Production Information
Studio: Columbia
Short Number: 66
Release Date: November 13, 1942
Running Time: 17:45

“What did you eat when you were a baby?” “Weeds.”
(Moe and Curly)

Short Take

A woman leaves a baby on the Stooges’ doorstep. Taking the baby in, the boys learn the hard way the responsibilities of fatherhood… having a hard time changing the baby’s diaper (they test how big the diaper should be on Curly) and trying to feed it things like an artichoke and spaghetti. Reading in the newspaper that a baby was kidnapped, just as the police arrive with their baby’s distraught mother, our heroes incorrectly assume they have the kidnapped child. And the chase is on!

Cast & Crew

Credited Production Crew
Produced & Directed by Jules White
Story & Screenplay by Clyde Bruckman
Director of Photography Benjamin Kline
Film Editor Jerome Thoms

Credited Cast
Curly Howard
Larry Fine
Moe Howard

Uncredited Cast
Bud Jamison – policeman
Julie Gibson – Mrs. Collins
Clarence Straight – Mr. Collins
Baby Joyce Gardner – Jimmy
Dudley Dickerson – road worker

Trivia

• This short is one of the rare few that contains explicit racial humor. Specifically, after Curly begins singing a song about Japanese people, he catches himself and says “What am I sayin’? [spits Pew!] on the Japanese.” The U.S. was at war with Japan during World War II at the time and jingoism was a presence in the media.
• While washing the celery being prepared for Jimmie’s meal, Curly sings an a cappella “nonsense song” with lyrics imagining he was a Brazilian coffee bean: “I was a boy in Brazil and I grew on a tree. / When they shook the tree then I fell down. / Then they put me in a bag / and they fastened on a tag / and they shipped me off to New York town.”

Production Notes

• Filming for Sock-a-Bye Baby commenced between April 28 and May 1, 1942.
• The film title is a parody of the lullaby “Rock-a-bye Baby,” likely shared by the similarly-named Popeye cartoon Sock-a-Bye, Baby from 1934.