WEBVTT - 9. The Business of Laura 0:00:02.200 --> 0:00:05.400 Hello, Wilder listeners, Thank you so much for listening to 0:00:05.440 --> 0:00:08.959 our podcast. We've been working really hard on this and 0:00:09.000 --> 0:00:11.600 we're so grateful for all the feedback you've been sending us. 0:00:12.520 --> 0:00:14.480 We want to address some of that feedback in a 0:00:14.520 --> 0:00:17.479 few weeks in the final episode. So please consider this 0:00:17.560 --> 0:00:20.360 both an invitation and a reminder that if you have 0:00:20.520 --> 0:00:23.560 thoughts on Wilder to please let us know. All of 0:00:23.600 --> 0:00:26.079 our contact information can be found in the notes to 0:00:26.120 --> 0:00:29.840 each episode. In the meantime, we're going to bring you 0:00:29.880 --> 0:00:33.760 some episodes that are a little different, some very special episodes, 0:00:33.800 --> 0:00:34.320 if you will. 0:00:35.080 --> 0:00:36.800 This week, Joe is. 0:00:36.760 --> 0:00:39.000 Going to be walking you through some of the industry 0:00:39.040 --> 0:00:42.360 that Laura has inspired. As anyone who listened to her 0:00:42.400 --> 0:00:46.000 podcast Under the Influence knows, Joe is the expert in 0:00:46.000 --> 0:00:50.879 influencers and Laura is arguably one of the original influencers. 0:00:52.040 --> 0:00:53.480 Now I'm giving you over to Joe. 0:00:55.800 --> 0:00:57.280 Hi, Glynn, good morning. 0:00:57.800 --> 0:00:59.920 I'm passing the pigs bladder baton. 0:01:01.080 --> 0:01:02.440 We should get one of them. Oh, you know what, 0:01:02.800 --> 0:01:05.640 I'll bet someone makes one and sells it for like 0:01:05.720 --> 0:01:06.600 seventy dollars. 0:01:06.959 --> 0:01:09.200 I'm sure if we went on Etsy right now we 0:01:09.200 --> 0:01:12.040 would find a number of pigs bladders that were branded 0:01:12.040 --> 0:01:12.800 with Little House. 0:01:13.160 --> 0:01:15.440 By the end of the episode we will find out 0:01:15.480 --> 0:01:19.320 where to buy a pigs bladder baton, and with that, 0:01:20.600 --> 0:01:28.240 the business of Laura just just thank you. 0:01:30.200 --> 0:01:34.840 We have cups, we have t shirts of course, the 0:01:34.880 --> 0:01:40.520 books always goal and I mean I've had almost eleven 0:01:40.600 --> 0:01:42.160 hundred dollars sales today. 0:01:42.400 --> 0:01:45.759 Really, when you're on the road going from Laura Ingles 0:01:45.840 --> 0:01:50.160 Museum to Laura Ingles Museum, you're inevitably going to go 0:01:50.200 --> 0:01:51.880 to a lot of Laura gift shops. 0:01:52.240 --> 0:01:56.600 Those little porcelain jack dobs for ten dollars I got, Oh, 0:01:56.720 --> 0:01:58.200 there's Laura Ingles Wilder homies. 0:01:58.240 --> 0:01:59.320 I mean, have to get a coffee cup. 0:01:59.360 --> 0:02:04.880 That's the kid. Yeah, coffee cups we love. I like 0:02:04.920 --> 0:02:05.360 these too. 0:02:06.200 --> 0:02:12.960 The shops have everything. They're so not just books, but mugs, dolls, bonnets, candy, 0:02:13.560 --> 0:02:17.799 pretty much anything you might need to cosplay the prairie life. 0:02:17.840 --> 0:02:19.359 That's the biggest cellar in the store. 0:02:21.280 --> 0:02:24.600 Usually tin cups. Everybody like says oh yes, because you 0:02:24.639 --> 0:02:26.680 know that was the very first episode Laura and Mary 0:02:26.680 --> 0:02:29.119 got their own tin cups. 0:02:29.120 --> 0:02:31.360 When Glynnis, Emily and I were on the road last summer, 0:02:31.400 --> 0:02:35.840 we spend a lot of money on gifts. Tin cups included. 0:02:36.040 --> 0:02:37.919 Little tin cups, Young, They're cute. 0:02:38.280 --> 0:02:39.800 Those are one of the most popular. 0:02:39.840 --> 0:02:41.400 And then our slates with. 0:02:41.680 --> 0:02:44.600 And it's not just us, hords of people do this 0:02:44.840 --> 0:02:46.200 every summer. 