's comic book adventures -- those were done by a male cartoonist, John Stanley, who was noted for his distinctive sense of the absurd. Marge herself did continue to draw Lulu for the Post, however, and also in a long-running series of magazine advertisements for Kleenex.

 

[rjb1]

I agree completely with your positive feelings about "Little Lulu", and not just compared to "Little Audrey (a nonentity), but compared to most comic books of that time. The stories seemed to fit what was going on in our baby-boomer world at that time (or what we wished was going on). I did a quick search on "Little Lulu" and found the writeup reproduced below. The writer of that was from the '60's and I was from the '50's but we had the same feelings about the story-telling in "Little Lulu". I remember to some extent the Army comics and Superman comics that I read then, but Little Lulu and Tubby and Witch Hazel and beebleberries and the Club House and the Ghosts are a lot more vivid than anything from those "action" comics.

My all-time-favorite Little Lulu story was "The Spook Tree". Here it is in its entirety:
http://stanleystories.blogspot.com/2011/10/halloween-hoo-hah-spook-tree-from.html

Little Lulu

(Comic Book)
Created by Marge (Marjorie Henderson Buell)
Comic book written by John Stanley
As any boy growing up in the 60s, I loved comic books. And by that, I mean superhero comic books.*
So, when I was visiting my female cousins one afternoon and stumbled upon a stack of Little Lulu, I was less than impressed. Clearly, these were girl comics.
But I had an odd trait: show me something in the comic book form, and I'll read it. I can't help myself. So I started reading the back issues of Little Lulu.
They were terrific. I couldn't put my finger on why. There was no action. They were amusing, but not hilarious. But I enjoyed them immensely.
Nowadays, I have a better grasp of why: They were just well-written stories in comic book form.

 

[ChiTownScion]

I was browsing Ewe-Tube for Little Lulu toons today. Like most classics, she's had several reincarnations, but the originals were the best. Honorable mention goes, however, to one of the series which was broadcast in Canada, and Lulu was voiced by none other than Tracy Ulmann. Between the cartoons, Lulu even does a standup comedy schtick-- quite cute!



Lucille Ball notwithstanding, I believe that Tracy is really, "the queen of comedy." I always told my wife that if I had to be stranded on an island with one woman other than her, it would be Tracy over any drop-dead gorgeous starlet type. Always figured that if I were stuck on some damn island, I'd need to laugh a lot more than I'd need exotic romance.