Books Versus TV Show: Laura and Almanzo's Courtship - These Happy Golden Years versus Season 6 of Little House on the Prairie & the Episode "Laura Ingalls Wilder" (Season 7)

 

The courtship of Laura Elizabeth Ingalls and Almanzo James Wilder is part of the reason we are still talking about them, their families, Wilder's books, and the shows based upon them. 

As already discussed in a post from earlier this month, the courtship of Laura and Almanzo is portrayed very differently in the books than on television. Almanzo pursues Laura in These Happy Golden Years, but Laura is the one pursuing Almanzo in Little House on the Prairie. This necessitated changes in how TV Laura and Almanzo acted toward one another. 

For TV Laura, it is love at first sight when Almanzo pulls into town in his rig looking for his sister, the new school teacher, Eliza Jane. Book Laura first noticed Almanzo's horses. When TV Laura is introduced to Almanzo in the episode, "Back to School," Laura accidentally calls him, "Manly," instead of Mannie. The next day, he, in turn, tells her that now he must give her a special nickname. Asking what her full name is, Manly christens her, "Beth." These will be the nicknames they call each other throughout the Little House on the Prairie show. 

For book lovers, however, these pet names will not appear until the final book in the series, The First Four Years, and Almanzo calls Laura "Bess" to avoid confusion with his older sister, who is also named Laura, not "Beth." I can only imagine that the years in which the show originally aired played into the change in her nickname. 

Eager for Almanzo to see her as a woman, in "Back to School," Laura studies for her teaching exam, which she fails miserably thanks to Nellie's interference. For three episodes in Season 6--"Annabelle," "The Werewolf of Walnut Grove," and "Silent Promise"--Laura yearns for Almanzo to see her as older than she is and hopes he will wait for her to grow up... much to the dismay of her pa. 

Almanzo's perspective begins to shift in the episode, "Wilder and Wilder," when his younger brother, Perley Day visits Walnut Grove unexpectedly. Perley Day reminds Almanzo that Laura--who Manly had just called a kid--is almost 16, and when Almanzo is later caring for Barnum at the Ingalls farm after his brother nearly cripples him, he tells Charles that Laura is one "grown up young lady." It will, however, be driving Laura to her first teaching job in "Sweet Sixteen," that finds Manly's friendship with Beth blossoming into love. 

With a new hairstyle and boots, and with a week spent apart, Laura suddenly looks older to Almanzo when he picks her up in Curry. Struggling with his newly discovered feelings for Beth, he punches a student who he thinks is making advances to Laura, which he later admits to Charles. 

When Charles arrives on Laura's birthday to pick her up, she is disappointed that Almanzo hasn't come, but she is encouraged when Charles tells her he believes Almanzo might be in love with her. That night, at the church social, Almanzo and Laura share their first dance and their first kiss. 

Two more, two-part episodes will focus on their courtship: "He Loves, He Loves Me Not" and "Laura Ingalls Wilder." The latter is the opening for Season 7. Like viewers will see in the early days of their TV marriage, Manly and Beth have temporarily life-altering disagreements during their courtship as well, which wasn't as much of an issue for book Almanzo and Laura. 

At the end of seventh book of the series, Little Town on the Prairie, Laura earns her teaching certificate. By the opening of the next book, These Happy Golden Years, she has her first teaching job at the Brewster settlement. In Chapter 4, Almanzo is the one bringing her back and forth to Brewster, just like TV Almanzo brought Laura back and forth from Curry. 

Laura is quick to correct her friends, who call Almanzo her beau (pg 39).  Later in the book (pg 62), she tells Almanzo that she wouldn't be riding with him anymore once she is back in town permanently. So, she is surprised when he arrives to bring her home again (pgs 69-70). They have a small disagreement (pgs 76-77), and he asks her if she thinks he is the kind of guy who would leave her in Brewster, while she is missing home, just because there is nothing in it for him. And this is where the reader gets insight into Laura's thoughts, because she admits to herself, she never really thought about him because he is older and a homesteader (keeping in mind that Almanzo lied about his age when he went west because a man had to be 21 or head of the family to make a claim). 

Though TV Laura saw herself getting married to Almanzo, in These Happy Golden Years, when Mary suggests she write a book, Laura says she will be an old maid schoolteacher like Miss Wilder (pg 136).  Which is so funny, because men keep showing up at her family's home to take her for rides (pg 170). 

Unlike Laura and Almanzo's TV courtship, readers see the seasons and regular activities for courting couples in the book. Winter means they go out on sleigh rides, which become buggy rides in the spring. They have singing school, which Almanzo invites Laura to attend with him (pg 199). 

We see a bit of Almanzo's temper when Laura's Uncle Tom comes to visit. Manly doesn't realize it is her uncle, so he gets teased by Laura's friends because he is jealous (pg 112). Seems book Almanzo and TV Almanzo have that in common. 

Just like TV Laura, book Laura is not afraid to assert herself when needed. A few times, Almanzo shows up to take Laura for a buggy ride with Nellie Oleson. One day, she tells him not come if Nellie will be with him (pg 177). So, next time, he shows up alone. Once they get engaged (pg 214), see plainly tells Almanzo that she will not say the word "obey" in their vows because she can't make a promise she won't keep (pg 268). 

