Peter Pan's royalties still fund a London children's hospital
J. M. Barrie gave Great Ormond Street Hospital the copyright in 1929. Even after the works entered the public domain, a special UK law lets the hospital keep collecting royalties from British adaptations of the boy who would not grow up.
Peter Pan is Barrie's free-spirited flying boy who never ages, leading the Lost Boys on Neverland among fairies, pirates, mermaids, and visiting mainland children. He first peeks from the adult novel The Little White Bird (1902)—in "Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens" he is a seven-day-old "betwixt-and-between" taught to fly by birds and fairies—then conquers the West End in Barrie's 1904 stage play about the boy who refuses to grow up. The figure now stands for youthful escape across film, TV, and merchandise. Barrie hired sculptor George Frampton for a Peter statue planted overnight among the trees of Kensington Gardens on 30 April 1912, startling London's children the next morning; six further casts from the mould stand worldwide. In 2002 Royal Mail marked the character's centenary with stamps.
Biographical sparks include Barrie's brother David, dead in an ice-skating accident the day before turning fourteen and remembered by their mother as forever a boy, and the Llewelyn Davies children Barrie said he "rubbed together" to make Peter. Barrie left appearance vague; the play dresses him in autumn leaves and cobwebs with dagger and sword. Stage tradition often casts women—Nina Boucicault in 1904 wore a reddish tunic and dark green tights now at Barrie's Birthplace; Pauline Chase's similar costume (1906–1913) is in London's Museum of London. Disney later standardized a green tunic, feathered cap, and elf ears.
Steven Spielberg's Hook (1991) ages him into Robin Williams's Peter Banning, pointed ears returning only in Pan mode. From nursery flight to hospital endowment, Barrie's creation keeps funding care for real children while embodying the refusal to grow up.
Source: Peter Pan (character)
