Subjects
Audition Notice: Cheaper by the Dozen - Conejo Players Theatre. Adapted by Sherman Sergel From the Book by Frank Gilbreth and Ernestine Gilbreth Carey Produced by special arrangement with Dramatic Publishing. Auditions will consist of cold readings from the script.
Become part of the Gilbreths and experience what it's like to be part of a large family. The pre-reading and vocabulary sections prepare students for the upcoming chapters. Get an idea of what an efficiency expert is like by brainstorming what their goal might be. Identify statements about the Gilbreth's car as true or false. Describe how the children convinced their parents to buy a family dog. Explore the Gilbreth's life view by finding more efficient ways to do things in the classroom. Investigate the life of F.W. Taylor, whose achievements influenced the Gilbreth's work in efficiency. Using a chart, compare the traits of Mr. Gilbreth with another character in the novel. Aligned to your State Standards and written to Bloom's Taxonomy, additional crossword, word search, comprehension quiz and answer key are also included. About the Novel: A classic story of a family of twelve children and their adventures while growing up together. Frank and Lillian Gilbreth were renowned efficiency experts, who often practiced their many different theories and experiments on their large family. Written with wit and humor, the book documents a multitude of humorous and touching vignettes–some hilarious and others nostalgic and heart-warming. Family adventures include the family car, a vintage Pierce-Arrow, which is used by the parents for Sunday drives and causes the children no end of embarrassment. As well as a trip out west to visit Mother's straight-laced family. It is a story in which most families will readily identify, and keep the reader turning the pages to the very end.
Publication Details
- Publisher:
- Classroom Complete Press
- Edition:
- 1
- Publication Date:
- 2008
- Series:
- Novel Study Guides
Format
- OverDrive Read
- Adobe PDF eBook 6.1 MB
- Adobe EPUB eBook 8 MB
Cheaper by the Dozen | |
---|---|
Directed by | Walter Lang |
Produced by | Lamar Trotti |
Screenplay by | Lamar Trotti |
Based on | Cheaper by the Dozen 1948 novel by Ernestine Gilbreth Carey Frank Bunker Gilbreth Jr. |
Starring | Clifton Webb Myrna Loy Jeanne Crain Betty Lynn |
Narrated by | Jeanne Crain |
Music by | Cyril J. Mockridge |
Cinematography | Leon Shamroy |
Edited by | James Watson Webb Jr. |
Production company | |
Distributed by | 20th Century-Fox |
Release date | March 31, 1950 (New York)[1] |
85 min. | |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Box office | $4,425,000 (US)[2][3] |
Cheaper by the Dozen is a 1950Technicolor film based upon the autobiographical book Cheaper by the Dozen (1948) by Frank Bunker Gilbreth Jr. and Ernestine Gilbreth Carey. The film and book describe growing up in a family with twelve children, in Montclair, New Jersey. The title comes from one of Gilbreth's favorite jokes, which played out in the movie, that when he and his family were out driving and stopped at a red light, a pedestrian would ask: 'Hey, Mister! How come you got so many kids?' Gilbreth would pretend to ponder the question carefully, and then, just as the light turned green, would say: 'Well, they come cheaper by the dozen, you know', and drive off.
Plot[edit]
The parents are the time and motion study and efficiency experts Frank Bunker Gilbreth Sr. and psychologistLillian Moller Gilbreth. The film shows typical days in the lives of a family in the 1920s, but here with 12 children and an efficiency engineer as the parent. Frank employs his unorthodox teaching methods on his children, and there are clashes between parents and children. Frank takes every opportunity to study motion and increase efficiency, including filming his children's tonsillectomies to see if there are ways to streamline the operation. As it turns out, the doctor made a mistake by misidentifying one of the girls. After sedating one, he realizes she doesn't need her tonsils out, but goes ahead and does it anyway. That means the other daughter, who has been eating all morning - mainly as a means of teasing all her siblings who couldn't eat prior to surgery - has to have hers out, and is therefore miserable afterwards. Karma is a bitch!
As the family is struggling a bit, given its large size, they make do with an old car called 'Foolish Carriage', which only the father can control, and the children are often dressed alike. One day, while stopped at a red light, a crowd chuckles over the large brood, and one man makes a Noah reference. Frank, ever the jokester comments that he's just doing what the good Lord directed him to do: gather animals two by two, and now he only needs a jackass. he invites the man to hop aboard.
Frank, having essentially home schooled the children to a large degree, insists on meeting with the teachers at their new school. While waiting for them to arrive, he even shows the principal the most efficient method for taking a bath! When the family vacations on Nantucket Island for the summer, the older girls complain about having to wear the old traditional bathing suits that consist of underwear, outer layers, and even stockings, whereas the other teens of that era are wearing simple one-piece suits. Frank chides them for asking as he feels such outfits are inappropriate for a proper lady to wear. The older girl points out that such girls are quite popular with the boys, to which Frank replies that he liked such girls in his youth as well, but when he decided to marry he wanted a good girl. This attitude is reinforced later when a young man she's sweet on says the exact same thing. A bit of a double standard, but common in that era.