Book readers also get to see Laura's mischievous side. While riding with Almanzo in his buggy, he puts his arm around her shoulders. Laura shakes the buggy whip, causing the colts to jump, so Almanzo must use both arms to bring the colts under control (pg 166). Reminds one of the cinnamon chicken incident in "Back to School" or how Laura "accidentally" forgot to sew Christie Norton's skirt to the bodice of her dress in "Annabelle." 

I previously spoke about Ma's reaction to Almanzo in Little Town on the Prairie, because we see Caroline as supportive of Laura's desire to make Almanzo see her as a woman in the show. In These Happy Golden Years, she isn't thrilled about Laura riding with Almanzo while he is breaking in a new team. She actually tells Laura that she thinks he is trying to break her neck, and that she hopes he breaks his own first (pg 186). Ouch! After Laura receives an engagement ring from Almanzo, Ma asks her if she is sure she doesn't care more for his horses. Having not read this book for decades, this suspicious, stern Caroline is foreign to me, especially in light of how loving Grassle's Ma is. 

The winter before Almanzo and Laura get married, he and his brother Royal decide to visit their parents in Spring Valley. They plan to be gone until spring, but on Christmas Eve, Almanzo returns to surprise Laura (pg 229). This is one of those scenes I wish Little House on the Prairie had reimagined, despite it not being practical. Side note: In "Wilder and Wilder," Perley Day said he visited the folks in New York, but they had moved to Spring Valley in the 1870s. 

After Almanzo's return, book Laura and her family get busy preparing for the wedding day. Mary comes home from college, and Pa gets Ma a new sewing  machine so she can make Laura's new things (pgs 241, 246 & 265). This is another everyday life detail I wanted to catch a glimpse of in the show. Instead, we had Almanzo losing his crop on the land he bought when the man who sold it to him cut off his water supply ("Laura Ingalls Wilder"), and a major disagreement between Laura and Almanzo as she takes a job in Radner to help earn money so she and Almanzo can get back on their feet. This will cause the first rift between Eliza Jane and Almanzo since we have met them. She tells him he is wrong and he is being stubborn. 

Laura and Almanzo call off their engagement. She plans to take the job in Radner and stay there so she can forget about Manly, and it looks like he plans to go on living with his sister for all eternity. That is, until Eliza Jane tells him she is moving to St. Louis to marry Harve Miller, which means Laura and Almanzo can have the house in Walnut Grove, and Laura can teach in town. Thrilled, Almanzo grabs Laura's engagement ring, races after the stage, and proposes to Laura. 

Then, in an odd bit of writing, Laura and Almanzo agree to drive to Sleepy Eye to tell Ma and Pa, who are at the blind school celebrating Mary and Adam's anniversary, picking up Eliza Jane before they drive the 40 miles to Sleepy Eye. Keeping in mind that a wagon could travel about 5 - 8 miles per hour, and that Laura was over an hour away from Walnut Grove when Almanzo stopped the stage, I don't think they would make it. But in the end, Laura Elizabeth Ingalls becomes Laura Ingalls Wilder. 

The television courtship seems to take place over a year and a half. Charles told Almanzo in "He Loves Me, He Loves Me Not," that they had to wait one year to get married, which would make Laura 17. Now, we won't know how much time passed between "Sweet Sixteen" and "He Loves Me, He Loves Me Not," but we know six months has passed since Charles gave his permission for them to get married in a year--based on Laura telling Ma she would be Laura Ingalls Wilder in six months ("Laura Ingalls Wilder"). Laura had applied for a teaching job in Radner while Almanzo was plowing the field to plant his first crop in "Laura Ingalls Wilder," so that must be spring time. Later in the episode, Laura also talks about the mid-year break coming up and going to teach in Radner in a few weeks, so at least a few months have passed. 

On page 270, Laura mentions that she and Almanzo had been together for three years by the time they rushed their wedding to avoid Eliza Jane's arrival in De Smet to plan a big wedding with Almanzo's mother. Laura feels anxious as she realizes she will be leaving home for good (pg 276), just like TV Laura realizes at the beginning of "Laura Ingalls Wilder" that not only in six months would she be married, but she wouldn't be teaching anymore, which as fans know was not the case until later in the series. 

As we compare the books and the Little House on the Prairie television show, we see how much Michael Landon and his team honored the source material the show is based on up until this point. I feel like once we get into The First Four Years, it will be more challenging to find similarities. 

Survey Results: These Happy Golden Years Favorite Little House Book

In 2013 we had a poll up that asked what your favorite Little House book is. Our readers selected These Happy Golden Years by a wide margin. Here are the top three choices:

• These Happy Golden Years 52%
• The Long Winter (my personal favorite) 25%
• On the Banks of Plum Creek and Little Town on the Prairie 22%

Thanks for taking part in this poll. The survey's full results appear in the sidebar.

Have We Turned into Weather Wimps?

A recent article by Eleanor Barkhorn featured in The Atlantic says that a passage about Laura Ingalls trudging her way to school the morning after a snowstorm proves we've all gone soft where the weather is concerned.

Citing the cold morning journey from These Happy Golden Years for Laura and her students that includes breaking their own path to school and then entering a schoolhouse that was even colder than the outside, Barkhorn states that getting to school was very difficult without the technologies we have now, but that there was no question if school would be open. It was open. According to the author, that makes us a bunch of wimps. Do you agree?

You can read the article in its entirety at http://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2014/01/school-wasnt-canceled-for-bad-weather-in-1882/282913/

Happy Anniversary Bess and Manly!

