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Adopted by Santa Claus
A Jolly Christmas Play
[With Little Black Sambo asone of the characters]
Author: Frank Russell Page
Published: Boston, Walter Baker Company, Baker’sJuvenile Plays
1928 [First Edition]
An entertaining Christmas play in which the opening sceneis Santa’s workshop and 2 of his faithful assistants, the Wizard of the North andJacko, are complaining about how hard they had worked “from the first ofJanuary to the night before Christmas and sixteen hours a day”. At the strokeof midnight on Christmas 2 children, a boy and girl, arrive at the workshopdoor and want to see Santa and to see the toys come to life. The Wizard andJacko explain that the toys are with Santa who is thousands of miles away butthey have a box of children’s books. The Wizard selects a random book andplaces it behind a magic screen and to their amazement Little Black Samboappears. Little Black Sambo recites some lines from his story and soon Jackotells him won’t get eaten by the tiger and he can sit down. The Wizard then makesAlice in Wonderland appear. Next is Peter Rabbit, then Hiawatha, Teddy Bear,and toy Soldiers. A jolly time of play among them all continues till childrenhear sleigh bells, the door opens and Santa appears. Santa tells the childrenthey must return as their mother and father will be frightened out of theirwits and the characters must return to their books. After much protesting byall, Santa says why don’t I adopt them all. The boy and girl think that theirDaddy would rather he didn’t and their Mother needed them. They both wish all aMerry Christmas and the curtain falls! The audience applause and the children returnto the stage and look the curtains and say” Why, it must have been a dream!”and run down onto the audience and jump into their mother’s laps.
The pamphlet measures 5 x 7 ½ inches, stapled binding,illustrated printed wrappers, 14 pages + 4 pages of publisher’s ads, 1 inchclosed tear at right hand edge of cover page, bottom of spine lightly bumped otherwisein very good condition, odor free.
The list of Characters page list the names of 13 charactersto include Santa Claus, Little Black Sambo, Alice in Wonderland, Peter Rabbit,The Wizard, etc. Previous owner’s pencil notations of the first names of the peopleplaying the characters.
A rare copy of this wonderful Christmas play, it willbe a welcome addition to your collection.
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