0:02:46.360 --> 0:02:47.480 Over the whole year. 0:02:47.639 --> 0:02:50.919 We can get up between ten thousand to probably twelve 0:02:50.919 --> 0:02:54.440 thousand a year. We've had twenty thousand in one year. 0:02:54.720 --> 0:02:56.239 They come from all over the world. 0:02:56.560 --> 0:02:58.080 Out Look at all of these people today. 0:02:58.720 --> 0:03:00.399 This is all today. 0:03:00.680 --> 0:03:02.040 Oh my gosh, today. 0:03:02.360 --> 0:03:04.120 Are should we name the states through here today? 0:03:04.480 --> 0:03:04.679 Yeah? 0:03:04.760 --> 0:03:10.799 Here, Minnesota, Kansas, Nevada, New York, Illinois, Georgia, Ohio, California, 0:03:10.919 --> 0:03:19.400 North Dakota, Germany, Oregon, Oregon, Norway, now Texas, Virginia. 0:03:19.560 --> 0:03:24.160 Maybe we've got all the states right now. Except when 0:03:24.240 --> 0:03:26.600 Laura Ingles Wilder set out to write her life story 0:03:26.680 --> 0:03:29.880 into the Little House series, she wanted to be a writer, 0:03:30.520 --> 0:03:35.920 an author, a successful one. Today, almost a century later, 0:03:36.320 --> 0:03:41.080 between the books, TV show and the intense tourism culture 0:03:41.120 --> 0:03:46.520 around her, Laura is undoubtedly a brand anyone who writes 0:03:46.520 --> 0:03:49.520 books today, much like Glennis and I do know that 0:03:49.560 --> 0:03:52.080 writers have to become a sort of brand in order 0:03:52.120 --> 0:03:55.280 to survive, to build an audience and to sell enough 0:03:55.320 --> 0:03:58.680 books to keep their careers going. And the most successful 0:03:58.680 --> 0:04:03.960 writers spawn entire industries around their stories, industries of movies, 0:04:04.280 --> 0:04:09.480 television and media companies, magazines, and sometimes even stuff goods 0:04:09.560 --> 0:04:13.720 and services. That wasn't the case when Laura sat down 0:04:13.760 --> 0:04:16.480 to write. She just wanted to get those books out there. 0:04:16.839 --> 0:04:19.880 I actually don't believe that she could have even imagined 0:04:20.440 --> 0:04:23.880 the many products and platforms that she inspired, both directly 0:04:24.400 --> 0:04:29.600 and indirectly. If you are struggling with what where this summer, 0:04:29.760 --> 0:04:31.200 this esthetic is for you. 0:04:31.440 --> 0:04:35.520 So I like to call this look clean, romantic, prairie cottage. 0:04:35.600 --> 0:04:37.239 I mean, I think you can just look at the 0:04:37.279 --> 0:04:41.960 popularity of cottage core as an aesthetic on TikTok first 0:04:42.040 --> 0:04:43.840 day of school cottage core. 0:04:43.880 --> 0:04:46.320 Okay, y'all are going to think I'm crazy, but gone 0:04:46.360 --> 0:04:47.080 with a bonnet. 0:04:47.360 --> 0:04:54.679 This dedication to living a very simple, homespun life. People 0:04:54.760 --> 0:04:59.240 are getting millions and millions of followers by almost cosplaying 0:04:59.560 --> 0:05:01.440 as frontiers women. 0:05:01.640 --> 0:05:04.200 To be perfectly honest, when this line hit Target stores, 0:05:04.240 --> 0:05:04.960 I was actually. 0:05:04.680 --> 0:05:06.880 A huge hand of it because one I love Little 0:05:06.920 --> 0:05:07.600 HULLSLM Prairie. 0:05:07.640 --> 0:05:09.640 I grew up with it, and to act. 0:05:10.240 --> 0:05:12.719 It can easily be argued that brands like the American 0:05:12.760 --> 0:05:16.680 Girl Dolls, the Pioneer Woman, Hillhouse Home, and all of 0:05:16.680 --> 0:05:20.240 the Nap Dresses all had Laura to thank for laying 0:05:20.279 --> 0:05:22.560 the groundwork of prairie life nostalgia. 0:05:23.000 --> 0:05:24.960 I think a few brands that come to mine are 0:05:25.360 --> 0:05:30.760 Christy Down, lots of Calico cotton dresses, the Nap Dress 0:05:30.800 --> 0:05:34.000 by Hillhouse Home doan. 0:05:34.920 --> 0:05:38.599 Entire home goods companies have been inspired by prairie nostalgia, 0:05:39.320 --> 0:05:44.080 including one created by TV Laura herself, Melissa Gilbert. 