 

 

These Happy Golden Years by Laura Ingalls Wilder tells the story of Laura and Almanzo's courtship and their wedding that took place a few days early to avoid the church wedding his sister and mother wanted to plan.

 

Almanzo and Laura--Manly and Bess--spent 64 years together--until Almanzo passed away in October of 1949. The First Four Years was a book Laura wrote about the early years of their marriage. It was not published in her lifetime. Roger Lea MacBride, Rose Wilder Lane's heir, discovered the manuscript with Rose's belongings after her death in 1968. A decision was made to publish the manuscript without any editing, so the tone of the book is a bit darker than that of the other Little House books--though it does end on an optimistic note.

 

Those first four years of marriage were difficult ones. Laura did not want to be a farmer's wife, but she consented to try it for three years. Those were years of joys and years of sorrows. A hailstorm destroys their crop and their debts begin to mount. Their daughter Rose is born and that year they are able to make enough to pay off some of their debts. A hot wind destroys their crops the next two years. They contract diphtheria and Almanzo suffers a stroke. Laura gives birth to a son, who dies a few weeks later. Their home is destroyed by a fire and they are forced to work for room and board at a neighbor's place. But Laura is sure their luck will change.

 

Eventually Bess and Manly left De Smet, SD and traveled to Missouri, where they built a place they called home for the rest of their lives. Rocky Ridge Farm was where Laura penned her famous children's books.

 

 

The pioneering era ended long ago, but the pioneer girl who traveled across the prairie by covered wagon is still remembered. Her books teach us about the history of this country and the many things that make it wonderful. The Little House books display the importance of family, faith, love, perseverance, optimism, and respect. When I had the chance to speak to Dean Butler, who portrayed Almanzo Wilder on Little House on the Prairie, he mentioned how the stories are evergreen. These timeless stories resemble the values that remain just as important today as they were when Laura lived through them and wrote about them.

 

Happy anniversary Laura and Almanzo. Through your lives, we have learned--and hope to learn--so much.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Book Review: Laura Ingalls Wilder (DK Biography) by Tanya Lee Stone

Next month, my daughter has to read a biography for school and write a report. She was unsure whose life she wanted to learn more about, so I stopped by the library and picked up three books for her to consider. Though she didn't choose Laura Ingalls Wilder, I sat down to read the book last night while I soaked in the tub.


The DK Biogaphy of Laura Ingalls Wilder by Tanya Lee Stone is very similar to most books written about Wilder's life. The author provides a short introduction that discusses who Wilder was. Then Chapter One opens in the Big Woods of Wisconsin, where Laura Elizabeth Ingalls was born in February 1867. The book provides a very brief discussion about the Ingalls and Quiner clans before Charles and Caroline married, but the majority of the book is about Laura's life (no surprise there).

Stone discusses Pa's wanderlust and the Ingalls family's many journeys by covered wagon, until they finally settled in Dakota Territory in an area that would become known as De Smet, SD.

Chapter Seven introduces Almanzo Wilder, Laura's future husband. The author moves through Laura's years married to Almanzo, discussing the hard times that fell upon them and their decision to leave South Dakota and travel to Missouri.

Stone talks about Rose Wilder and her relationship with her mother more than in some other biographies I have read, which is nice. The rest of the book discusses Laura's writing while helping Almanzo on Rocky Ridge Farm, the beautiful house they built together, her classic Little House books, and the award that now bears Laura's name. The book even touches upon Michael Landon's classic TV show, Little House on the Prairie.

Stone provides a detailed account of Wilder's life. Adult fans won't learn anything new, but it was interesting to see the number of archival photographs. There are familiar ones of the Ingalls and Wilder families, but also pictures of the towns when they lived there and of other people, places and things from the pioneering era. I also like how there were fact boxes included on some of the pages with additional information about The Homestead Act of 1862, the railroad, pioneer teachers and more.

One tiny nitpick from page 115 states The Happy Golden Years, which was published in 1943, was about the early years of Laura and Almanzo's marriage. This book is about their courtship and ends with Laura inspecting her new home after their quick wedding. The First Four Years is about Bessie and Manly's marriage. The author mentions this book on page 119 and correctly states it is about the early years of their marriage. A young reader might be confused by this, especially if they haven't read the Little House books yet.

I was surprised I didn't have this book as part of my Laura Ingalls Wilder collection. I'll have to correct that error soon.

Reading level: Ages 8 and up
Paperback: 128 pages
Publisher: DK Publishing (March 2, 2009)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0756645085
ISBN-13: 978-0756645083
SRP: $5.99

I borrowed this book from the local library. I received no monetary compensation for this review.

Happy Birthday Almanzo!

I don't know how any of you ladies feel, but I think this is a handsome photo of young Almanzo James Wilder. This "Farmer Boy" from New York moved with his family to Spring Valley, Minnesota in 1875 due to crop failures. Almanzo would join his older siblings, Royal and Eliza Jane, on a trip into Dakota Territory, where the brothers and their sister took up claims near what would become De Smet, SD.

He would meet his future wife, Laura Elizabeth Ingalls, in De Smet. They would survive the Hard Winter, during which Almanzo and Cap Garland saved the town from starvation by going off to find seed wheat to feed the town until the trains could get through in the spring.

Though Laura actually had her eye on Cap Garland as a potential suitor, Almanzo's Morgan horses captured her attention. Eventually Almanzo and Laura began courting. He would drive her back and forth to her first teaching job.

