SCOTT DETROW, HOST:
Boiled, stewed, fried, fricasseed, slathered in peanut butter or horseradish. These are just a few of the culinary suggestions from the 1973 children's book "How To Eat Fried Worms." The author, Thomas Rockwell, died last month of Parkinson's disease and other ailments. He was 91. If you somehow escaped reading about the adventures of a young boy named Billy who accepts a bet to eat 15 worms in 15 days, maybe you saw the 1985 animated version...
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "HOW TO EAT FRIED WORMS")
UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #1: (As Alan) I bet you wouldn't eat that worm.
UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #2: (As Joe) Yuck. Nobody'd eat that.
UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #1: (As Alan) Told you you wouldn't do anything.
UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #3: (As Billy) For $50, I'd even eat 15 worms.
UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #2: (As Joe) Sounds like a bet to me.
UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #1: (As Alan) Yeah.
UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #4: (As Tom) And he can eat them any way he wants - boiled, fried or fricasseed.
UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #3: (As Billy) With mustard, ketchup, even chocolate syrup.
DETROW: ...Or the 2006 film of the same name.
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "HOW TO EAT FRIED WORMS")
ADAM HICKS: (As Joe) That's your lunch, huh (ph)? You eat worms?
LUKE BENWARD: (As Billy) I eat them all the time. You want to try one?
HICKS: (As Joe) You couldn't even eat one worm.
BENWARD: (As Billy) I could eat 10, easy.
HICKS: (As Joe) That's a lie.
BENWARD: (As Billy) You want to bet?
HICKS: (As Joe) Yeah. Shake on it.
(SOUNDBITE OF WHISTLE BLOWING)
PHILIP DANIEL BOLDEN: (As Bradley) All 10 worms must be eaten by 7 o'clock p.m.
HICKS: (As Joe) And if you throw up, you lose.
DETROW: What you may not have realized is that the book's author, Thomas Rockwell, was the son of the iconic American painter Norman Rockwell. Norman famously used those in his life to serve as models for his depictions of everyday Americana. You may be able to picture his painting "The Muscleman," of a boy in shorts and a red sweater vest, his sleeve rolled up, straining to flex his bicep before a mirror. A young Thomas Rockwell was that muscleman.
As he came of age, Thomas told an interviewer that being a creative was almost a given. There wasn't any pressure, Rockwell said, but my father felt that the one and only career he knew was being an artist. But literary success did not come immediately. When one of his early manuscripts for a different book was rejected, Rockwell said he felt, quote, "as if I had been eating worms." And at that thought, an old children's song popped into his head.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "NOBODY LIKES ME (THINK I'LL GO EAT WORMS)")
UNIDENTIFIED MUSICAL GROUP: (Singing) Nobody likes me. Everybody hates me. I think I'll go eat worms. Great, big, juicy ones, eeny-weeny (ph), skinny ones - see how they wriggle and squirm. Cut off their heads and...
DETROW: And the idea of a book that eventually became a runaway success was born - "How To Eat Fried Worms." The story about fairness and perseverance was initially rejected by nearly two dozen publishers before it found a home. But once it was published in 1973, it never went out of print.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "NOBODY LIKES ME (THINK I'LL GO EAT WORMS)")
ABC KIDS: (Singing) Nobody likes me. Everybody hates me. Guess I'll go eat worms - big, fat, juicy ones, long, thin, slimy ones, itsy bitsy, fuzzy-wuzzy worms. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.