Frank often travels as part of his work, and one day he calls the house to check in with the family. One of the sons answers and then hands the phone off to Lillian, but when she speaks there's no reply, and so she hangs up. It turns out, Frank has died. After his funeral, she gathers the children together to discuss their situation. They can move to California to be with family or stay in their home, but with some sacrifices. The family agree that Lillian will continue with her husband's work; this enables the family to remain in their house, rather than move to their grandmother's in California, although, with a widowed working mother and one income, the children will have to assume much greater responsibilities, most of the household staff will have to go, and they'll have to sell 'Foolish Carriage'. As Lillian says, Frank was the only one who could ever get it to run.
Cast[edit]
- Clifton Webb as Frank Bunker Gilbreth Sr. (father)
- Myrna Loy as Mrs. Lillian Gilbreth (mother)
- Jeanne Crain as Ann Gilbreth
- Barbara Bates as Ernestine Gilbreth
- Betty Barker as Mary Gilbreth
- Patti Brady as Martha Gilbreth
- Norman Ollestad as Frank Gilbreth Jr.
- Carol Nugent as Lillie Gilbreth
- Jimmy Hunt as William Gilbreth
- Anthony Sydes as Fred Gilbreth
- Teddy Driver as Dan Gilbreth
- Roddy McCaskill as Jack Gilbreth
- Walter Baldwin as Jim Bracken
- Sara Allgood as Mrs. Monahan
- Evelyn Varden as School Principal
- Edgar Buchanan as Dr. Burton
- Mildred Natwick as Mrs. Mebane
- Craig Hill as Tom
- Betty Lynn as Deborah Lancaster
Sequel[edit]
Because of the success of Cheaper by the Dozen, Gilbreth and Carey wrote a follow-up to their book, entitled Belles on Their Toes (1950), which was also made into a 1952 movie by 20th Century-Fox. Another film called Cheaper by the Dozen, also about a 12-child family, but with totally different characters and storyline, was made 53 years later starring Steve Martin and Bonnie Hunt.
Comparison to real life[edit]
The birth order in which Cheaper by the Dozen portrays some of the children is not the same order in which the real Gilbreth children were born. For example, Robert (who was born in 1920) is shown as being born in 1922, as the last child after Jane (who was born in 1922). This is reversed in the movie's sequel.
In real life, Mary, who was the second child, died in 1912, aged 5. However, in the film Cheaper by the Dozen, Mary is placed as the third child after Ernestine, and has few or no lines.[4]
Both Frank and Lillian Gilbreth were important figures in real life. The voice-over at the end of the film informs the audience that Lillian went on to become the world's leading efficiency expert and the TIME magazine Woman of the Year in 1948. Additionally, in 1984, her image was put on a US postal stamp.
Reception[edit]
Reviews from critics were mostly positive. Bosley Crowther of The New York Times wrote that 'it all adds up to entertainment of a broad, brash and innocent sort.'[5]Variety called it 'a lot of fun' with 'a lot of humor, and just enough clutching at the heart to please any audience.'[6]Harrison's Reports called it 'delightfully amusing' with comedy 'that keeps one chuckling throughout and at times reaches hilarious proportions.'[7] 'Pleasant light entertainment,' reported The Monthly Film Bulletin.[8]John McCarten of The New Yorker was less enthused, writing that 'since nothing much happens in the way of conflict, there just isn't any drama, and the piece boils down to one of those typical fluffy comedies about home life in America.'[9]
References[edit]
- ^'Cheaper by the Dozen'. AFI Catalog of Feature Films. Retrieved June 9, 2018.
- ^'All-Time Top Film Grosses' Variety Weekly January 13, 1954
- ^Aubrey Solomon, Twentieth Century-Fox: A Corporate and Financial History Rowman & Littlefield, 2002 p 223
- ^'Cheaper by the Dozen'. TCM.
- ^Crowther, Bosley (April 1, 1950). 'The Screen In Review'. The New York Times: 22.
- ^'Cheaper By the Dozen'. Variety: 11. March 29, 1950.
- ^''Cheaper by the Dozen' with Clifton Webb, Jeanne Crain and Myrna Loy'. Harrison's Reports: 50. April 1, 1950.
- ^'Cheaper By the Dozen'. The Monthly Film Bulletin. 17 (196): 65. April–May 1950.
- ^McCarten, John (April 8, 1950). 'The Current Cinema'. The New Yorker: 112.
External links[edit]
Wikiquote has quotations related to: Cheaper by the Dozen (1950 film) |
- Cheaper by the Dozen on IMDb
- Cheaper by the Dozen at Rotten Tomatoes
- Cheaper by the Dozen at AllMovie
- Cheaper by the Dozen at the TCM Movie Database
- Cheaper by the Dozen at the American Film Institute Catalog
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