They were wed on August 25, 1885. Life wasn't always easy for the Wilders. They suffered tremendous loss. They would eventually leave De Smet, traveling to Mansfield, Missouri, where they would spend most of their adult years.

Laura captured Almanzo's love of farming in Farmer Boy. She portrayed his heroic nature in The Long Winter. In Little Town on the Prairie and These Happy Golden Years, readers watched their romance blossom, and in The First Four Years, readers witnessed the harsh realities of the times in which the Wilders lived.

On Almanzo's birthday, we pay tribute to America's favorite "Farmer Boy." We are so glad we got a chance to know him through Laura's eyes. We are also glad to have talented actors who have brought Almanzo to life for us in their own unique ways.

Happy 126th Anniversary Laura and Almanzo!

I'm going to do my best to keep this site updated. I might be returning to the workforce, but I'll give it my best shot.

Laura Elizabeth Ingalls and Almanzo James Wilder were married on August 25, 1885. Chapter 32 of These Happy Golden Years tells the story of the preparations that were being made in anticipation of Laura and Almanzo's upcoming wedding. Ma and Laura were sewing while Almanzo was building their house.

They were going to be married on Thursday, so Pa drove into town on Tuesday and came back with a new trunk for Laura. Ma and Laura placed her things in the trunk that afternoon. After Almanzo drove away with the packed trunk on Wednesday, Laura realized she would be leaving home for good tomorrow. The family had a fun night for the last evening that Laura would be with them.

The next day, Almanzo and Laura stood before Reverend Brown and were married, beginning many years together: years of joy and sorrow, tragedy and triumph.

We remember this special couple on the 126th anniversary of their wedding. Laura and her legacy have brought me many wonderful friends, for which I feel blessed. I hope Bess and Manly are dancing together in heaven.

Laura and Almanzo's Romance - The Books Versus The Series

This topic has been on my mind for quite a while, so I figured I would open this up for some discussion to get more thoughts on it.

The developing romance and subsequent marriage between Laura and Almanzo was portrayed very differently on the Little House on the Prairie (LHOP) television series than from what Laura Ingalls Wilder wrote in her books.

While Almanzo was the gentle pursuer in the books, it was a young Laura who was pining away for Almanzo on Little House. Now, we realize that Michael Landon had to think of his viewers when he developed Laura and Almanzo's romance for TV. The show's audience had been watching Melissa Gilbert grow up for five seasons; so it would be difficult for them to see a much older man going after Laura in the show. It would almost seem creepy. Take into account the real-life age difference between Melissa Gilbert and Dean Butler, who portrayed Almanzo in the show, and once again, Landon had to be very careful with how he presented their budding romance.


In the books, we are also treated to more coverage of their courtship than we are in the show. Most of Season 6 we watch Laura trying to get Almanzo to notice her. That changes starting with the episode Wilder and Wilder. In one episode (Sweet Sixteen) Almanzo finally notices how much Laura has matured; in the next one he proposes (He Loves Me, He Loves Me Not); and in the next episode they are married (Laura Ingalls Wilder).

Fans of the books, however, are introduced to Almanzo Wilder in The Long Winter, when he and Cap Garland travel many miles to buy seed wheat to save the town of De Smet from starvation. We see the beginning of Almanzo and Laura's romance in Little Town on the Prairie, and their courtship continues and they get married in These Happy Golden Years. Laura's impressions of Almanzo are very different in the beginning in the books, versus her being so taken with him in the show. If I remember correctly, Laura actually had her eye on Cap Garland.

While I am one of those fans who sees the show and the books as totally different entites, and appreciates how they both celebrate Laura's legacy, I always wished the show dedicated more time to Laura and Almanzo's courtship. Laura's pining away for Almanzo and how she occasionally embarassed herself because of it didn't always sit well with me, but I believe I understand what Landon was trying to accomplish.

How about you? Which version of Laura and Almanzo's romance do you prefer? What changes would you have made to the television version if you had the power? Or are both versions perfect the way they are?

August Book of the Month

I'm posting this early because we'll be off to the Outer Banks of North Carolina this evening and we won't be back until mid-August.

When we asked our readers, which book of the Little House series was their favorite, The Happy Golden Years won by a landslide.

Not quite sixteen, Laura takes her first teaching job at the Brewster School twelve miles away from town. She had never been away from home before, and from the opening illustration to the opening paragraphs of the first chapter, we can see and read the apprehension Laura experienced.

"...Pa did not not say anything.

Sitting beside him on the board laid across the bobsled, Laura did not say anything, either. There was nothing to say. She was on her way to teach school.

Only yesterday she was a schoolgirl; now she was a schoolteacher. This had happened so suddenly."



Those who have read this book remember how homesick Laura was while she lived with Mr. and Mrs. Brewster and taught school. Most of her students were taller than she. And who could forget Laura's excitement at going home when Almanzo arrived to pick her up in his sleigh, or her dismay when she thought Almanzo would no longer come for her once she told him she would not be going riding with him after she returned home for good. But Almanzo continues driving her back and forth to the Brewster settlement, encouraging her because he knows how much she dreads going there.

Mary comes home from college in The Happy Golden Years, and we get to see and read what a young lady she has become and how many things she has accomplished while she was away.

