The Lost Little Women

I LOVE Little Women. (The classic story, not actual tiny little ladies).

I won't go into all the reasons why, but stories like this are the reason I am a librarian.

My favorite live version of this beloved book is the 1994 film, because I saw that movie in the theater when I was 12 years old, shortly after I finished reading the book. I have the Collector's Edition DVD, and the soundtrack, as well as the novelization of the movie (that I got from a Scholastic book order- so old school). To me, Christian Bale will always be Laurie, not Batman.

I have seen the1933 one and I enjoy it (how can anyone not love the late, great Kate?!)

I also appreciate the 1949 version and I have a VHS copy of it that's handy whenever I feel the need to see it.

I know there was a silent movie done in 1918, but the film is considered to be lost. Here is a lobby card for the film.

Too bad for me because I always enjoy comparing books to film, and films to other films based on the same story. 

Today while browsing at the local Salvation Army, I happened across one of those dollar store DVD's that are mass produced; the television shows and films have become property of the public forum because their copyrights ran out and nobody noticed or bothered to renew it. The DVD is titled: "Little Women: Jo's Story."

I had never heard of it before. After a little research, I discovered that in 1950 there was a television series based on the classic tale. There were six episodes, and they had names like "Jo's Story" and "Meg's Story". Here's my DVD:

The series was believed to be lost for many years, and many Internet sources still cite that it IS lost. The back of the DVD case gives 2006 as the reproduction date, so some lucky person in Hollywood must have found this gem within the last couple of years.

After doing a little more research, I saw that "Meg's Story" also appears to be available on one of these cheapo DVDs, although Amazon is charging $5 instead of the 99 cents I got mine for.

I's incredible, the amount of joy I experienced at finding yet another film version of one of my all-time favorite stories, the added joy that came when I decided the need to research it and the fulfillment I felt when I found the answers I was looking for.

I guess that's why I'm a librarian.