All art is at once surface and symbol

So, there's three Raggedy Ann musicals out there that I know of. One of them is the movie, which is fucked up as all hell, but I have a soft spot for it despite its flaws. Then there's the Broadway musical, which is frightening and disturbing and not in a good way. (Let's say it deserves its own post, mostly chocked full of horrified macros and .gifs. Seriously, its poster looks like a pulp cover.) It dropped after five showings and I still can't find the soundtrack anywhere. While scrounging the Internet for it for my own masochistic curiosity, I found another musical with Raggedy Ann & Andy that is virtually unknown. At least I have never heard anyone talk about it.

And what's this? It wasn't a disastrous flop at its release? And it was popular?

( Stepping Stones, a 1923 musical comedy. )

Jerome Kern did a ton of well-received musicals and musical movies for four decades back in the day, but today we know him through some of his songs ("Ol' Man River", "A Fine Romance", "Smoke Gets in Your Eyes", "The Way You Look Tonight") and "Show Boat."

But wait! There's more!

Johnny Gruelle, the creator of Raggedy Ann, was a fan of Fred Stone and L. Frank Baum. Gruelle wrote a scenario for a stage show, which was never produced, in which the Scarecrow of Oz, played by Fred Stone, met Raggedy Ann. In 1923, Fred Stone and his daughter, Dorothy Stone, starred as Raggedy Andy and Raggedy Ann, respectively, in a musical extravaganza titled Stepping Stones with music by Jerome Kern and lyrics by Anne Caldwell.

I can't find anything else about "Stepping Stone," but I managed to find music files of the "Raggedy Ann" song.

Dear lord, all this research is making me feel old. Whether it's the 20s or 70s, what humongously different time periods Raggedy Ann came from compared to the 90s-2000s!