Winter turns to spring and spring to summer. Almanzo and Laura go riding in his buggy and they attend singing school. But perhaps the best part of this book is Almanzo's surprise return on Christmas Eve. By this time, Almanzo and Laura are engaged to be married, and Almanzo, along with his brother Royal, had planned to spend the winter with his folks.

Late on Christmas Eve the snow had begun to fall again and when there was a knock at the door. Laura was struck speechless when she saw Almanzo on the other side. Almanzo comes bearing gifts and admits he didn't want to stay away so long.

Almanzo and Laura marry and settle into their "little gray home". The book ends with two verses from a song that Pa's fiddle often played:

"Golden years, are passing by,
These happy, golden years."

It's nice to watch Almanzo and Laura's relationship develop in this book. We see a bit of the hero in Almanzo from The Long Winter, and there is nothing better than a romantic and unexpected return.

December Featured Books of the Month

We're getting ready for Christmas here. The trees are all up and only one is waiting for decorations. The porch and the front of the house are strung with lights and the stockings are hung by the fireplace, so St. Nick can come anytime.

We're going to feature two books in December because I can't think of one without the other.

A Little House Christmas complies some of the Christmas stories from Laura's Little House books into a lovely, large hardcover that collectors will certainly enjoy.



From Christmas in the Big Woods of Wisconsin to the day Mr. Edwards delivered presents so that Santa didn't have to cross the creek, to the chapters of Christmas on Plum Creek where Laura received red mittens, the white china box, and the fur cape and muff off the tree at church, each story is just as special as when you first read it in the Little House books.

The illustrations by Garth Williams have been colorized to make this book an extra special treat for Little House fans, and also includes the words and music to Merry, Merry Christmas! by Mrs. T.J. Cook.

The jpeg of the cover art can't possibly do it justice, as Williams's illustration of Laura receiving her rag doll, Charlotte is encircled by a wreath of holly.

While A Little House Christmas shares the Christmas stories of Laura's early days, A Little House Christmas, Volume II travels east to Malone, New York to share the story of Christmas at the Wilder farm when Almanzo was a boy and the aunts and uncles and cousins were coming to dinner.



Then the book travels to the shores of Silver Lake, where Laura and her family are living in the surveryors' house, and on to Christmas in De Smet, SD, where the blizzards seem like they will never end and the trains won't run again until spring. And finally, we get to read the story of Almanzo's surprise return visit on Christmas Eve in These Happy Golden Years.

Again, collectors will find this large hardcover a welcome addition to their Little House library. The green cover is even more striking than the red from the first one and the holly wreath encircles a picture of Ma fastening the little blue coat with the swan's-down collar on Grace and tying the swan's-down hood over her golden hair.

Little House fans will enjoy these books year after year, and remember why Laura Ingalls Wilder's books continue to gain new fans so many years after they were first published.

A Conversation with Dean Butler--Part 3

Almanzo Wilder: Life Before Laura is a documentary about Almanzo’s childhood before he met and married Laura Ingalls. What made you decide to focus on this period of Almanzo’s life?

Well, I had been invited in September 2006 by the Wilder Homestead to be their special guest for Almanzo’s 150th birthday celebration the following year. During that year I had been making all this bonus content for the series and I started wondering what I could do for the Wilder Homestead that would really be meaningful and helpful to them in their mission to share Almanzo’s life experience with visitors. I decided to create a documentary for them about Almanzo and his life on the farm.

You and your crew traveled to New York several times for filming. Can you give us a preview of what viewers will get when they purchase this story of Almanzo’s early life?

The challenge is we had very few days to shoot. You can never shoot enough in four days to really tell the full story, especially when we didn’t have four uninterrupted days. We had four days with crowds there and autograph sessions and then there were breakfasts and dinners; all the things you do when you make an appearance. So, we shot two days last September and another two days this last June. In an effort to try and get as much of the farm experience as we possibly could out of those four days, we’ve come up with two separate pieces.

The core of Almanzo Wilder: Life Before Laura is Almanzo’s connection to the farm where he as raised as presented in Farmer Boy. That’s what our story is about. The fact of the matter is there isn’t a great deal written about Almanzo as a child beyond Farmer Boy so the book was obvious source material.

Again, shooting in four days you couldn’t do the book. You can’t get the seasons; you could never shoot enough to do that. Focusing on the book and through the life at the homestead—the house, the barn, the land—we selectively chose a number of events from the book and recreated those events using excerpts of text from the book and the Garth Williams illustrations to support the material we shot. In addition, we did a little bit about Almanzo’s family and where they came from; we talk contextually about what was going on in the world that Almanzo grew up in; the things he had, and maybe what’s more to the point for the audience who is going to see this, what didn’t he have that we have. In terms of technology and equipment Almanzo’s family had very little compared to what we all have, and yet, they survived, they flourished. As Laura wrote it, Almanzo had a fantastic, rich, abundant life as a child in Burke, NY; nothing compared to the struggles that she had to endure growing up. She wrote her life in this semi-optimistic way, but reading between the lines, this was not an easy time. Almanzo didn’t have an easy time either, but he lived in one place. He wasn’t moving around in Farmer Boy. This was a boy’s life on his farm as he’s growing up trying to convince his father that he is mature enough to raise and train his father’s beautiful Morgan horses. That’s really the central thrust of what carries us through this book. It’s about Almanzo wanting to be a man. I’ve thought about it, Farmer Boy is not a coming-of-age story; it’s a getting ready to come of age story. At the end of Farmer Boy when his father gives him Starlight, he is beginning to come of age. That’s the jumping off point. His life adventure really begins. Farmer Boy is all about what he had to go through to get to the point where his life is ready to begin as an adult. It established who he was as a person and it established the values he was raised with. We tried to capture that.

