Annie

Last night my Aunt took me to see the current Broadway revival of Annie.  The show was moderately entertaining, though not directed well, but it reminded me of a few things.  When the original movie came out in theaters, my mother, brother, and I sat through it three times in a row (back when you were allowed to do such things).  I had an enormous crush on Annie, and fantasized about her--I was a child, so the fantasies weren't too sexual, but somewhat...

What really affected me, though, was a book of the movie.  Back then, when movies opened, comic books or collector's books with photos and stories would often be published (I still have comics of "The Dark Crystal" and "Supergirl" movies").  I wish I could find this Annie book (it's probably in a storage unit on the other side of the country).  Many of us with a propensity toward spanking--and probably many other fetishes--are affected even by the word, or mention of it from external sources.  Having just read through several people's blogs, I am well aware that many of us looked the word "spank" up in the dictionary on numerous occasions.  The "Annie" collector's book had a prequel story that titillated my sexuality even then. 

There are at least three lines in the beginning of the movie that refer to spanking.  The first is Ms. Hannigan's, who says to Annie, "...and if this floor don't shine like the top of the Chrysler Building, your backside will!"  The next one comes from one of the orphans who, while helping Annie hide herself in a laundry basket, says, "You'll get whipped again!"  implying that Annie has been spanked on numerous occasions.  Later, when Annie has been returned to the orphanage, she tentatively gives Ms. Hannigan the required credo, "I...love you...Ms. Hannigan...?", to which Ms. Hannigan replies, "...and you will loooove the paddle closet!"

At the time, these references didn't have a great affect on me, even though the concept of spanking already did.  I think the reason is the language used:  the word "backside" was not used much in my experience, and I don't think I even knew at the time that the line was a reference to spanking (I wouldn't have realized that a spanking is what would make a backside "shine"); we also did not use the term whipped, although I knew others who did, so it wasn't as intriguing--and still isn't;  and my family did not use paddles (the idea of parental paddlings still fascinates and intrigues me, perhaps because I never experienced them in reality), so, again, I don't think I even realized quite what the "paddle closet" was.

This all changed with the acquisition of the "Annie" movie collector's book, several years after the release of the movie.  It began with a story, with some illustrations--perhaps a scene cut from the movie--that takes place earlier in the evening than the opening of the film.  In it, Annie makes an attempt to escape the orphanage, but is caught and returned.  Upon her return, she receives an over-the-knee paddling from Ms. Hannigan (I wish I could remember more details, but it's been many years since I last saw that book).  Needless to say, this changed my outlook quite a bit.  I could not help but imagine Annie over her stern guardian's dress-covered lap, with her short little red dress flipped up, receiving the paddle on her bloomers while she cried and thrashed (there may have been a drawing of that exact thing in the book, or perhaps just a mental image of my own creation burned into my memory).  The scene makes that second spanking line not only make more sense, but sound even more intense: "you'll get whipped again [on top of the paddling you got earlier tonight]!"  It also makes it clear that this punishment was a regular thing among the orphan girls--a thought that set my very imaginative young mind ablaze!

I do remember being directly affected by one scene though.  The orphan girls overhear the plot to trick Warbucks out of money and Annie herself, and they try to escape, to sound the alarm.  They're immediately caught, and dragged back in by Hannigan, her brother Rooster, and his girlfriend Lily, to be locked in the paddle closet.  On the way in, Lily, with a girl in each hand, corrals the oldest with quick kicks to her backside, after each of which the girl rubs her bottom while walking toward the camera.

Here are screenshots of the implements inside the paddle closet:

Behind Bernadette Peters (playing Lily St. Regis) you can see a paddle and a carpet beater hanging...

it's a loooooong paddle!

...and on the opposite wall, a collection of wooden brushes.

Having never witnessed such a thing, I can only imagine what life would have been like in the '30's, with such implements put to regular use.
I think this movie may be the very reason I am still enamored with art and stories of young girls being spanked.