0:05:44.200 --> 0:05:47.880 It really started out as a retail line sort of, 0:05:47.960 --> 0:05:50.600 but there's more to it than that. It's a place 0:05:51.400 --> 0:05:54.919 for women over a certain age, women like me. 0:05:56.200 --> 0:05:59.960 From nap dresses to bonnets, to butter churns, paper dolls, 0:06:00.279 --> 0:06:05.880 tin cups, and many, many, many spinoff books. There is 0:06:05.920 --> 0:06:09.680 an entire industry of Laura that she never could have 0:06:09.720 --> 0:06:12.800 conceived of, though I kind of bet Rose could have 0:06:12.839 --> 0:06:17.160 imagined it. And as always, it thrives when times get hard, 0:06:17.680 --> 0:06:19.880 when people get fed up with their lives and have 0:06:19.960 --> 0:06:22.240 an urge to look back to a simpler era. 0:06:22.880 --> 0:06:27.960 We've had in the past twenty years two pretty big crises. 0:06:28.040 --> 0:06:30.480 One was the financial crisis of two thousand and eight, 0:06:31.279 --> 0:06:33.120 and then, of course there was the pandemic that we 0:06:33.160 --> 0:06:36.400 all lived through, and in each of those cases the 0:06:36.600 --> 0:06:39.040 interest in Little House spite. 0:06:40.279 --> 0:06:42.760 It is not a leap at all to say that 0:06:42.839 --> 0:06:45.680 Laura Ingles Wilder may have been one of the very 0:06:45.920 --> 0:06:50.000 first influencers. What I want to know is how did 0:06:50.040 --> 0:06:53.200 all of this get so popular? How did the fantasy 0:06:53.200 --> 0:06:58.000 of prairie life get sold to millions? I'm Joe Piazza 0:06:58.520 --> 0:07:38.320 and this Isness of Wilder. Hello, I'm Glennis, Lennis and 0:07:38.400 --> 0:07:41.680 Emily Great tomorrow night. 0:07:42.720 --> 0:07:45.440 I know are you from Distory very a long time? 0:07:45.560 --> 0:07:47.280 We just bought the place of February. 0:07:47.400 --> 0:07:51.120 Really, Oh, I'm excited to hear your experience of your 0:07:51.120 --> 0:07:52.160 first pageant season. 0:07:52.520 --> 0:07:55.280 That's Glennys and Emily arriving at the Prairie House manor 0:07:55.360 --> 0:07:58.440 Bed and Breakfast in De Smet, South Dakota. I sadly 0:07:58.520 --> 0:08:00.320 wasn't with them for this part of the trip, and 0:08:00.440 --> 0:08:02.600 I have a lot of fomo about that. But when 0:08:02.640 --> 0:08:07.160 they arrived they found this very unexpected story. You found 0:08:07.400 --> 0:08:12.000 Laura's influence, her sphere of influence, in a place that 0:08:12.120 --> 0:08:15.640 you didn't expect. You found that she had inspired this couple. 0:08:15.720 --> 0:08:19.040 It was Robin Eric Right during COVID. They'd done a 0:08:19.120 --> 0:08:20.880 road trip. They'd come to Smet. 0:08:21.240 --> 0:08:23.880 They had grown up loving Laura Ingalls and decided to 0:08:23.960 --> 0:08:27.800 uproot their life from Denver and take over. 0:08:27.600 --> 0:08:32.400 A big city, A big city, big city, Yeah. 0:08:31.400 --> 0:08:36.120 Where they'd been for years and had uprooted and come 0:08:36.160 --> 0:08:39.120 to Desmet and taken over this bed and breakfast in 0:08:39.160 --> 0:08:41.520 the heart of d Smet. We had to book into 0:08:41.520 --> 0:08:45.240 their months in advance to get that spot to run this, 0:08:45.360 --> 0:08:47.920 and it was And when we talked to them, they 0:08:48.040 --> 0:08:50.720 just went on about how much they'd loved the television 0:08:50.720 --> 0:08:53.320 show Laura and the fond memories of being read the 0:08:53.320 --> 0:08:56.720 books in school, and it just, I mean, we know this, 0:08:57.520 --> 0:09:00.720 but also it never ceases to sort of amazed and 0:09:00.720 --> 0:09:03.600 surprised at like the reach she has, but also like 0:09:03.640 --> 0:09:05.760 the level of devotion. 