We’ve animated pictures from the book, we’ve re-imagined historic photos and we’ve composed a very lovely musical score for the program. One of the challenges that you have with something like this is that so few pictures of the Wilder and Ingalls families exist. There are literally two pictures I’ve seen of Almanzo as a boy. One of him standing with his sister Alice in a formal portrait and a separate one when he’s a little older—well past the age we’re talking about in this program—when he’s with his entire family. So, we had to find ways to use these pictures to help us tell the story, by essentially recreating the picture contextually in different environments. We’ve done the same thing with Laura, where we’ve taken her out of the picture of her as a little girl—the one where she’s with Mary and Carrie—and put her alone on the prairie. It’s a wonderful way to make a point about her life.

In addition to talking about Almanzo, I thought it was also important to set up how they (Laura and Almanzo) met. We hear about Laura and Almanzo’s meeting, we learn about them coming to De Smet, we go through their romance, get them married, and 47 years later she writes Farmer Boy.

We’re covering a large range of material: from Farmer Boy to These Happy Golden Years and Little Town on the Prairie. I handled their first meeting differently than Laura wrote it, so it will be interesting to see how fans react to that. It needed to be something I could shoot very simply and quickly. I alluded to it in the trailer when we say that Laura first saw Almanzo behind a team of Morgan horses. I think it’s nice and it’s a good way to step in since we had these beautiful Morgan horses.

We invited three people to participate in the documentary as experts. William Anderson is our on-camera expert. There is no doubt about it, when Bill speaks about Almanzo Wilder and Laura Ingalls, homesteading and life in that time, Bill tells a great story. So I think people are really going to enjoy his insights. We also had Barbara Walker, who wrote the Little House Cookbook. We have her on-camera talking about food and the role that food played in the writing of Farmer Boy. Then we have a woman named Karen Lassell, who is the equine manager at the Miner Institute in Chazy, NY. She’s there to talk about the Morgan horse, the training of the Morgans, and the Morgan breed. With Bill, Barbara, and Karen we have three people who can communicate about some of the important parts of Almanzo’s life.

I’m putting together a trailer now that I’m going to be putting up on YouTube and I’m going to make a trailer for the Wilder Homestead to run in their store. People are going to see that we got some really good stuff. [Author’s note: You can view this trailer at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zq0HbQ7Kd0g]

Can you tell us a bit about the talented actors who helped with the reenactments?

A very lovely young woman named Kylee Disotelle played Laura Ingalls for us. She could’ve come right off our set – very sweet and eager to play. We had three boys who played Almanzo doing different things on the farm. I took the position that Almanzo is a state of mind. Almanzo is not just one boy, but that he is a representation of boyhood. There’s a little Almanzo in every boy. All three of our boys were terrific.

Jarod Ball, who is on-camera most of the time, particularly with the horses, is going to remind people of a young Brad Pitt. I was sort of amazed as I watched Jarod on screen He has a very nice, honest quality—which is what you want.

A great horseman named Don Sayward played James, Almanzo’s father. He had a beautiful team of Morgans that he drove for us and he worked very well with Jarod. The setting was just gorgeous and we got beautiful pictures of the horses.

Are these local actors?

Yes, absolutely, they are all from right there. The key to casting Jarod was that he was comfortable with horses. He was referred to me by Karen Lassell at the Miner Institute. It was very important to the handlers of the Morgans that our Almanzo be at ease around large animals because they can sense nervousness and discomfort. I feel so lucky that Jarod was one of our boys. In a few shots he actually looks like Almanzo as we see him in the picture with Alice. A great deal of our show features Jarod and Don Sayward as Almanzo and James, but everyone who worked on-camera with us was great.

Can you tell us a bit more about the musical score for the documentary?

I hired a composer friend of mine, Jay Asher, who has a wonderful feel for this material. He’s a romantic spirit. The cues are touching and very much in keeping with the feeling that Little House evokes. His music adds greatly to the impact of the program. I’m happy with what Jay did and I hope audiences enjoy it too.

Will this documentary be eligible for any awards?

Our show is a direct to DVD documentary. There are award programs to which it could be submitted. I have not made any decisions about whether I will enter the program in any awards competitions yet. I’m more concerned about getting it out there.

What is the release date for the DVD and where can interested viewers purchase a copy of Almanzo Wilder: Life before Laura?

The program will available for sale at the Wilder Homestead in Burke, NY for $21.95 on September 25, 2008. This DVD can only be purchased at the Wilder Homestead. [Author’s note: The Wilder Homestead has received these DVDs and is working on filling the pre-orders. Be on the lookout for more information coming soon.]

Do you ever see your website being set up to handle Internet sales?

We’re looking at an online component and they’re (Wilder Homestead) doing an online component too. People will be able to buy it online there, if they choose to do that. The Wilder Homestead and I are talking about other online sales opportunities too. I’ll keep you posted.

Does your wife (Katherine Cannon) do a lot of the narration on this documentary?

Katherine did all the reading of the Farmer Boy excerpts and she was great. She’s a wonderful actress and she really brought great warmth to these excerpts and they worked beautifully. She’s been very supportive of this process.

