164:, and demands that they play wearying games with him, such as riding 90 miles (140 km) on Bill's back pretending to be an Indian scout. The criminals write a ransom letter to the boy's father, lowering the ransom from $ 2,000 to $ 1,500, believing that the father will not pay much money for his return. The father, who knows his son well and realizes how intolerable he will be to his captors and how eager they will soon be to rid themselves of the delinquent child, rejects their demand and offers to take the boy off their hands if they pay him $ 250 (equivalent to $ 8,200 in 2023). The men hand over the money and the howling boy – who had actually been happier being away from his strict father – and flee while the father restrains his son from following them.
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The story and its main idea have become a part of popular culture, with many children's television programs depicting versions of the story as one of their episodes. It has often been used as a classic example of two ultimate comic ironies: a hostage actually liking his abductors and enjoying being
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Two small-time criminals, Bill
Driscoll and Sam Howard, kidnap a boy named Johnny, the red-haired son of Ebenezer Dorset, an important citizen, and hold him for ransom. But the moment that they arrive at their hideout with the boy, the plan begins to unravel, as Johnny actually starts to enjoy his
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kidnappers. Calling himself "Red Chief", Johnny proceeds to drive his captors to distraction with his unrelenting chatter, malicious
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184:"The Ransom of Red Chief" has been adapted many times, directly and indirectly. Direct adaptations include the 1952 movie
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is mistaken for the child of "Ronald Thump", the episode "The Ransom of Red Chimp" of the 1990s Disney animated series
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captured, and his captors having the tables turned on them and being compelled to pay to be rid of him.
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Full audio dramatization is also available free from WOUB Public Media (Athens, Ohio)
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Indirect adaptions include the 1929 Japanese silent comedy
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Works originally published in The
Saturday Evening Post
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339:. Mankato, MN: Creative Education. p. 29.
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28:Short story
809:Categories
714:Whirligigs
483:13 January
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412:Condé Nast
320:References
190:Fred Allen
105:Media type
83:Whirligigs
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188:starring
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Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License. Additional terms may apply.
