Pippi Longstocking and Tor Johnson

[Mego73]

In my wee early days, one of things I really liked was Pippi Longstocking. Pippi was a children's book about a strange girl with red hair and pig tails that stood on end. She lived alone while her sailor father was out to sea and had lots of gold and is super strong. She always wears stockings of different colors. She had two animal friends at her hom (a horse and Monkey) and was visited a lot by 2 other kids in town. As a kid, I saw the movies made from the 1969 Swedish TV miniseries with Inger Nilsson when they came to theaters in my town in the early 70's.

Flash forward to now, I learned those Pippi movies were on DVD so I netflixed them. I also netflixed a couple other Pippi incarnations to see how they stack up to what I thought of as the iconic Pippi.

I got the 80's American version, it was okay but the Pippi there was a little too old and a little too cute and fresh faced (Pippi should be a little rough around the edges being a sailor's daughter and all). Then, there was a 1950's TV production on The Shirley Temple show, that was okay but the Pippi in that one really didn't have any spunk.

But guess what? Invariably, in each version Pippi ends up standing up to the traveling Circus strongman, showing she is stronger. In the TV production, the strongman is none other than Tor Johnson... in color.

[mike c]

...that was okay but the Pippi in that one really didn't have any spunk.

I believe the word you're looking for is 'shpoonk'.

I always loved the Inger Nilsson movies; KTLA 5 used to run them in L.A. all the time.

At any rate, I'm very intrigued by the footage of Tor in color. Where do I find it?


Mike C.

[Mego73]

I believe the word you're looking for is 'shpoonk'.

I always loved the Inger Nilsson movies; KTLA 5 used to run them in L.A. all the time.

At any rate, I'm very intrigued by the footage of Tor in color. Where do I find it?


Mike C.

It's available here and you can also netflix it individually (like I did)

http://www.amazon.com/Shirley-Temple-Storybook-Collection-6-pk/dp/B001BSBBTO/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=dvd&qid=1246079891&sr=8-2

[mike c]

Awesome, thanks for the link. Shirley Temple and Tor both had plenty of shpoonk. I will enjoy these-

Mike C.