0:09:05.880 --> 0:09:08.640 Right, if that's a big life change, there's. 0:09:08.440 --> 0:09:11.440 A huge life change, and also a very kind of 0:09:12.240 --> 0:09:15.840 TV movie inspiring one. I'm just uprooting my life in 0:09:15.880 --> 0:09:18.080 the big city to open a little B and B 0:09:18.640 --> 0:09:24.480 centered around Laura Ingles Wilder. So they fled big city life. 0:09:24.559 --> 0:09:26.719 They bought the Prairie manner and now they're running an 0:09:26.720 --> 0:09:31.280 inn together. They have a business that is directly based 0:09:31.880 --> 0:09:32.280 on Laura. 0:09:32.440 --> 0:09:34.520 It seems surreal sometimes, like when we come back from 0:09:34.559 --> 0:09:36.160 the grocery store and I see the house, I'm like, wow, 0:09:36.200 --> 0:09:37.000 that's ours. 0:09:37.640 --> 0:09:39.440 Rob and Eric are just you know, the tip of 0:09:39.440 --> 0:09:43.600 the iceberg in terms of families who've tapped into their 0:09:43.600 --> 0:09:45.200 love of Laura in one way or the other and 0:09:45.240 --> 0:09:48.480 turned it into a huge business. Like we met Anne 0:09:48.559 --> 0:09:51.320 Lash who runs the homestead site, and her family bought 0:09:51.360 --> 0:09:54.679 that in the late nineties, and she talks about growing 0:09:54.760 --> 0:09:55.840 up being read the book. 0:09:56.520 --> 0:10:01.880 My parents and my brothers came on vacation in nineteen 0:10:01.960 --> 0:10:03.880 ninety six and it was for sale and it had 0:10:03.920 --> 0:10:07.840 been farmed for many years, and a family that was 0:10:07.840 --> 0:10:10.680 farming it at that time they were older and wanting to, 0:10:11.320 --> 0:10:13.440 you know, move on and sell it and stuff. And 0:10:13.520 --> 0:10:16.440 so that's really how we came across it. So we 0:10:16.960 --> 0:10:19.880 purchased the homestead in nineteen ninety seven and then have 0:10:20.280 --> 0:10:22.520 over the past twenty five years kind of built it 0:10:22.600 --> 0:10:26.720 up into what it is and welcomed thousands and thousands. 0:10:26.240 --> 0:10:29.800 Of visitors over the years. It's amazing to me that 0:10:29.880 --> 0:10:34.040 there is not just one, but two and probably many 0:10:34.080 --> 0:10:36.920 more of these kinds of stories. That Laura's draw is 0:10:36.960 --> 0:10:41.080 so strong that just one vacation can uproot an entire life. 0:10:41.800 --> 0:10:44.880 And it's worth reminding us that these towns are very, 0:10:45.000 --> 0:10:49.240 very small. Laura isn't just a business in these places, 0:10:49.559 --> 0:10:52.840 she is the main industry. Let me put this in 0:10:52.880 --> 0:10:55.080 perspective for you. The town I'm just met has about 0:10:55.120 --> 0:10:57.480 the same population now as the time when Laura lived there. 0:10:58.040 --> 0:11:01.240 Bur Oak, where the Ingles worked in the hotel, isn't 0:11:01.240 --> 0:11:04.800 even a town anymore. It's an incorporated community, but it 0:11:04.840 --> 0:11:08.600 still gets visitors and foot traffic because of Laura. And 0:11:08.720 --> 0:11:11.120 remember from our very first episode how we told you 0:11:11.160 --> 0:11:13.520 that Walnut Grove seemed like a ghost town until we 0:11:13.559 --> 0:11:16.400 got to the gift shop. It's businesses like that and 0:11:16.440 --> 0:11:20.360 the summer pageants that genuinely helped the town's yearly bottom line. 0:11:20.880 --> 0:11:22.559 It is an economic boost. 0:11:22.760 --> 0:11:25.160 As pageant director Bill Richards explained to us. 0:11:25.120 --> 0:11:28.320 We use a lot of local people for supplies, for lumber, 0:11:28.440 --> 0:11:34.120 for concrete, for construction work, electrical plumbing, all that kind 0:11:34.120 --> 0:11:38.240 of stuff. The businesses that get the biggest boost would 0:11:38.280 --> 0:11:44.000 be probably the convenience store, Nellie's Cafe and the bar 0:11:44.120 --> 0:11:46.839 and things like that. The other ones are more I 0:11:46.880 --> 0:11:50.520 would call secondary effect, where because you have people that 