The Red Shoes

Brownie Troop: 1960. We were in the third grade. Once, again, our troop leaders were ambitious. Instead of hula dancers we were to become thespians! We presented a play based on the Hans Christian Anderson fairy tale, “The Red Shoes“, first published in Denmark in 1845. Nineteenth century literature appeals to me: Jane Eyre (Charlotte Bronte, 1847) and all the stories of Sherlock Holmes (Arthur Conan Doyle, 1887-1914) are favorites.

In our story, an old soldier cursed a little girl who was vain. She was obsessed with her red shoes and could think of nothing else, even during church services. The curse was that the shoes would not stop dancing and would remain stuck to her feet, until she repented. Our friend had to run on and off stage, dancing all the while, searching for someone who could remove her shoes! Dorothy’s ‘ruby slippers’ were magical too, but not demonized! I wonder if L. Frank Baum was inspired by this fairy tale? The Wizard of Oz was not published until 1900.

Here is a picture of our cast!

As I look at this picture, I am thankful to say that many of us are still friends and manage to see each other regularly. The pretty blond on the far right, wearing a hat, died in 2003 from brain cancer. We still remember and miss her. My friend holding the fan, who is standing beside her, reminded me the other day of our Brownie songs: Make New Friends, But Kept the Old! and There is Something in my Pocket.. It’s a Great Big Brownie Smile!  The “grandmother”, pictured in the middle wearing glasses, is a judge today. She appears on stage annually in a musical comedy produced by and starring lawyers, called, “Night Court”. It is a benefit show sponsored by the bar foundation. I see that I wrote “4th from the left” at the bottom of the photo. Did I really think that I would not recognize myself someday? Maybe not, since I wore a beard.

I don’t remember what music played as the little girl danced on and off the stage. I can tell you that the stage was in our school cafeteria, and is still there today.

A film of the same title was released in 1948. It is rather dark, very artistic, and follows a different story line.  But I found a video that resembles the version we performed.

” In the same way, I tell you, there is rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.” Luke 15:10