Volume II: Filmography

TAMING THEIR GRANDCHILDREN

British release title: TRAINING THEIR GRANDCHILDREN

September 9, 1913 (Tuesday)

Length: 1 reel (1,000)

Character: Comedy-drama

Scenario: Lloyd F. Lonergan

Cast: Helen Badgley, Marie Eline (a circus midget)

Note: Marie Eline also played a circus midget in an earlier Thanhouser film, The Star of the Side Show, released April 2, 1912.

ADVERTISEMENT, The Moving Picture World, September 13, 1913:

"The mischievous kids were handed over to the old folks for correction by their despairing parents - and, lo! they made said old people young again and decidedly loath to curb their kids in their pranks. Indeed, they joined with them!"

ARTICLE, Reel Life, September 6, 1913:

"If you are hungry for a delicious, rollicking quarter of an hour, you should certainly not fail to see the new Thanhouser comedy sketch, Taming Their Grandchildren. It is a play of two wicked youngsters, a pair of uncompromising old folks, a real, live circus, and the complications which inevitably arise.

"Indulging in forbidden mud pies almost costs little Tim and sister Helen the circus grandpa had promised them. When they got their faces and their clothes all 'chocolate dirt,' grandma said they must be punished; of course, that meant, no circus. Perfectly aware that the penalty is all out of proportion to the enormity of their crime, Tim and Helen run away to the show. Their adventures and how they are traced thither by their exasperated grandparents, is the burden of this intensely amusing little farce. The circus scenes, with thrilling enlargements of the menagerie, and Tim and sister Helen perilously familiar with elephants and lions and tigers, also the grandparents' discovery of the two runaways, sitting in the front row of the circus tent, with lapfuls of corn balls and pink ice cream cones, wildly cheering the show, are so vividly reminiscent of our own childhood pranks that we laugh until we cry. The best thing about the play is, that while we are convulsed with laughter, it gets a tremendous grip on our feelings; those two crazy kids, Tim and Helen, are so much the sort of little chaps we used to be!

"Of course the young sinners win out. In the closing scene grandpa and grandma are down on all fours on the library carpet, bitted and bridled, each surmounted by a flushed and triumphant young rider, who holds the reins of the situation in an indomitable fist. One is bound to relish the sly inversion of the title: the play is, in fact, Taming Their Grandparents."

SYNOPSIS, The Moving Picture World, September 20, 1913:

"Indulging in forbidden mud pies almost cost little Tim and sister Helen the circus Grandpa had promised them. When they got their faces and their clothes all 'chocolate dirt,' Grandma said they must be punished; of course, that meant no circus. Perfectly aware that the penalty was all out of proportion to the enormity of their crime, Tim and Helen run away to the show. Their adventures and how they are traced thither by their exasperated grandparents, is the burden of this intensely amusing little farce. Of course the young sinners win out. In the closing scene Grandpa and Grandma are down on all fours on the library carpet, bitted and bridled, each surmounted by a flushed and triumphant young rider, who holds the reins of the situation in a sturdy, indomitable fist."

REVIEW, The Moving Picture World, September 13, 1913:

"The laughter this brings out is due to the cleverness of the appealing Thanhouser children and the naturalness of the scenes rather than to the plot, which is very light. The grandparents agree to take care of the children, but soon discover their hands are full. The kids run away and attend a circus. A pleasing number."

REVIEW, The New York Dramatic Mirror, September 24, 1913:

"One can readily suggest the story of this juvenile comedy by referring to it as 'The Children's Escape to the Circus.' It gives the baby 'thespies' vast possibilities to portray their impressionability, and they acquit themselves well. The grandparents' efforts are mere feeders for the tots. The circus scene is so effective as to create an appetite for popcorn and pink lemonade."

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