Although the King Features strip was an obvious knock-off with several similar parallels, the approach was quite different, and Little Annie Rooney had a successful run from January 10, 1927, to April 16, 1966.

When she performed at New York's London Theatre, the song became a hit, but the absence of any international copyright laws kept Nolan from collecting royalties.

A bitter Nolan retired from composing, and his song later became a favorite piano roll and calliope tune, heard at circuses and carousels.

James Joyce referred to Little Annie Rooney early in the first chapter of Finnegans Wake: "Arrah, sure, we all love little Anny Ruiny, or, we mean to say, lovelittle Anna Rayiny, when unda her brella, mid piddle med puddle, she ninnygoes nannygoes nancing by."

Prior to the creation of the identically titled comic strip, Mary Pickford starred as a girl of the slums in William Beaudine's 1925 silent comedy-drama Little Annie Rooney (United Artists), set in New York's Lower East Side.

[3] Shirley Temple did her first teenage role (receiving her second screen kiss) in Miss Annie Rooney (1942); the George Bruce screenplay is not an adaptation of the comic strip but instead dramatizes the situation of a poor girl with a wealthy boyfriend.