49 Fun Facts About The Trumpet of the Swan

In which Boston park does Louis play his trumpet for the Swan Boat passengers in The Trumpet of the Swan?

The Public Garden's lagoon has been home to the Swan Boats since 1877; in the story Louis swims ahead of them as accompanist and becomes the sensation of Boston.

How are Boston's Swan Boats, Louis's employer in The Trumpet of the Swan, propelled across their pond?

Pedalled by the driver, who sits inside the swan working a paddle wheel like a bicycle: Robert Paget launched the boats in 1877 and took the swan from the opera Lohengrin.

Which Stephen Foster song does Louis play to win Serena when she lands at the Philadelphia Zoo?

Beautiful Dreamer was published in March 1864, two months after Foster's death, and the serenade wins Serena over on the spot.

How does newly hatched Louis greet Sam Beaver, since he cannot chirp like his brothers and sisters?

Tugs at Sam's shoelace is all Louis can manage while the other cygnets each greet the boy with a beep, the first hint of the silence his parents soon start to worry about.

In which US state does Louis's family winter at the Red Rock Lakes refuge in The Trumpet of the Swan?

Montana's Red Rock Lakes is a real refuge, created by President Franklin Roosevelt in 1935 and best known for the work that pulled the trumpeter swan back from the edge of extinction.

What does the Philadelphia Zoo do to all its own swans but spare Louis, who is only a guest?

Pinioning cuts off a wing tip so a bird can never fly away; when keepers try it on Serena, Louis attacks them and sends for Sam Beaver.

Why does mastering writing on his return to Red Rock Lakes leave Louis as lonely as ever?

The other swans cannot read, so the writing that wins over humans does nothing for a courting swan, which is why the cob goes looking for a trumpet.

Why does Louis have Sam Beaver slit one of his webbed feet with a razor blade?

To play more notes, Louis needs toes that can work the trumpet's three valves one at a time; Sam obliges, warning him that from now on he will tend to swim in circles.

In which country does Sam Beaver first meet the swans of The Trumpet of the Swan, at their nesting pond?

Canada is where the story opens and closes: years later Sam, camping there again, hears Louis's horn drifting across the lake.

What does Sam Beaver buy Louis so the silent swan can communicate after learning to read and write?

A slate and chalk join the load strung round Louis's neck, which John Updike's review pictured 'flapping and clanking together whenever he flies'.

Which predator does Sam Beaver drive off with a stick while the mother swan is away from her eggs?

A fox sneaks up while the pen stretches her legs; Sam's rescue of her and the eggs is what finally earns the boy the swans' trust.

What does Sam Beaver promise the Philadelphia Zoo so that Louis and Serena can leave as free birds?

A future cygnet is the price: Sam argues that every clutch has one that needs special care, just as Louis did, and the pair will donate such a bird when the zoo needs one.

In which city does the cob crash through a music store's glass to grab a trumpet for Louis?

Billings is the most populous city in its state, and the cob later flies back to the same store with a money bag to settle the debt.

At which boys' camp does Louis work as bugler to start paying off his debt in The Trumpet of the Swan?

Kookooskoos is the summer camp Sam Beaver attends, and Louis leaves it with $100 in a waterproof pouch hung round his neck.

What kind of Philadelphia venue lures Louis away from Boston's Swan Boats with higher pay?

Nightclub work in Philadelphia comes with unusual digs: Louis commutes to the job from the city zoo, where he lodges as a guest.

Why is Louis awarded a medal during his summer as a camp bugler?

He saves a drowning boy, Applegate Skinner, who cannot swim, and the Lifesaving Medal joins the trumpet strung round his neck.

Where does Louis lodge in Boston, where he is an instant success at $100 a week?

The Ritz Hotel puts the swan up for the night, and he goes to bed floating in the bathtub with his bill tucked under his wing.

What happens to the cob on returning to the music store with Louis's money bag?

He is shot and hurt in the shoulder by the storekeeper, who fears for his glass, and then faints at the sight of his own blood.

With whom is eleven-year-old Sam Beaver camping when he finds the swans' nest?

His father is his camping partner at both ends of the book: in the last pages the two are out in the wilds again when Louis's horn carries across the water.

Which bugle call, the last of the day, does Louis play at the boys' camp alongside reveille and mess call?

Taps is the call Sam hears drifting across a lake in the book's final pages, 'just as darkness fell', and knows it must be Louis.

Which E. B. White children's novel came 25 years before The Trumpet of the Swan?

Stuart Little came out in 1945 and Charlotte's Web in 1952; when the swan story followed in 1970, John Updike called it 'the most spacious and serene of the three'.

Which actress voiced Serena, the swan Louis loves, in the 2001 animated film of The Trumpet of the Swan?

Reese Witherspoon's swan film reached US cinemas in May 2001, two months before she arrived as Elle Woods in Legally Blonde, which took $142 million worldwide.

Which Oscar-winning actress voiced the Mother swan in the 2001 animated film of The Trumpet of the Swan?

Mary Steenburgen, whose film career began when Jack Nicholson spotted her in a Paramount reception room, won her Oscar for Melvin and Howard and plays the pen opposite Jason Alexander's cob.

Which director of The Swan Princess co-directed the 2001 animated film of The Trumpet of the Swan?

Richard Rich started in the Disney mailroom in 1972, made his directing debut on The Fox and the Hound, and shared this film with Terry L. Noss.

Roughly how much did the 2001 animated Trumpet of the Swan gross in cinemas worldwide?

