Into the Archive: Bullwhip .. Bullwhip Griffin

 

Bullwhip Griffin, by Sid Fleischman (Avon, 1963; Original title By the Great Horn Spoon!; this printing 1971)

Novel that the 1967 Disney movie The Adventures of Bullwhip Griffin was based on. It starred Roddy McDowell as Eric ‘Bullwhip’ Griffin, Suzanne Pleshette, Karl Malden, and Hermione Baddeley (‘Mrs. Naugatuck’ on Maude). The songs were by Richard and Robert Sherman.

But this is the novel, and it’s a little different. Illustrated by Eric von Schmidt in a style rather reminiscent of Quentin Blake (or should I say vice versa). It tells the story of a 12-year-old boy and his English butler and their adventures in the California Gold Rush of 1949. After his Aunt Arabella loses all her money, Jack takes their English butler ‘Praiseworthy’ Griffin to California to make their fortune. Their trip is bedeviled all the way by a crook named Cut-Eye Higgins, who steals their money and then a treasure map that they are gifted. When Higgins is at last caught and sentenced to hang, Jack and Praiseworthy (who has been dubbed ‘Bullwhip’ Griffin for a gold-dust weighted punch he has delivered) are tasked to dig the grave. While doing so they discover the gold bonanza that has been eluding them up to this point. Giving up mining for good, and with the extra money that the toughened-up and methodical Griffin makes in a boxing match with ‘the Mountain Ox’, they meet Aunt Arabella and her daughters, who have followed their example and gone West. The newly financially secure Bullwhip, who has been carrying Arabella’s picture devotedly, finds the courage to ask her to marry him. His new ambition is to become the first lawyer in the West.

I can’t quite place where we saw the movie, whether in the theater (I can see Pop agreeing to this ‘Western’ for children) or on TV on The Wonderful World of Disney. And I’m not too sure how or why we got this, though I’m pretty sure ‘when’ was when I was in the Fourth Grade. I suppose its Disney connection was enough of a recommendation for it. I don’t know when it went out of the Family Archive, either.

Sid Fleishman, who only passed on in 2010, was famous for his novels for children and adults, his screen adaptations, and his books about stage magic. He won the 1987 Newbery Medal for his children’s book The Whipping Boy (whips again!), based on the custom of having a commoner take a young Prince’s beatings for him.