The continued popularity of the show and Laura’s books generates new interest in the historical sites where Laura and her family lived. Should fans expect to see more from Peak Moore Enterprises and Legacy Documentaries about Laura and the members of her family?

I think that the next one will be about Laura. That’s all I want to say about that right now.

What about Laura’s daughter Rose?

I think Rose is the great wild card element in all of this. Rose’s skill and capabilities as a writer made it possible to craft these stories that allowed them to be taken seriously when they hit a publisher’s desk. It’s one thing to have the story; it’s another to be able to tell it in a way that is going to be compelling, touching, personal and engaging to an audience. Bill Anderson talks a little bit about what an important role Rose played working with her mother. I think Laura was lucky to have her daughter Rose on hand to offer moral support while she was writing.

We’ve talked about a lot this evening. Is there anything you would like to add?

I’m just gratified by the ongoing love affair people have with Little House: the Laura Ingalls Wilder books, our series, the historical sites, and the new musical. I’m very grateful and so honored to be a part of it because it speaks to so much that is good about people. To be connected to that in a real way is very rewarding. I thank everybody who loves this material and I am so honored to have the opportunity to share my passion for the Laura Ingalls Wilder experience with people all over the world.

Thank you for spending time with us today, Dean. Little House and Laura fans applaud your commitment to keeping Laura’s legacy alive.

We would also like to remind our readers that Almanzo Wilder: Life Before Laura would make an excellent holiday gift for the Laura Ingalls Wilder fan in your life. Go to http://www.almanzowilderfarm.com/index.htm to place your order today!

Go Back to Part 2

A Conversation with Dean Butler--Part 1

Joining us today is Executive Producer, Dean Butler. Dean founded Peak Moore Enterprises in 1981 and years later created Legacy Documentaries, which produces customized content and image programming focused on “capturing life’s defining moments”. We’re going to be talking to him about one of his latest projects, the documentary Almanzo Wilder: Life Before Laura.

Welcome to Laura’s Little Houses, Dean. It’s a great pleasure to speak with you.

Thank you, Cheryl. I appreciate everything you have done in regards to Little House; the fan network is just terrific and the blog is very attractively done, very comprehensive, and thoughtful. You’re all just very strong supporters of what we’ve been doing and I appreciate it very much.

When did your connection with Laura and Almanzo Wilder begin?

It began with my first audition for the show. I had no prior knowledge of Little House. I had never seen it prior to auditioning for it. I certainly had been aware that the show was on the air, but being a guy in college when it was on Monday nights at eight I was watching Monday Night Football. It was one of those things in the early years when it was on that it wasn’t a connection for me. If I had watched it during those early years I have no doubt that it would have touched me but I probably wouldn’t have been willing to say it. I wouldn’t have been comfortable sobbing over a show about little girl and her family in the 1800’s. After I was hired to do the show and I started watching during the summer prior to shooting it, I felt incredibly grateful to have been asked to be a part of this and I have always remained so.

Little House is one of those things that was old when it was new, so it’s never been a fad; it’s always been a little old fashioned, will always be old fashioned and that’s the wonderful charm of it. I like things that are timeless and Little House will always be timeless.

New shows seems to come and go, but here we are many years after Little House has gone off the air and you can watch it 3 or 4 times a day in some places and new fans are drawn to it all the time. It’s simply amazing.

On my first trip to Walnut Grove I was amazed at how many books I signed for little girls that were in fact the books that the mother’s mother had given them. So here I am signing a book that was a grandmother’s book for her granddaughter passed down generation to generation. That speaks volumes about the way this material communicates with people. Laura Ingalls Wilder wrote nine of the most successful pieces of children’s literature in publishing history until Harry Potter.

The wonderful thing about the show, because it’s timeless, it has the ability to draw new fans to it year after year after year. There’s a new fan born every minute. If parents are willing to expose their children to it, they will become fans. I hope they expose their children to the television show; I hope they expose their children to the books—which are absolutely charming—and I hope that they take their children to experience the historic sites because I think that brings the Little House experience together. They can see what the whole legacy of Laura Ingalls Wilder represents. The people who travel to these places have to really want to because none of these sites are easy to get to. And the people who preserve these places are there because they love what they’re doing. At any of the sites you go to it’s a lovefest between the people who run the sites and those who visit. It’s always a terrific experience.

Had you read Laura’s books before taking on the role of Almanzo on Little House on the Prairie?

I had not read the books before I was on the show. I was not encouraged to read the books. I could not tell you which book I picked up because I bought the whole set when I got hired for the show, but I read probably a little bit of the first book, Little House in the Big Woods, and what I read was just enough of the book to get the tone. And the tone of the book was everything. It’s not as much what it said, as how it said it. And that was important to me in terms of what would translate to our show—which was not strictly following the books, by necessity or choice; and I think it’s a little bit of both. I think most fans of the books and the show would agree that we captured the tone and feeling of the books. Even if the story wasn’t exactly what they read in the books they were in familiar territory when they watched the show because the emotional life was very similar.

What type of additional research did you perform to incorporate the real life of Almanzo into your TV character?