About $630,000 was all it took worldwide, most of it abroad: the US run, in 125 cinemas, brought in under $160,000.

Which New Yorker cartoonist, also seen in Punch, illustrated the first edition of The Trumpet of the Swan?

Edward Frascino's wash drawings replaced the pen-and-ink style of White's earlier books, and John Updike, uneasy at first, decided sharper pictures 'might mar more illusions than they abet'.

Which scientific name, built on the Latin word for 'trumpeter', did John Richardson give Louis's species in 1831?

Cygnus buccinator borrows the Latin for a trumpeter, the same word anatomists gave the cheek muscle used in blowing; Cygnus cygnus is its Eurasian cousin, the whooper swan.

How does Louis get word to Sam Beaver when the Philadelphia Zoo wants to keep Serena for good?

By telegram: Louis first talks the zoo's boss into putting the operation off for a while, then wires Sam for help, and Sam flies to Philadelphia.

Besides his trumpet playing, what about Louis impresses Serena when she falls for him at the Philadelphia Zoo?

His many possessions (trumpet, writing kit, camp award and money bag) catch Serena's eye as much as his serenade does.

How does the money Louis sends to the music store compare with what the trumpet and the damage cost?

Several times more than the debt, so the storekeeper keeps what he is owed and gives everything left over to the Audubon Society.

What does Louis compose during his summer as a camp bugler in The Trumpet of the Swan?

A love song for Serena takes shape between the day's bugle calls, two jobs before a storm blows her into the zoo where he is lodging.

Why does Louis's new trumpet playing fail to win Serena straight away at Red Rock Lakes?

She has migrated north by the time Louis can really play, and rather than follow his family he stays behind, weighed down by guilt over the stolen trumpet.

Where do the cob and pen build the nest in which Louis hatches?

On a small island in a pond, the nest is watched daily by young Sam Beaver, whose visits alarm the cob until the boy saves the eggs from a predator.

Where does Louis learn to read and write in The Trumpet of the Swan?

At Sam's school a doubtful teacher lets the swan join the class, and he proves such a quick study that Sam buys him the writing kit he will carry round his neck.

Where does Louis fly to confess his guilt over the stolen trumpet once he has learned to play it?

Sam's ranch is where Sam suggests Louis take a job to pay for the trumpet and the damage, and lines up the camp bugler post.

Which comedian voiced Mrs. Hammerbotham in the 2001 animated film of The Trumpet of the Swan?

Carol Burnett, who closed every episode of her variety show by tugging her ear, a signal to the grandmother who raised her, voices the film's Mrs. Hammerbotham.

Which jazz trumpeter is the name of the swan hero of The Trumpet of the Swan a reference to?

Louis Armstrong is the reference: characters in the book compare the swan's playing with his, and like him the bird ends up a paid professional musician.

What message does Louis write for the cob to deliver to the music store along with the money bag?

An apology in his own hand goes with the money; Louis then gives up writing for good, planning to live the rest of his life among swans.

What does Louis order a dozen of from room service on his night in a grand Boston hotel?

Watercress sandwiches, a dozen of them, are his dinner, in a hotel chapter John Updike's 1970 review singled out for its 'penetrating charm'.

Who reads the unabridged audiobook of E. B. White's The Trumpet of the Swan?

E. B. White himself recorded the full reading, pronouncing his hero's name 'Loo-ee'; a later stage version handed the story to John Lithgow, Kathy Bates and Martin Short.

Whose Marvelous Misadventures of Sebastian beat The Trumpet of the Swan to the 1971 National Book Award?

Lloyd Alexander, already a Newbery medallist for The High King, took the prize, and White's swan, only a finalist, went on to win two state awards in 1973.

Who voted The Trumpet of the Swan the winner of the two state book awards it took in 1973?

Schoolchildren in Oklahoma and Kansas voted it their favourite for the Sequoyah and William Allen White awards, two years after the National Book Award judges had passed it over.

Which Last Five Years composer scored the Kennedy Center's 'novel symphony' of The Trumpet of the Swan?

Jason Robert Brown also conducted the piece, with Marsha Norman's adaptation performed by John Lithgow, Kathy Bates and Martin Short.

Which artist illustrated E. B. White's two earlier children's novels but not The Trumpet of the Swan?

Garth Williams's pen-and-ink animals were, John Updike wrote, as wedded to White's earlier books as Tenniel's pictures are to Alice, and his heart fell a little to find them gone.

Which voice actor, later Phineas and Ferb's Perry the Platypus, voiced the hero of the 2001 Trumpet of the Swan film?

Dee Bradley Baker is billed as the voice of 'Louie', the film's spelling of the swan's name; a specialist in animal noises, he won Perry by offering three creature sounds at his audition.

Where at the Philadelphia Zoo does Serena land when she is blown off course one stormy night?

Bird Lake is inside the zoo where Louis is lodging as a guest, so the storm delivers Serena straight to him.

What title does The Trumpet of the Swan give the Philadelphia Zoo boss who bargains with Sam Beaver?

The Head Man agrees to hold off the operation on Serena and then accepts Sam's bargain in exchange for the pair's freedom.

Why does the cob object when Sam Beaver starts visiting the swans' nesting pond every day?

Human boys are dangerous, the cob believes, until Sam drives a predator from the nest; afterwards he proudly parades the new brood to the boy.

Which feature of Louis's kind of swan, the trumpeter, is the largest of any waterfowl in the world?

Its bill can be twice the length of a goose's, and being black rather than orange is the quickest way to tell a trumpeter from a mute swan.