Cheaper by the dozen (book)
Cheaper by the dozen is a biography by Frank Bunker Gilbreth Jr. and Ernestine Gilbreth Carey published in 1948 . The book was a bestseller and has been translated into over fifty languages. In 1950 it was filmed by Twentieth Century Fox .
content
In a humorous way, the book tells episodes from the lives of time and movement management pioneers Frank Bunker Gilbreth and Lillian Moller Gilbreth and their twelve children. The book focuses on the years in Montclair, New Jersey.
The title of the book is based on one of Frank Gilbreth sen. most popular joke: When he was out in the car with his family and had to stop at a red light, he was often approached by passers-by about how to feed all these children. Gilbreth pretended to think carefully about the question. As soon as the light turned green, he replied, "Yes, you know, they are cheaper by the dozen," and drove off.
The second oldest child in the Gilbreth family, Mary, died of diphtheria at the age of six . The book does not explain this; Only in the sequel From children become people is their death mentioned in a footnote.
continuation
The sequel Turning Children into People , published in 1950, tells the family's adventures after Frank Gilbreth's death in 1924. Turning Children into People was also made into a film with Jeanne Crain and Myrna Loy in the leading roles. This film was released in 1952 and deals with the life of Lilian Gilbreth and her children.
Film adaptations
Cheaper by the Dozen was made into a film in 1950 with Clifton Webb and Myrna Loy as Frank and Lillian Gilbreth in the lead roles. Mildred Natwick's character, who belongs to a family planning organization and makes fun of the family, is based on a true story from the book.
Cheaper by the Dozen and Cheaper by the Dozen 2 was released in 2003 and 2005 with comedians Steve Martin and Bonnie Hunt in the lead roles, but has no relation to the book of the same name or the 1950 film, except that both feature a family with twelve children.
expenditure
- Cheaper by the Dozen , ISBN 0-06-008460-X
- Frank B. Gilbreth, Ernestine Gilbreth Carey : Cheaper by the dozen , novel, translated by Susanna Rademacher (= rororo , volume 1721), Rowohlt, Reinbek near Hamburg 1974, ISBN 3-499-11721-5 (German first edition Blanvalet, Berlin 1950) .
Awards
The authors received the French Prize for International Humor in 1950 for Cheaper by the Dozen .