Pardon My Pups: Shirley Temple, Queenie the Dog, and Junior Coghlan in the 1934 Short Comedy

A teenager languishes for the sure speed of motorcycle wheels, not spaniel paws, in Pardon My Pups by writers Ewart Adamson (October 23, 1882 – November 28, 1945) and Ernest Pagano (January 16, 1901 – April 29, 1953); writer/director Charles Lamont (May 5, 1895 – September 12, 1993); and producer Edwin Hampton Allen (November 15, 1885 – August 13, 1942). Dwight Warren (July 18, 1889 – August 14, 1979) and Walter C. Smith (January 22, 1904 – February 6, 1974) respectively monitor cinematography and sound. The equivalent of film editing results from the post-production analysis and pre-release approval of The National Board of Review of Motion Pictures. The production company studios of the Educational Films Corporation of America serve as the filming location.

The 19-minute film claims third place in the four comedy shorts known as the Frolics of Youth and realized from 1933 to 1934 by Educational Films under the observation “The Spice of the Program.” The opening date for public circulation by the studio’s distribution company, Fox Film Corporation, is identified as January 26, 1934. It is preceded by:

• Merrily Yours of October 6, 1933;
• What’s To Do? of November 24, 1933.

It precedes Managed Money of February 23, 1934. It unites with the series’ other three comedies in attempting to narrow the generation gaps between:

• A precocious little sister, Mary Lou, and temperamental older brother, Sonny;
• Both children and their working-class parents, Mr. and Mrs. George Rogers.

The movie begins with Mary Lou (Shirley Temple, April 23, 1928 – February 10, 2014):

• Awakening Sonny (Junior Coghlan, March 15, 1916 – September 7, 2009) with birthday-wishing, rain-forecasting, and toes-tickling;
• Informing Mother (Virginia Eames True Boardman, May 23, 1889 – June 10, 1971) of ceiling-moistened -- not bed-wet -- blankets and pajamas;
• Pondering Sonny’s cynophobia;
• Relishing rain which soaks her clothes, not her.

George Rogers (Harry Myers, September 5, 1882 – December 25, 1938) chides Sonny for:

• Asking $75 for a second-hand motorcycle, not canine champion Clarinet’s direct descendants;
• Eluding Harry Vanderpool’s (Kenneth Howell, February 21, 1913 – September 28, 1966) bulldog.

Sonny’ next-door girlfriend Phyllis Dean (Dorothy Thompson Ward, December 4, 1911 – April 14, 1988) has the bulldog butt-nip Harry.

As a runaway, Sonny changes Farmington’s population sign from 160,789 to 160,788. He finds around railroad tracks:

• Àla carte menus;
• A homeless man pan-frying two bacon strips;
• A black-and-silver-coated, brown-eyed dog.

He gets Beauty bathed and head-bandaged despite Mary Lou’s wet-spongeing Phyllis, Sonny, and herself. He is home in time for George to:

• Deny Mother new furs for betting against Sonny’s return by 6 p.m.;
• Order Beauty into the City Pound.

He lambasts George’s hypocrisy over disdaining an abandoned, pregnant dog’s helplessness but nursing Sonny’s broken leg and Mother’s pneumonia. He leaves before Harry arrives to inform George of Queenie’s escape over railroad tracks. Mary Lou minces no words regarding George’s dual standards regarding canine pedigrees.

The movie ends with:

• George falling into the trunk as Harry heads his convertible -- licensed 6S80 -- in pursuit of Queenie;
• Sonny hiding Beauty.

Sonny covers Queenie with his white cardigan, the back and front of which have two dark, highly-placed, horizontal stripes. Queenie eats the spaghetti that Mary Lou brings and the unraveling sweater while Harry arrives to beat Queenie for escaping and Sonny for protecting Queenie. The fight involves:

• Mary Lou enticing Harry into Queenie’s washtub, fork-wounding Harry’s rear, and getting Harry’s face punched and tarred by a wall cabinet-hidden boxing glove;
• Sonny’s tree-swing knocking Harry through the wall and toward the trunk, thereby freeing George.

But everyone rejoices in Queenie’s 8 cardigan-sporting pups.

My special thanks to talented artists and photographers/concerned organizations who make their fine images available on the internet.

Ideal Novelty and Doll Company (founded in New York in 1907): Mike Licht (Mike Licht, NotionsCapital.com), CC BY 2.0, via Flickr @ https://www.flickr.com/photos/notionscapital/12472408815/

Motion Picture News, May 15, 1920, page 4138: Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:E_W_Hammons_-_May_1920_MPN.jpg; Not in copyright, via Internet Archive @ https://archive.org/details/motionpicturenew212unse/page/n1357/mode/1up

a plate of spaghetti: Javier Lastras from España/Spain, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Espagueti_de_Pasta_Fresca_al_Huevo.jpg; Javier Lastras (jlastras), CC BY 2.0, via Flickr @ https://www.flickr.com/photos/22662305@N04/4226161068/

tamara s. "Shirley Temple in Pardon my pups." YouTube, July 18, 2008, @ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UieMo9Ba498

WATCH: Shirley Temple: Pardon My Pups (1934) http://bit.ly/1eZ8OkY #classic #movies
WorldWorthWatching @worldworthwatch, via Twitter Aug. 8, 2015, @ https://twitter.com/worldworthwatch/status/629871605359972352

Sonny (Junior Coghlan) and his mischievous sister, Mary Lou (Shirley Temple) disagree with their father (Harry C. Myers) on the best dog for Sonny in Pardon My Pups: WorldWorthWatching @worldworthwatch, via Twitter Aug. 8, 2015, @ https://twitter.com/worldworthwatch/status/629871605359972352

Black, Shirley Temple. October 1988. Child Star: An Autobiography. New York: McGraw-Hill.

Hevesi, Dennis. 3 October 2009. “Frank Coghlan Jr., Child Actor of Silent Era, Dies at 93.” The New York Times: Arts>Television. Retrieved on April 25, 2014.

• Available at: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/04/arts/television/04coghlan.html?_r=0

Lamont, Charles, dir. Pardon My Pups. Uploaded Sep. 24, 2011, by Video-Cellaron to Internet Archive.

• Available via Internet Archive at: https://archive.org/details/PardonMyPups

Mendoza, Martha. 2014. “Shirley Temple Obituary.” Legacy Memorial Sites>2014>Actors>Featured Memorial: Shirley Temple. Retrieved on April 25, 2014.

• Available at: http://www.legacy.com/ns/obituary.aspx?n=shirley-temple&pid=169632179