Elsie Dinsmore in Popular Culture
The Elsie series is mentioned in Chapter 19 of Jo of the Chalet School, the second book of a school series by Elinor M. Brent Dyer. Josephine Bettany, the main character, an avid reader, lies injured in bed after a skating accident. When Jo complains that she has read everything she has, Dr. Jem offers her the Elsie books. Jo accepts them doubtfully, proclaiming that they were about an 'awfully good little girl' and there were 'dozens' of them, but is soon digging eagerly into Elsie's saga. (The books featured include Elsie Dinsmore, Elsie's Holidays at Roselands, Elsie's Girlhood, Elsie's Womanhood, Elsie's Motherhood, and Elsie's Children.) Ultimately, Josephine decides to carry on the series by writing about Elsie's children (Eddie, Harold, and Herbert).
The Elsie series is also mentioned in Emily Climbs, the second book of a series by Lucy Maud Montgomery, when Emily is told in a derisive comment by Mr. Carpenter to "go read the Elsie books." Elsie is also mentioned in Maud Hart Lovelace's book Betsy in Spite of Herself. When Betsy's friend Tib buys them Sunday-evening theater tickets, Betsy remembers how Elsie Dinsmore would have handled what she considered a somewhat shocking proposal, then dismisses it--" had never thought much of Elsie Dinsmore."
Further, Elsie Dinsmore is mentioned in The Sky is Falling by Kit Pearson; it's the one book Norah finds to read at her new home.
Approximately 80 minutes into the 1951 movie People Will Talk (in the "railroad" scene), Mrs. Praetorius breaks into tears and compares herself in her current emotional state to "a kind of idiot Elsie Dinsmore."
In the 1954 novel _The Bad Seed_ by William March, the homicidal 8-year-old Rhoda Penmark reads _Elsie Dinsmore "as though she hoped to find there an understanding of those puzzling values she saw in others--values which, though she tried her best to stimulate them, were so curiously absent in herself." Approximately 31 minutes into the 1956 movie The Bad Seed (in a scene taking place one day after the mysterious drowning of her classmate), Rhoda Penmark, played by Patty McCormack, proudly announces that she will be reading her new book, Elsie Dinsmore, which she has won at Sunday School.
Approximately 25 minutes into the classic play/film The Man Who Came to Dinner, Sheldon Whiteside, played by Monty Wooley, refers to his secretary Maggie as Elsie Dinsmore in the following line, said in a sarcastic tone: "Come back at eight-thirty and we'll play three handed with Elsie Dinsmore.'
In Thomas Pynchon's Against the Day, the following dialogue occurs:
"Pa's dead and gone and I haven't stopped hating him. What kind of unnatural daughter's that make me? A girl is supposed to love her father." "Sure, in those Elsie Dinsmore stories or someplace. We all grew up on that stuff, and it poisoned our souls." (479-480)
A derisive remark of criticism is: "Don't be such an Elsie Dinsmore!"
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