0:11:50.559 --> 0:11:54.400 we hire out here, that has a multiplier effect as well. 0:11:55.280 --> 0:12:00.040 Those houses, museums, and stores are all independently run, and 0:12:00.080 --> 0:12:02.640 then they also sell and profit off the things they're 0:12:02.679 --> 0:12:06.000 license from the books. The books themselves and the many 0:12:06.080 --> 0:12:09.320 many sequels and offshoots of them that came long after 0:12:09.360 --> 0:12:12.480 Laura passed away. And what I keep thinking again and 0:12:12.520 --> 0:12:15.960 again is whether or not Laura would have actually wanted this. 0:12:16.840 --> 0:12:19.160 How did Little House go from just a book series 0:12:19.679 --> 0:12:24.199 to a brand that can actually be licensed? Of course 0:12:24.240 --> 0:12:26.400 I had to talk to Glynnis because she is the 0:12:26.559 --> 0:12:31.720 expert on all things Laura. All Right, So we're looking 0:12:31.840 --> 0:12:36.320 at the big business of Laura, all of the stuff 0:12:36.520 --> 0:12:41.120 that's being sold, all of the TV shows, the extra books. 0:12:42.080 --> 0:12:44.559 Do you think that this is what Laura would have 0:12:44.640 --> 0:12:45.680 wanted for her legacy? 0:12:46.720 --> 0:12:50.199 It's so hard to say, because could Laura have envisioned 0:12:50.240 --> 0:12:52.120 any of this As a question, I wonder, could she 0:12:52.160 --> 0:12:55.560 even envisioned the books having this impact and having this legacy. 0:12:55.640 --> 0:12:58.920 We know that she wanted to leave a significant part 0:12:58.960 --> 0:13:02.359 of the Little House rights to the local Mansfield library. 0:13:02.840 --> 0:13:05.480 And then that feels though like ary in keeping with Laura, 0:13:05.600 --> 0:13:10.000 like sort of a small vision for her afterlife, so 0:13:10.040 --> 0:13:12.319 to speak of, like these could be a nice thing 0:13:12.360 --> 0:13:14.520 for the local library and the town that I've lived 0:13:14.559 --> 0:13:17.440 in for decades that she didn't even really leave after 0:13:17.480 --> 0:13:19.760 the books. She think she left once after the books 0:13:19.880 --> 0:13:22.600 sort of became successful. So that feels like a small 0:13:22.640 --> 0:13:27.440 sweet vision of her giving back. And that's definitely not 0:13:27.600 --> 0:13:31.320 a description as we know of what has actually happened 0:13:31.920 --> 0:13:33.440 right to the legacy. 0:13:33.640 --> 0:13:39.560 And that didn't happen because Rose ignored those wishes and 0:13:39.800 --> 0:13:43.439 granted the literary estate to Roger Lee McBride. 0:13:44.120 --> 0:13:47.640 Yeah, I mean this has to be one of the 0:13:47.720 --> 0:13:52.960 great random inheritances in literary history. I mean, Roger Lee 0:13:53.040 --> 0:13:59.000 McBride's fate intertwining with Little House is wild. And even 0:13:59.040 --> 0:14:01.559 as a kid, I would be like Roger Lee McBride, 0:14:01.559 --> 0:14:03.680 person that keeps getting mentioned on the back cover of 0:14:03.720 --> 0:14:08.280 the book, Laura never met him, which is incredible. 0:14:07.840 --> 0:14:09.760 Don't you think it's incredible? 0:14:10.080 --> 0:14:13.440 Yeah, it's wild. And at the same time, we know 0:14:13.679 --> 0:14:14.160 from all. 0:14:14.040 --> 0:14:17.400 The episodes we did that Laura and Rose's life emotional 0:14:17.440 --> 0:14:21.520 financial everything life was so enmeshed, so maybe Rose thought 0:14:21.560 --> 0:14:24.520 that she had not just permission, but the right to 0:14:24.520 --> 0:14:25.480 do what she wanted with it. 0:14:25.520 --> 0:14:29.480 I mean, who knows. And it was Roger who ended 0:14:29.600 --> 0:14:34.160 up selling the rights to the Friendly Family, yep. 0:14:34.960 --> 0:14:37.560 I mean we know that Laura and Rose had turned 0:14:37.680 --> 0:14:41.360 down offers from radio to serialize the books. This is 0:14:41.400 --> 0:14:44.000 sort