What I did was read some books about homesteading. Of course, we weren’t really dealing with homesteading the way homesteading occurred. Laura gave a very romanticized view of homesteading in her books because she was telling it from a little girl’s perspective and little girls have a sunny, open view of the world; at least Laura had a sunny, open view of the world. The book that I read really focused on how incredibly difficult life was for people…how hard it was to survive and how every day was a struggle. As I read and processed that material and then looked at what we were doing on a weekly basis, it wasn’t really the vibe that Michael was trying to create. Michael went for a little girl’s story; that’s what he was focused on. He was looking at the romance of what was in the books and allowing that romance to set the tone for what he was doing…everything from the set, the costumes, the music, and the locations. While not accurate (the locations) to Walnut Grove—they rarely resembled anything that Walnut Grove looks like—he captured the ideal romance of those places and what the imagination might tell you it could be like. That’s what he was able to capture.

I was trying to factor in how brutal and rugged and how desperate these people were to survive. Michael didn’t want people with dirty faces and dirty feet. He wanted food on the table. He wanted people to see a happy, positive life experience in this very rustic, simple environment. And that’s what he focused on. I think that’s what made the show so charming to people. That combined with the emotional life that he brought to it—Michael was a very emotional guy and he had a lot of emotional stories in him. This was the conduit for that place in his life where he could go to that and write about that and then he could fashion those stories to make them appropriate for our show. The emotional stories he wrote were far from the life that he lived as a child. He had a deep well of stories to tell. Between Michael’s stories and David Rose’s music it was sure to be a tear-jerker every week. I think it was David Rose who made audiences cry most of the time. David Rose wrote these beautiful melodies—these gorgeous, romantic, lyrical melodies that absolutely carried people away week after week after week. It was this wonderful cathartic experience. We had sadness but it was not desperate sadness, it was heartfelt sadness. I have a feeling that most of the actual homesteading experience was closer to what Laura experienced at the Brewster School in These Happy Golden Years. I think there were people who were just desperately unhappy being out there. They were just so desperate to get their piece of the American Dream that they were willing to endure everything.

That just wasn’t the show Michael wanted to make every week. We were doing something else. We touched on those themes but that was not the regular diet that we were going to be on. Michael wanted romance, he wanted touching, he wanted heartfelt, he wanted tears, he wanted laughter, and he placed these characters in that kind of an emotional world. The audience loved it then and they still love it today. That’s what I am always incredibly proud to have been a part of.

There are very few episodes of Little House that I can get through without crying. You wanted to be the Ingalls family despite their hardships, despite their struggles. You wanted Pa as your father and you wanted Ma as your mother. You wanted that experience.

You know, it’s interesting because Laura wrote so lovingly and adoringly about her father, but I don’t think that the real Charles Ingalls was the man that Michael Landon portrayed. At least that’s the sort of a sense that you get. Charles Ingalls was forever itchy to move to the next place always thinking there was something better around the corner and never quite content or able to make a go of it where he was. It made it very tough on his family. Yet, you don’t get that from the way Laura wrote it. She wrote it in this adoring way where you never get the feeling that she was anything but utterly, totally, completely supportive of everything her parents did and that she was loved and nurtured. Now, I have no doubt that she was loved and nurtured, but she was loved and nurtured in a very, very tough environment; much tougher than the way she wrote it and certainly much tougher than the way we portrayed it.

When you look at the sunup and sundown and beyond effort that was made by everybody in these families to get the things done; they just used every available minute of time. Yet, I think there is great comfort in that and I think what people respond to so beautifully in the books and from the series is that there is this sense that the families were bonded together. There is a romantic view of the family, that if we’re together, and if we stick together and work hard, we will survive and we will do well. We love each other so we are going to stand up for each other and help each other. That’s an inspiring and wonderful view to have.

We don’t have the life and death daily struggles today, but we are dealing with things that are every bit as challenging. Our comforts have created enormous challenges for us as a society and its led to alienation and isolation in our lives because we can do so much alone that it’s not about the family anymore. Because we are so focused on ourselves, and we can be so focused on ourselves because we can have time for it, it can lead to unhappiness and dissatisfaction because we don’t really have to focus on something that’s bigger than ourselves. It’s a tough circumstance for families and a tough thing for kids to grow up with. Those who are exposed to the Little House series and the books find themselves longing for that kind of life—where you need each other and care about each other and you depend upon each other to survive and to flourish. We’re very lucky if we have that emotional connection to each other today.

If you could go back in time and live when Almanzo did, would you do it?

I don’t know that I would. It’s kind of like asking someone to take someone else’s life, but I think most people would say, “No, I just want to live my life.” My life is now. One of the things I can do with my life is celebrate something that is very meaningful to people and is personally rewarding to people. This is one way I can use the gifts that I have today to help support and nurture something that is very pleasurable, meaningful, positive, hopeful, and optimistic. That’s a great deal of what my life is about as a creative person now.

Continue to Part 2

And the survey says...

Thanks to all who participated in last month's survey, providing answers for which Little House book is their favorite. The winner by far was These Happy Golden Years. Given the fact that I'm a hopeless romantic, I was happy to see the book about Laura and Almanzo's courtship is such a hit--though I didn't vote for this one.

Farmer Boy, On the Banks of Plum Creek, and The Long Winter (my favorite) all tied for second.

Not surprisingly, the one book that did not receive any votes was The First Four Years. Published after Laura's and Rose's deaths, this book chronicles the first four years of Laura and Almanzo's marriage. This was a dark time in their lives as they battled illness, lost their home to a fire, and lost their infant son who died without even being given a name. And as such, the writing in this book is much darker and more somber than in the other books. The sense of optimism is noticeably absent for the majority of the story.

Thanks again for voting. Look for our new survey and a new featured book of the month coming soon!