Maurice Maeterlinck was a Belgian novelist, essayist, poet, and playwright whose works were full of symbols and imagery. He felt many times words were not enough to express the emotional and spiritual qualities of the human experience, so he used stage settings and lighting to reflect the mood. He also wrote directions for the actors’ poetic speech and gestures. Maeterlinck became well-known for saying, “How strangely do we diminish a thing as soon as we try to express it in words!” Maeterlinck also won a Nobel Prize in Literature for his “many-sided literary activities that in a mysterious way appeal to the readers’ own feelings and stimulate their imaginations.”
What Is the Bluebird of Happiness?
Reviewers of the time said his plays had considerable merit because they portrayed issues of social and political importance
In 1908, Maeterlinck wrote a play he called The Blue Bird. Two years later it opened on the New York stage. Written for children, the play follows a woodcutter’s young son and daughter (Tyltyl and Mytyl) on an enchanted journey. Most people notice right away how this sounds very much like Dorothy and Toto’s fantasy journey in Frank Baum’s The Wizard of Oz. And for good reason. Baum’s book was published in 1900, eight years before Maeterlinck’s The Blue Bird. The musical version of The Wizard of Oz opened in Chicago in 1902, also eight years before The Blue Bird musical opened in New York.
It’s Christmas Eve
There is a rap at the door to the children’s bedroom and in comes “a little old woman dressed in green with a red hood on her head. She is humpbacked, lame, and nearsighted, and walks bent on a stick.”
She asks the children if they have the blue bird, because her little girl is sick and sad and cannot be well or happy until she has it. When they say no, the old woman sends them forth to search for it. She gives Tyltyl a special green hat with a diamond on the front, telling him that when he wears it, his eyes will be open to the truth. Brother and sister encounter what seem to be pleasures (wealth, luxury, etc) but are revealed to be false when viewed with the special diamond. From these experiences, they learn that happiness is not accumulating material things.
The children awaken from what has been a dream (again like Oz) and Tyltyl finds happiness in giving his prized turtledove to the sick girl
As soon as she takes it into her hands, the bird turns blue and flies away. Tyltyl turns to the audience and says, “If any of you should find (the Bluebird of Happiness), would you be so very kind as to bring him back to us? We need him for our happiness.”
The Blue Bird was a smash hit
It played all over the United States, triggering a boom in all things bluebird. Bluebirds became so popular that marketers made sure every product had a bluebird label, was printed with the likeness of a bluebird, or was adorned with one, as were many ladies’ hats of the era.
Bluebirds appeared in films and songs, too
In 1940, 20th Century Fox made The Blue Bird into a big-budget fantasy film starring Shirley Temple, America’s Little Darling, It was an obvious attempt to ride on the coattails of MGM’s The Wizard of Oz, released one year earlier, but it was a money-losing box office flop.
Opera great Jan Peerce recorded the song The Bluebird of Happiness. It became a massive hit that outsold all of his operatic recordings. It was so closely tied to him that he later titled his memoirs The Bluebird of Happiness: The Memoirs of Jan Peerce.
Walt Disney’s animated Song of the South
In 1947, Walt Disney’s Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah won the Academy Award for the Best Original Song. You can see and hear James Baskett sing it as Uncle Remus in this 2-minute video clip.
In 1962, Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah was a big hit for Bob B. Soxx and The Blue Jeans and their producer Phil Spector. Discophiles know that’s Darlene Love soloing on “Well, Mister Bluebird’s on my shoulder. And it’s the truth, it’s actual, everything’s gonna be (satisfactual).” Here’s the 2:40 clip.
Because earthbound humans have always been fascinated with flight, many birds serve as symbols
Owls are wise. Turkeys are Thanksgiving. Storks are Fertility, Vultures are death, Eagles are Strength and Freedom. Crows and Ravens are Mystery and Prophecy, Swans are Grace, Geese are Silly, Turtledoves are Love, Chickens are Fear. Blue Jays are Trickery, Peacocks are Beauty.
Doves are Peace and Hawks are War
Doves came to symbolize peace when one brought an olive branch to Noah and hawks have long been associated with hunting. They were brought together as political opposites during the War of 1812.
Most Amerindians associated the Bluebird with the the arrival of Spring
- Iroquois thought the Bluebirds’ song scared away the evil spirit of winter.
- Cherokees associated Bluebirds with the wind and thought they could predict or control the weather.
- Navajos believed Bluebirds to be the spirits of sunrise.
- The Pueblo thought the Bluebird was the son of the Sun.
Americans don’t associate Spring with Bluebirds
They know Spring is here When The Red, Red Robin Comes Bob-Bob-Bobbin’ Along. Most sources tell us that Al Jolson was the first to record the song in 1926. His version hit #1. Others who recorded it include Jimmy Durante, Tamar Braxton, Mitch Miller’s Choir, and to the astonishment of many, Dion and The Belmonts, who gave the world their schmaltzy doo-wop version in 1960. Karaoke fans, try the piano singalong. You might want to listen to one or two versions on September 24th, National Bluebird of Happiness Day.
The Pima tribe had a legend where the original Bluebird was a drab and ugly color
A Dream Spirit told the bird of a magic lake far away that was always deep blue. If the bird bathed in the lake every morning for five days in a row while singing a magical song about turning blue, his feathers would turn blue. He did and they did.
There are three types of Bluebirds in the United States: the Eastern, Western, and Mountain
The Eastern is the most common because its range is from the Atlantic shore to the Continental Divide. The Western Bluebirds live between the Rocky Mountains and the Pacific Ocean. The Mountain Bluebirds live high up on the Sierra Nevada, Olympic, and Cascade ranges from Mexico to Canada.
Gardeners love Bluebirds because they eat harmful insects and larvae
Bluebirds like to sit on wires, posts, and low branches and use their exceptional vision to spot their food on the ground. When they see an insect or worm, they swoop down to the ground and capture it with their pointed beaks.
Bluebirds breed two or three times a year
Male Bluebirds find a nesting site, gather a few twigs, and sing and flap their wings. When the female approves of the male and the site, she builds the nest by herself and lays 4 to 6 eggs per clutch.
Bird resources
All About Birds has live cams you can watch by clicking here. It also has dozens of courses you can take from its Bird Academy, including The Wonderful World of Hummingbirds, Bird Song Basics, and How to Paint Birds.
John James Audubon made a pictorial guide to all species of North American birds in the days before photography in the wild was possible practical. He produced detailed illustrations of more than 700 North American species. Audubon.org has a free Bird Guide App with more than 800 species of North American birds. It’s been downloaded more than 2 million times. The guide comes alive with 3,000 photos and eight hours of audio clips of songs and calls.
Is the Bird of Paradise a bird or a plant?
The Bird of Paradise is a plant. The Greater Bird-of-Paradise is a bird.
Bonus
No story about birds is truly complete without 4’10” Little Jimmy Dickens’ #1 hit on the Billboard Hot Country Singles chart in 1965, May The Bird of Paradise Fly Up Your Nose.
