Everybody's Baby

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Everybody's Baby
Directed by Malcolm St. Clair
Written by
Produced by John Stone
Starring
Cinematography Edward Snyder
Edited by Norman Colbert
Music by Samuel Kaylin
Production
company
Distributed byTwentieth Century Fox
Release date
  • March 24, 1939 (1939-03-24)
Running time
61 minutes
CountryUnited States
Language English

Everybody's Baby is a 1939 American comedy film directed by Malcolm St. Clair and starring Jed Prouty, Shirley Deane and Spring Byington. It was part of Twentieth Century Fox's Jones Family series of films. [1] The film's art direction was by Bernard Herzbrun and Boris Leven. [2]

Contents

Plot

Dr. Pillcoff (Reginald Denny), who identifies himself as a child psychologist, arrives in the rural township carrying radical views on raising children, namely Behaviorism. His lectures on child rearing include warnings that holding and kissing babies harm their health. Local families are dismayed disturbed by the topic, but Bonnie Thompson (Shirley Deane), who is expecting a child, embraces the theory, causing friction in her family. The fathers in the community look into the matter and suspect that the so-called child expert is a fraud and take steps to expel the disruptive intruder. [3]

Cast

Theme

The topic of scientifically informed methods of child rearing and psychology were widespread in the United States at the time the Everybody's Baby was produced. Though the matter offers opportunities for humor, the subject matter was serious. [4]

The film character of “Dr. Pillcoff” played by Reginald Denny is based on real-life academic John B. Watson, who espoused the theory of Behaviorism in the 1920s and 30s. The hypothesis asserted that all human behavior could be conditioned, the aim of which to create healthy citizens. His book Psychological Care of Infant and Child (1928) urged parents “never hug or kiss [your infants], never let them sit in your lap.” [5]

According to film historian Ruth Anne Dwyer, director Malcolm St. Clair and associates “effectively debunks the Pillcoff/Watson doctrine” in Everybody’s Baby. [6]

Notes

  1. ↑ Drew p.180
  2. ↑ Dwyer, 1996 p. 227: Filmography
  3. ↑ Dwyer, 1996 p. 150-151, p. 227: Filmography, plot synopsis: Dywer notes in synopsis: “Behaviorism was regarded as a valid theory in America [at the time] and is soundly debunked in this film.”
  4. ↑ Dwyer, 1996 p. 150-151
  5. ↑ Dwyer, 1996 p. 151
  6. ↑ Dwyer, 1996 p. 150-151, p. 174: Social history section, cites Watson book. See also info on republished material from Watson in The Plastic Age: 1917-1930 (1970) And: p. 227: “Behaviorism was regarded as a valid theory in America [at the time] and is soundly debunked in this film.”

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References

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