Co-author E. Gilbreth Carey (Cheaper by the Dozen) dies.

[CBHagman]

Author Ernestine Gilbreth Carey, one of several surviving children from efficiency experts Frank Bunker Gilbreth Sr. and Lillian Moller Gilbreth's large brood, has died at the age of 98. Mrs. Carey, along with a younger brother, Frank Bunker Gilbreth Jr., co-authored the memoir Cheaper by the Dozen, a hilarious account of life in the Gilbreth clan.

The book and its sequel, Belles on Their Toes, were later adapted for stage and film, though the most recent movies appropriating the title "Cheaper by the Dozen" have little to do with the original story.

Here's to a woman who made generations of readers laugh themselves silly.

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0136950/

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/06/books/06carey.html?_r=1&adxnnl=1&oref=slogin&adxnnlx=1163172063-tN3FNzICV23rIjFWHHInTA

The charming havoc of “Cheaper by the Dozen” found a wide audience just after World War II. Mrs. Carey and her brother mined a rich vein of humorous and quirky material from the Gilbreth clan. Mrs. Carey, the third child, and Frank, the fifth, plumbed what appeared to be the best of living in a brood that size.

An outing in their Pierce-Arrow, with Dad at the wheel and babies tucked in the front seat near Mother in the days before seat belts, felt “like a back somersault off the high diving board.” The household was described as “organized confusion,” resembling a “newspaper on election night.” In their house in Montclair, N.J., servants took care of cooking and gardening, although every child was assigned to look after a younger sibling and performed other tasks.

Given their father’s penchant for order, “nothing was considered more of a sin in our house than wasted time and motions,” the authors wrote. Dad, though a benevolent soul, ran a household that was above all else driven to learn. Language records were played in the bathrooms while the children washed; they absorbed French and German that was later recited at the dinner table. Mealtime could be as intense as a board meeting, since “no one could talk unless the subject was of general interest.” Practical jokes, centered around Dad, defused the tension.


And I couldn't resist adding the Miss Snark link here:


http://misssnark.blogspot.com/2006/11/ernestine-gilbreth-carey.html

[Blue_Tires]

1. wow

my 6th grade teacher read that story to us in 1988....(i even started brushing my teeth with TWO brushes like in the book!)

[CBHagman]

3. I read it in middle school.

I thought it was hilarious, particularly the parts about the father's eccentricities and the kids' practical jokes.

The father of a friend of mine grew up in Montclair, New Jersey, and he reported that Frank Bunker Gilbreth Sr. had quite a reputation for quirkiness.

And I was well into adulthood before I realized what a pioneer Lillian Moller Gilbreth was in terms of her professional life. On top of that, it's no mean feat to bring up a family that size.

[cmkramer]

4. I loved those books

It's too bad the movie remake didn't make more use of them, but I suppose the audience it was aimed at would have gone "Gilbreth who?" and stayed away.

My favorite part is when they get the visit from the planned parenthood lady who keeps going on and on about the evils of large families.

[hedgehog]

2. I loved those books and absorbed Frank Gilbreth's principles from them

He was the original "work smarter, not harder" guy. When other industrial engineers were inventing the speed-up, he was figuring out how to make the work more efficient. I may be wrong, but I think he helped develop the operating room protocol that we're all so familiar with in which someone hands the surgeon the instruments as needed. Most of the amazing management innovations that have come out in recent years seem to be Gilbreth repackaged. For example - having the parts you need when you need them. What an amazing notion! It had to be labeled kan-ban and re-imported from Japan before a lot of management people got the message, though. .

[Dora]

5. I read that book so many times. I still have it on my bookshelf.

Now I'll go read it again. :)