--- title: Anne of Green Gables: The Crazy Publicity Stunt description: The movie, based on the book by Lucy Maud Montgomery, got a PR boost from an unusual source canonical: https://time.com/4129229/anne-of-green-gables-movie-stunt/ author: Lily Rothman article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-11-30T17:44:00.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-22T12:57:40.109Z article:section: History og:title: The Craziest Publicity Stunt for 'Anne of Green Gables' og:description: The movie, based on the book by Lucy Maud Montgomery, got a PR boost from an unusual source og:url: https://time.com/4129229/anne-of-green-gables-movie-stunt/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt7fee86defdabb344/6988730e196cf4543103936f/anne.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Anne Shirley og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: The Craziest Publicity Stunt for 'Anne of Green Gables' twitter:description: The movie, based on the book by Lucy Maud Montgomery, got a PR boost from an unusual source twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt7fee86defdabb344/6988730e196cf4543103936f/anne.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # The Craziest Publicity Stunt for _Anne of Green Gables_ > Sponsored content. 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They are at time.com/newsletters and are separate from a paid subscription.  by [Lily Rothman](https://time.com/author/lily-rothman/)  ## Lily Rothman Rothman is managing editor at TIME. Nov 30, 2015 5:44 PM UTC  circa 1940: Portrait of American actor Anne Shirley circa 1940: Portrait of American actor Anne Shirley Jack Albin—Getty Images  by [Lily Rothman](https://time.com/author/lily-rothman/)  ## Lily Rothman Rothman is managing editor at TIME. Nov 30, 2015 5:44 PM UTC You’d think a name like “Dawn O’Day” would have been enough, but it wasn’t enough for the starlet who went by that moniker in the 1930s. After being cast as the lead in the 1934 film of _Anne of Green Gables_—based on the novel by Lucy Maud Montgomery, who was born on this day, Nov. 30, in 1874—she decided to do more than just play the part of Anne Shirley on screen, as TIME reported that December: --- > “” --- But, even though the trick may have been called “banal,” it worked. By 1936, TIME was [calling](http://time.com/vault/issue/1936-07-27/page/46/) the switch “an improvement that deserved but did not get an Academy Award”—and the movie was a hit. The actress Anne Shirley managed to make the name work until her retirement in her 20s, after starring in movies like _Stella Dallas_ and _Murder, My Sweet._ Shirley [wasn’t the only](https://books.google.com/books?id=B4q1WWk9BggC&pg=PT91&dq=anne+shirley+gig+young&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjT0N7007jJAhVC5iYKHQuOCDUQ6AEIHDAA#v=onepage&q=anne%20shirley%20gig%20young&f=false) star to take the name of a character during that period of the Hollywood studio system; a few years later, the actor Byron Barr became Gig Young after playing that role in _The Gay Sisters_. **_Read the full story from 1934, here in the TIME Vault:_** [The New Pictures](http://time.com/vault/issue/1934-12-10/page/36/) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4129229/anne-of-green-gables-movie-stunt/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4129229/anne-of-green-gables-movie-stunt/"},"headline":"The Craziest Publicity Stunt for Anne of Green Gables","datePublished":"2015-11-30T17:44:00.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T12:57:40.109Z","description":"The movie, based on the book by Lucy Maud Montgomery, got a PR boost from an unusual source","url":"https://time.com/4129229/anne-of-green-gables-movie-stunt/","keywords":["movies","Books","People"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt7fee86defdabb344/6988730e196cf4543103936f/anne.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Lily Rothman","jobTitle":"Rothman is managing editor at TIME.","url":"https://time.com/author/lily-rothman/"}],"articleSection":"History","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt7fee86defdabb344/6988730e196cf4543103936f/anne.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Anne Shirley","caption":"Anne Shirley","creditText":"Jack Albin—Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/history/","name":"History"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/movies/","name":"movies"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4129229/anne-of-green-gables-movie-stunt/","name":"The Craziest Publicity Stunt for Anne of Green Gables"}}]}] ```