Make Room for Tinkerbell

In 1911, J.M. Barrie created a book called Peter and Wendy that was based on a play he wrote in 1904. Tinkerbell, Peter's sidekick, was and is one of the appealing characters coming from the book and play. Not too long afterward's there was a sequel that was commissioned by Great Ormone St Hospital and it was named "Peter Pan In Scarlet". Then there arrived a book series called "Peter and the Starcatchers" authored by Ridley Pearson and Dave Barry. She was also in many film and TV adaptations of the fairy-tale and really rose to stardom in the 1953 animated movie “Peter Pan” by Walt Disney. Now Tinkerbell is one of Disney's official mascots.

When J.M. Barrie initially wrote his play, Tinkerbell was only a trivial creature and was described as a “ordinary fairy”, but when Disney’s animated movie came into existence she became a star and one of the more popular Disney characters. Since the first Peter Pan film was made, Tinkerbell has moved on to do 3 more motion pictures of her own. (Tinker Bell and the Great Fairy Rescue is expected to be out September 21, 2010)

In the original book by J.M. Barrie, Tinkerbell's name came about because her job was to mend cauldrons and pots. That all changed as she learned how to employ her fairy dust to her advantage. Tinkerbell is suitably spelled as one word or Tinker Bell as two. But, in the motion picture, Captain Hook is heard to refer to her as Miss Bell. That gives the idea that she has a first and last name.

A fun fact is that the first playbill showed Jane Wren as playing the character Tinkerbell. Now, in all reality, on stage Tinkerbell was portrayed by little more than a beam of light. The gag went over so well that it fooled the HM Inspector of Taxes who proceeded to send Miss Wren a tax demand. Once it was known that this occurred it did nothing more than to enhance the appeal of the Tinkerbell character.

Tinkerbell was always played as a vindictive, sassy, talented character during those times but in point of fact she was just ahead of her time. Looking at many of the other female characters played when the first movie was being produced, most female characters were not very emotional and by and large did not believe in doing as they pleased like Tinkerbell. When it came time to develop how she would be played for the movie there was a lot of concern and discussion. She just wasn't a good model for little girls at that time. It was then decided that the character would be kind of a half-girl, half-woman so she would be seen as a female character in transition who would be emotional and consequently more acceptable.

If you’ve been to Disneyland in California and lingered later into the day, Tinkerbell flies across the sky. When Disneyland determined to do this in 1961, they hired a very small lady called Tiny Kline. She was four feet ten in. tall and weighed only ninety-eight pounds. She was sixty one years old at the time and a past aerialist from the circus. When she got to the end, the only way to halt her was by running into a mattress. It is said that, reminiscent of Tinkerbell, Tiny had quite a temper too. In 1964 she retired due to poor health. She was 74.

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Our grand daughter is enchanted with everything about Tinkerbell. So much so that she has a collectionof Tinkerbell toys, the Tinkerbell movies and even a little Tinkerbell fancy dress. Maybe we've gone overboard but we've even set up a Tinkerbell bedroom for her. Check out what I've seen at: TinkerbellBedroom.com

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