of before TV was such a huge thing, and 0:14:44.040 --> 0:14:48.720 we know they had consistently turned it down. So as 0:14:48.760 --> 0:14:52.680 soon as Rose dies almost immediately, Roger does a one 0:14:52.720 --> 0:14:55.760 tot eighty, takes it to Hollywood to meet with Disney, 0:14:55.840 --> 0:14:58.120 and then fate intervenes and he ends up selling it 0:14:58.160 --> 0:15:02.320 to a Friendly which how we have Michael Landon well, 0:15:02.320 --> 0:15:03.040 which is how we. 0:15:03.040 --> 0:15:06.320 Really have the Business of Laura, because the Friendly Family 0:15:06.840 --> 0:15:13.000 took on the copyrights and they've created a massive industry 0:15:13.520 --> 0:15:16.800 around Laura and Little House that I don't think she 0:15:16.920 --> 0:15:18.160 ever could have imagined. 0:15:18.880 --> 0:15:21.880 I mean, I don't know that I could have imagined 0:15:21.920 --> 0:15:25.920 it as a child. So much of this is Internet 0:15:25.920 --> 0:15:28.240 fueled too. I think I would just like try and 0:15:28.240 --> 0:15:30.160 make these clothes for myself as a kid, or like 0:15:30.280 --> 0:15:34.320 staple brown yarn braids to everything I owned, And now 0:15:35.040 --> 0:15:38.120 you can go to at Sea or to Amazon and 0:15:38.200 --> 0:15:40.720 buy all of the stuff and it all exists. And 0:15:40.760 --> 0:15:45.280 that I think is like the collision of fandom, legacy 0:15:45.560 --> 0:15:46.840 licensing the Internet. 0:15:46.880 --> 0:15:48.640 It's just it's so accessible now. 0:15:50.400 --> 0:15:52.120 When we get back from the break, we are going 0:15:52.200 --> 0:15:54.080 to talk to the family that ended up with the 0:15:54.160 --> 0:15:57.160 rights to all things Little House. How'd they get it, 0:15:57.520 --> 0:16:02.280 and what's their intention with Laura's legacy and finally what 0:16:02.400 --> 0:16:05.040 kind of stuff is being created from it. 0:16:11.240 --> 0:16:14.840 My father and Friendly acquired the rights to the Little 0:16:14.880 --> 0:16:18.840 House books from a man named Roger Lee McBride. 0:16:19.480 --> 0:16:22.320 That's Trip Friendly. You heard from him in our TV 0:16:22.440 --> 0:16:25.240 episode telling the story of how his father created the 0:16:25.280 --> 0:16:30.080 Little House television series. These days, Roger Lee McBride's daughter 0:16:30.480 --> 0:16:33.480 still owns the copyrights on the Little House books, but 0:16:33.560 --> 0:16:37.160 the Friendly family owns the licensing for products and media. 0:16:37.640 --> 0:16:43.080 Friendly Family Productions owns film, television, merchandising, theme park and 0:16:43.160 --> 0:16:46.240 other rights to the classic books by Laura Engels Wilder, 0:16:46.840 --> 0:16:49.440 as well as to the Little House on the Prairie trademark. 0:16:49.920 --> 0:16:53.480 When the television program was first broadcast on NBC in 0:16:53.520 --> 0:16:57.760 the nineteen seventies and early nineteen eighties, my father created 0:16:57.760 --> 0:17:03.720 a licensing program which included lunch boxes, dinner plates, beverage ware, posters, puzzles, 0:17:03.760 --> 0:17:08.600 board games, calendars, costumes, McCall patterns, and many other items. 0:17:09.520 --> 0:17:13.199 The Friendlies take their role very seriously. They know that 0:17:13.280 --> 0:17:17.800 Laura holds sentimental value for a lot of people. None 0:17:17.840 --> 0:17:20.400 of us know how Laura would feel about these products today, 0:17:20.960 --> 0:17:24.160 but the things that are licensed definitely feel in line 0:17:24.200 --> 0:17:27.320 with the wholesome, cozy nature of Laura's children's books. 