Saturday Morning, August 30, 2025

Those were the Good Old Days

Murder. Mayhem. Rape. Torture. Beheading. Betrayal. Stabbing. Poisoning. Adultery. Incest. Lying. Stealing. Cheating. All capital crimes. The finest kind. True grit tucked into the pages of earlier fairy tales. Shakespearean in style. No soft shoe here. No cute denouements. Gruesome headlines. Living happily ever after as rare as a straight road for a crooked old man.

Louis Marx mechanical Mother Goose toy.
A cross between an elderly grandmother and a witch. Indicative of role reversal in the original fairy tales.

Black bear rug. A standup character in fairy tale lore.

Original stories were down in the dirt raw. A thin line between evil and good, both changing roles often. Their masthead was the Brothers Grimm. Wilhem and Jacob, versions hallmarking the genre. How did children handle these horrors? By asking for more. Children have an amazing appetite for the macabre. Let's take a look at some of these beauties.

Sleeping Beauty

A beautiful young princess, smitten by a spell, falls into a deep sleep. Years pass, and along comes a handsome young king. Seeing her lying there, he decides the most noble action would be violating her. Repeatedly. Well, as these things go, she eventually awakens. What took so long is still a mystery. Obviously, it wasn't Prince Charming's kiss.

A woman of legend, all she attracted was a plastic superficial man. Where's the story in that? Safer that way.

Her slumber is disturbed by something pushing against her body. Surprise! Twin babies. Nice to have you back Mother! Quite an eye opener. From best sleep to breast feed. Well, along comes daddy for his daily delight, and discovering his deed, gathers up the hoard and returns to his castle. There, waiting on the parapet, is his furious wife. A homecoming for history. The dear queen flies into a rage and attempts to murder the three intruders.

Hand-painted limited edition cell, 1994, 13 ¼" x 16 ½". A truly fractured fairy tale...

Somewhere along this plot line the queen disappears. No details given, except the flower garden along the moat wall had an exceptional growth spurt the following year. Especially the roses. So, the king and young princess marry and live happily ever after? Beauty before age. Out, damned spot, Out, I say!

Hansel and Gretel

This story survives to us from deep European roots. Two children happen into the forest. There, in a clearing sits a small bungalow. Who lives inside is none other than the devil and his wife. They capture the children and throw them in cages, plumping them up with table scraps.

Japanese signed bronze tiger, 6" H.
Though cultural characters differ, themes remain the same.

One day, the Devil decides to take a walk, no doubt in his Prada. Before departing, he instructs his wife to ready the children for butchering. The task was simple really. The brother needed to be bound to the butcher block, a task surely performed by his sister. But the children feign stupidity and asked the Devil's wife to show them how to position the body. She lies down and they are upon her with straps and zip ties. Once bound, they slit her throat. Changing roles. Now wanted for first degree murder, they flee carrying money and jewelry, the devil in pursuit. And so the story ends, two underage delinquents with gold bands still on the run.

Eleanor Perot lithograph, South Street, Phila., 10 ¾" x 11 ½".
Every good witch story needs a supporting infrastructure. A good market for eye of newt, fillet of a fenny snake, scale of dragon, tooth of wolf, wool of bat, tongue of dog

The Little Mermaid

Enter Hans Christian Andersen. Here is a tale of a mermaid who falls in love with a landlocked prince. Her desire is to walk ashore and marry him. So, the Sea Witch orders her to drink a magic potion. It works with several caveats. First, she loses her ability to speak. You would think that would be enough to marry any prince. Second, each step she takes yields excruciating pain in her feet. Despite these setbacks, she enchants the prince.

Reverse painted glass shade table lamp. A classic scene.
A bungalow in the country holding untold adventures for the wayward child.

Limited-edition sericel - The Villains of Gotham City, 9 ½" x 32".

But the guy is an inbred klutz and marries another woman for power and position. This, a harsh reality to a naive mermaid. Back in the sea, her sisters reach out to her and promise, if she stabs the lout to death, his spilled blood splattering across her legs and feet will magically transform her limbs back into a tail. All this is be consummated before dawn. Well, the mermaid, broken by love, throws the knife away and falls back into the sea, disintegrating into sea foam. No dancing crabs here. No sunset love scene. Just another delightful unhappy fairy tale ending. Good night children.

When You Wish Upon a Star

Enter Disney Studios. Their motto, there isn't a plot line they can't change. Though they create magnificent villains, choreographed and singing, these aberrations never triumph. Only happy endings work on screen.

Limited edition cel - Crook and Ladder, 24 ½" x 10".
Perfect example of a modern day children's story. Instead of eating the Whoville children, he changes totally into a milktoast friend. Very disappointing indeed.

It wasn't Disney's fault. They were simply bowing to the market. Modern day philosophy admonishes violence in children's stories. The logic appears sound. If exposed to violence in youth, this behavior would follow in adulthood. Right? But a funny thing happened on the way to the demonstrations. Though countless generations have survived childhood to lead fruitful lives, now, with a whitewashed youth, these kids have brought violence to today's streets in adulthood. Homogenized and bottled in Molotov cocktails. Is there a correlation? We are all waiting for the study. Meanwhile, we are living happily every after each Saturday. N'est-ce pas?I

Papier mache' life size toy soldier, reminiscent of the Nutcracker Ballet. Now there is a classic children's story. Totally unsettling. 5' 5" H.