50 Fun Facts About The Trumpet of the Swan

Which condition does Louis, hero of E. B. White's The Trumpet of the Swan, overcome by learning the trumpet?

Born without a voice, Louis cannot make the trumpeting call swans use to court a mate, so the cob steals him a brass trumpet as a substitute.

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 fiberglass swan and works the paddles like a bicycle, the boats have kept the same design for over 140 years.

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?

Louis tugs at Sam's shoelace, and that tug is how the cob and pen realise their youngest cannot make a sound.

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 refuge is a real place, set aside in 1932 largely to save the trumpeter swan when fewer than 200 were known to survive.

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 in The Trumpet of the Swan?

To play more notes, Louis needs fingers: the split webbing lets him work the valves rather than blowing a bugler's open tones.

Which distinction does the Philadelphia Zoo, Louis's lodging in The Trumpet of the Swan, hold among US zoos?

First to open, in 1874, after the Civil War delayed a charter granted in 1859, the Philadelphia Zoo still calls itself America's First Zoo.

In which country does Sam Beaver, camping with his dad, first meet the swans of The Trumpet of the Swan?

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 hang round Louis's neck for the rest of his travels, and he turns out to be a natural at reading and writing.

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 weekly pay does a Philadelphia nightclub offer to lure Louis away from his Boston job?

$500 a week is five times his Boston pay, and Louis takes up residence at the Philadelphia Zoo while playing the club.

What does Louis earn at summer camp, besides his wages, for rescuing a drowning camper?

A Lifesaving Medal joins the growing collection of objects hung round Louis's neck, alongside his slate, chalk, trumpet and money pouch.

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

The Ritz Hotel gives the swan a private suite, and his Boston fame draws a richer nightclub offer from Philadelphia.

What happens to the cob when he returns to the music store with Louis's money bag in The Trumpet of the Swan?

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.

How old is Sam Beaver when he first watches the nesting swans in The Trumpet of the Swan?

Sam is 11 and on a camping trip when he starts visiting the swans' pond every day, and ends up saving the pen and her eggs.

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.

In which year did Harper & Row publish The Trumpet of the Swan, White's third and last children's novel?

1970 came eighteen years after Charlotte's Web and twenty-five after Stuart Little; White was in his seventies when his swan story appeared.

Which actress voiced Serena in the 2001 animated Trumpet of the Swan, the same year she played Elle Woods?

Reese Witherspoon's Legally Blonde opened that July; the swan film had crept out in May and June and grossed well under a million dollars.

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

Mary Steenburgen, who won her Oscar for Melvin and Howard, plays the pen opposite Jason Alexander as the 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.

After a limited May release and a wide June one, how much did the 2001 animated Trumpet of the Swan gross?

About $630,000 ($628,387) made it a flop, with critics no kinder, though its casting did earn a Casting Society of America nomination.

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

Edward Frascino's cartoons ran regularly in The New Yorker as well as in Punch, Saturday Review and The New York Times.

Which scientific name, coined by John Richardson in 1831, does Louis's kind of swan carry?

Cygnus buccinator was described in the fourth volume of Alexander Wilson's American Ornithology, and its cygnets stay grey for about a year before turning white.

How does Louis get word to Sam Beaver when the Philadelphia Zoo plans to clip Serena's wings?

By telegram: Louis writes the message on his own after persuading the zoo's boss to postpone the operation for a short while.

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, the bag amazes the storekeeper, who had just taken the cob for a swan bent on smashing another window.

Why is the injured cob taken to a wildlife veterinarian instead of being finished off at the music store?

His species is protected by law, so the cob is patched up and flies home to Red Rock Lakes to rejoin Louis and Serena.

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 at the start of The Trumpet of the Swan?

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, proving a natural at both?

In Sam's classroom Louis proves a natural, and Sam buys him the writing kit he will carry round his neck for years.

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 joined Joe Mantegna and Seth Green in a cast whose casting earned the film its only award nomination.

Which jazz trumpeter is the silent swan in The Trumpet of the Swan named after, as the book says outright?

Louis Armstrong is the namesake, the book says so outright, and the mute swan ends up playing the same instrument on the same kind of stage, a nightclub.

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.

How old is Sam when he hears Louis's horn across a lake in the last pages of The Trumpet of the Swan?

About 20 years old, Sam writes in his journal: 'There is nothing in all the world I like better than the trumpet of the swan.'

Which reader, not a professional actor, recorded the unabridged audiobook of The Trumpet of the Swan?

E. B. White himself recorded the reading, which has since been published as an audiobook; a later stage version put John Lithgow, Kathy Bates and Martin Short on stage instead.

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

Lloyd Alexander won the prize again in 1982 with Westmark, among six finalist nods in all; White's swan had to settle for finalist.

Which composer's 1972 piece based on The Trumpet of the Swan was performed by the Philadelphia Orchestra?

Benjamin Lees, a native of Harbin, Manchuria, wrote it, and the piece was played by the very orchestra Louis is said to guest with in the novel.

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.

The 2001 animated Trumpet of the Swan's one award nomination, for its casting, lost to which Disney film?

The Emperor's New Groove took the Casting Society of America's animated prize; the swan film's cast included Jason Alexander, Seth Green and Joe Mantegna.

How is Louis's name spelled in the credits of the 2001 animated film, where Dee Bradley Baker voices him?

Louie is how the credits spell him, voiced by Dee Bradley Baker, while Sam Gifaldi voices Sam Beaver and Kath Soucie the young Serena.

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 postpone clipping Serena's wings 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.