0:17:27.640 --> 0:17:31.840 We've worked with a selective group of licensees that we 0:17:31.960 --> 0:17:35.720 believe reflect the values of the Little House on the 0:17:35.760 --> 0:17:39.280 Prairie brand in which we hoped would resonate with families 0:17:39.280 --> 0:17:45.760 and fans today. So simple, joy, optimism, charm, and craftsmanship, 0:17:45.920 --> 0:17:49.640 I would say, our integral parts. We would probably reject 0:17:49.720 --> 0:17:52.879 any inquiries that are not consistent with the brand values 0:17:53.000 --> 0:17:59.240 or are quote unquote are rated, such as alcohol, gambling. 0:18:00.040 --> 0:18:02.560 They're sort of vice products. 0:18:03.240 --> 0:18:06.159 How much impact can a product actually have when it 0:18:06.160 --> 0:18:08.760 comes to the legacy of Little House, There's so much 0:18:08.800 --> 0:18:10.639 stuff that I wanted to find an example of a 0:18:10.680 --> 0:18:14.560 company truly manufacturing in the spirit of Laura and Goes Wilder. 0:18:15.040 --> 0:18:17.800 The Queen's Treasures, in particular, has been a long time 0:18:17.880 --> 0:18:23.400 licensee and they continue to expand their line of dolls 0:18:23.520 --> 0:18:24.840 and doll accessories. 0:18:25.359 --> 0:18:28.159 That's Rebecca Friendly Trip's daughter and one of the driving 0:18:28.160 --> 0:18:30.400 forces behind continuing Laura's legacy. 0:18:30.680 --> 0:18:34.960 They have some beautiful eighteen inch dolls. We started with Laura, 0:18:35.480 --> 0:18:39.480 then Mary and most recently Nelly. They of course each 0:18:39.520 --> 0:18:43.000 have a variety of outfits and accessories, and there are 0:18:43.040 --> 0:18:46.880 some amazing doll size scenes. 0:18:48.520 --> 0:18:52.800 So we have a obviously a Laura doll, and Laura 0:18:52.840 --> 0:18:56.240 actually comes in a night gown with a cap like 0:18:56.280 --> 0:19:00.360 they used to wear, and her box turns into a bit, 0:19:00.880 --> 0:19:02.480 so even the box can be used. 0:19:02.880 --> 0:19:06.600 That's Joanne Particulia, the president of the Queen's Treasures toy company. 0:19:06.840 --> 0:19:09.520 Queen's Treasures makes pretty much every accessory that you could 0:19:09.560 --> 0:19:12.480 possibly imagine for a little house doll set. 0:19:12.920 --> 0:19:16.359 Mary comes dressed in a pretty blue dress, and she 0:19:16.520 --> 0:19:19.600 has a lunch pail which has the typical things that 0:19:19.640 --> 0:19:22.760 she would have brought to lunch. GE's a hard boiled egg, 0:19:22.920 --> 0:19:25.960 a little molasses cookie, abiscuit, that kind of thing, and 0:19:26.040 --> 0:19:29.080 she comes of course with a little chalkboard. We have 0:19:29.440 --> 0:19:33.879 a black cook stove, we have clothing, we're actually working 0:19:33.920 --> 0:19:38.639 on a Olsen's Mercantile, which is really going to be 0:19:38.640 --> 0:19:41.040 cool that kids can open up and they could play shop. 0:19:41.960 --> 0:19:44.320 Joanne started her toy business in her garage in two 0:19:44.400 --> 0:19:48.520 thousand and three by making doll trunks and accessories. Eventually 0:19:48.600 --> 0:19:51.680 she started focusing on Laura because she thought that story 0:19:51.720 --> 0:19:53.439 would be inspiring to young kids. 0:19:54.840 --> 0:19:58.280 We wanted to do women who change the world, and 0:19:58.480 --> 0:20:06.360 Laura Ingleswilder is literally the first novelist I became obsessed with. 0:20:06.640 --> 0:20:08.359 I have reread those books. I can't tell you how 0:20:08.400 --> 0:20:13.320 many times. It just transports you to a place where 0:20:14.240 --> 0:20:17.879 for me, looking back, children don't go now. You know, 0:20:18.720 --> 0:20:23.000 every child you see has something electronic that they're obsessed 0:20:23.040 --> 0:20:26.800 with and staring at, and they don't have any sense 0:20:26.880 --> 0:20:31.720 of what history is. But Laura, She's just resonates with me. 0:20:32.359 --> 0:20:36.200 She resonates with our customer base. I think people are 0:20:36.400 --> 0:20:39.760 looking for a simpler time for children. 