Shirley Temple's Baby Burlesk Shorts

The Baby Burlesk series were satires of major motion pictures and the then current events. All of the performers were preschool-aged children. They were costumed as adults--excepting their giant diapers with pins--and given mature dialogue. Filmed in 1931-32, before the Hayes Code was actively enforced, the series is considered dated and exploitative by many modern viewers and film critics because of its depictions of young children in adult roles and situations.

Many of the children used in the series were recruited from Meglin's Dance School in Hollywood. One of them was Shirley Temple, who made her film debut in the Baby Burlesks at the age of three. Her first studio stand-in, Marilyn Granas, also appeared in a few of the pictures. Neither of the two leading actors of the series, Eugene Butler and Georgie Smith, went on to notable success.

Title: The Runt Page
Release: April 11, 1932
Genre: Comedy Short
Writer: Jack Hays
Director: Raymond Nazarro
Music By: James Dietrich
Produced By: Jack Hays
Distributed By: Universal Pictures
Run Time: 10 minutes

Shirley Temple, the most famous child star of all time, got her start in the Jack Hays and Charles Lamont Educational Films known as Baby Burlesks. These short skits featured a bunch of toddlers in diapers who depict scenes from famous movies. The first of these was a take-off of The Front Page (later adapted as His Girl Friday) called The Runt Page.

The only reason why some of these short parodies are even still around today are because how much the world loves Shirley Temple. Without her, this would have disappeared a long time ago or have been banned. It was an interesting look at Temple’s early career although it probably would have been better if the adult voices hadn’t been dubbed over the kids!


Title: War Babies
Release: September 18, 1932
Genre: Comedy Short
Writer: Jack Hays
Director: Charles Lamont
Produced By: Jack Hays
Distributed By: Educational Film Exchanges
Run Time: 10 minutes

The second Baby Burlesk short to be released, and probably the most popular one, is a spoof of the 1926 silent film What Price Glory. Originally to be titled What Price Gloria, it was instead decided to call it War Babies and give Shirley Temple a much bigger and better part than her first film.

Even if I had a hard time understanding what the kids were saying, I liked it more than having the adults dubbing their lines as they did with The Runt Page. I thought War Babies was a much cuter skit than Temple’s first screen appearance- and she even had a few lines in this one. Hays and Lamont may have not been the ideal filmmakers especially when it came to punishing the little actors but you can tell that the little French bar girl was having a good time.


Title: The Pie-Covered Wagon
Release: October 30, 1932
Genre: Comedy Short
Writer: Jack Hays
Director: Charles Lamont
Music: Alfonso Corelli
Produced By: Jack Hays
Distributed By: Educational Films Corp.
Run Time: 10 minutes

The first and only western made by the Baby Burlesk series was a spoof of the award-winning silent film The Covered Wagon that had premiered 10 years earlier. Altering the name only slightly to The Pie-Covered Wagon it’s basically a pioneers and Indians type of drama with Shirley Temple being saved just in time by the hero (played by Georgie Smith).

I didn’t enjoy this short at first because it was more about shouting and running around than anything else but then it got better even if it still had an Our Gang feel to it and Shirley had a very small part. I thought the pies as ammunition was hilarious and the dog had some of the best parts. Although the dog did talk once (in a growly weird voice), there was an even better line after the pioneers defeated the Indians:

The hero: “You should have been looking for Indians, not fooling around with bears!”
[The bear is swiftly approaching] Dynamite: “Boss, this bear ain’t foolin’!“

Title: Glad Rags to Riches
Release: February 5, 1933
Genre: Comedy Short
Writer: Jack Hays
Director: Charles Lamont
Music: Irving Bibo
Produced By: Jack Hays
Distributed By: Educational Film Exchanges
Run Time: 10 minutes

Unlike the previous Baby Burlesk shorts, this parody is an original about the Gay Nineties period (1890s) in America called Glad Rags to Riches. Shirley plays a showgirl called La Belle Diaperina that doesn’t want to perform anymore but she is trapped by her mean manager who will only release her if she marries him. As usual, her sweetheart saves her in the end.

Temple had a much bigger role than in the past shorts in Glad Rags. She acts, she sings, and she dances! It’s hard to believe she was only four years old when she made this. Actually the whole cast is terrific and they’re all around the same age but Shirley proves that she is most definitely the star.


Title: Kid N’ Hollywood
Release: March 14, 1933
Genre: Comedy Short
Writer: Jack Hays
Director: Charles Lamont
Music: Alfonso Corelli
Produced By: Jack Hays
Distributed By: Educational Films Corp.
Run Time: 10 minutes

Kids N’ Hollywood was a satire of Hollywood and some of its more famous actors at the time like Greta Garbo except of course by different names like Freta Snobo. In her autobiography Temple wrote: Kid in Hollywood cast me as a lowly, ambitious scrubwoman, rocketed in one blinding instant from anonymity to movie stardom. Within one year, this preposterous theme would be fact.

I liked this one and again little Shirley Temple steals the show as Morelegs Sweetrick (Marlene Dietrich). She can throw insults like no other, “Leave me, you oily-tongued rascal,” and her small musical number was good too. Her mother sewed most of Temple’s costumes in the Baby Burlesk series and the feathery one in this short was one of her favorites.


Title: Polly Tix in Washington
Release: June 4, 1933
Genre: Comedy Short
Writer: Jack Hays
Director: Charles Lamont
Music: Alfonso Corelli
Produced By: Jack Hays
Distributed By: Educational Films Corp.
Run Time: 10 minutes

In Polly Tix in Washington, Shirley Temple plays a girl on the payroll who is trying to corrupt an honest politician who is against castor oil and wants “A full milk bottle and a lollipop in every fist.” Ironically it was Temple who later in life went on as U.S. Representative to the Unite Nations and was also the first woman Ambassador and Chief of Protocol.

This is one of the more disturbing Baby Burlesks and I’m sure censors today would have a field day with it. However, it is probably an accurate portrayal of politics back then since it came out around the time of Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal policy. It's just odd seeing a four-year-old play a call girl. Of course, Polly falls in love with the country senator by the end but again, this was an odd little short.


Title: Kid in Africa
Release: October 6, 1933
Genre: Comedy Short
Writer: Jack Hays
Director: Charles Lamont
Music: Lee Zahler
Produced By: Jack Hays
Distributed By: Educational Films Corp.
Run Time: 10 minutes

The last Baby Burlesk short was a satire of Tarzan called Kid in Africa in which Shirley Temple plays a missionary named Madame Cradlebait who is attempting to tame and civilize the cannibals of the jungle. When she is captured and about to be eaten, Diaperzan saves her from her grisly fate and helps her with her mission.

This is the other popular Baby Burlesk that has appeared in several Shirley Temple releases but usually two or three minutes are cut out of it. Usually the part when the cannibals fall down while chasing her (they were actually tripped with a thin wire and several were hurt). I’ve only seen the cut versions so I think it’s one of the better Burlesk’s and the ending is really funny!

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