0:20:40.920 --> 0:20:43.359 Joanne's goal isn't just a tap in a demand for 0:20:43.440 --> 0:20:46.800 Laura and Little House, but to use those stories to 0:20:46.880 --> 0:20:50.520 influence people, small people, children. 0:20:50.920 --> 0:20:54.880 We put these imagine this cards in with each product 0:20:54.880 --> 0:20:57.800 that says, imagine life over one hundred years ago, when 0:20:57.840 --> 0:21:01.359 there was no electricity and to cook on a stove 0:21:01.440 --> 0:21:03.560 you had to bring in wood and wait for the 0:21:03.600 --> 0:21:06.120 stove to heat up. And you know, we just go 0:21:06.240 --> 0:21:10.760 through scenarios that maybe children wouldn't even think about today. 0:21:12.359 --> 0:21:16.200 We have a lot of homeschoolers that love our products, 0:21:17.000 --> 0:21:19.000 so we really do try to keep it in an 0:21:19.119 --> 0:21:23.680 educational vein. Laura was all about language, if you think 0:21:23.680 --> 0:21:28.640 about it, and for me, she was I believe sixty 0:21:28.720 --> 0:21:32.119 four when her book got I'm hoping I got a 0:21:32.119 --> 0:21:35.320 few years for that, not that many. I'm hoping at 0:21:35.359 --> 0:21:39.440 sixty four, something really crazy goes on with this company too. 0:21:39.600 --> 0:21:44.880 But until then, I'm going to still keep developing and 0:21:44.920 --> 0:21:49.000 designing toys and trying to bring inspiration to children and 0:21:49.200 --> 0:21:53.920 try to get them to read and play and pretend 0:21:54.800 --> 0:21:58.479 they need their own voices now. So that's my mission, 0:22:00.000 --> 0:22:00.480 not just the. 0:22:00.480 --> 0:22:03.119 Kids who are learning from these dolls. Joanne told me 0:22:03.160 --> 0:22:06.199 herself that she's felt way more connected to Laura and 0:22:06.240 --> 0:22:08.920 the lessons of the Ingles and prairie life while she's 0:22:08.960 --> 0:22:10.000 been building this brand. 0:22:11.400 --> 0:22:15.120 I feel a little bit like a pioneer, if you will, 0:22:15.720 --> 0:22:22.159 you know, persistence and being able to face a problem 0:22:22.520 --> 0:22:26.760 and move on. They had so much adversity that happened 0:22:26.800 --> 0:22:30.040 in their life, and they still smiled at the end 0:22:30.080 --> 0:22:32.280 of the day and appreciated what they had. 0:22:36.080 --> 0:22:39.600 It's the simplicity that we keep coming back to, the 0:22:39.800 --> 0:22:44.240 urge to go back to basics, have real concrete experiences, 0:22:45.200 --> 0:22:49.080 get offline. We hear it over and over and over 0:22:49.160 --> 0:22:53.640 again in our increasingly connected digital age now. So far 0:22:53.720 --> 0:22:56.399 in this episode, we've been looking at businesses that start 0:22:56.440 --> 0:22:58.880 with Laura, but a lot of them go way beyond 0:22:58.880 --> 0:23:02.160 her in the wholesome, cozy feeling of the books into 0:23:02.160 --> 0:23:05.320 our modern world in ways that you might not even notice. 0:23:05.920 --> 0:23:08.159 After the break, we're getting into the products and trends 0:23:08.200 --> 0:23:10.880 that are catching fire all over the internet. Who owe 0:23:10.880 --> 0:23:13.919 their success to promising all of us a taste of 0:23:13.960 --> 0:23:23.320 the prairie lifestyle. Oh, let's go into the done store. 0:23:24.240 --> 0:23:25.120 Is the dog store? 0:23:25.119 --> 0:23:26.640 I've never even heard of it. 0:23:26.640 --> 0:23:30.480 It's like, you know, those like flowery prairie dresses that 0:23:30.520 --> 0:23:31.440 I wear all the time? 0:23:31.560 --> 0:23:32.320 Yes, I do. 0:23:32.600 --> 0:23:33.399 Hyeah. 0:23:33.520 --> 0:23:34.720 This is where it all happens. 0:23:34.960 --> 0:23:38.080 This is where that's me and my co author, Christine 0:23:38.119 --> 0:23:40.520 Pride on our book tour in la We had some 0:23:40.600 --> 0:23:44.200 time to kill and naturally, I felt myself drifting towards 0:23:44.200 --> 0:23:53.800