Shirley Temple: Baby Burlesks

The harsh reviews I read about "Baby Burlesque" being extremely racist and even kiddie porn was way off base to me. Yes, Shirley Temple may have shown too much leg, and the young boys are bare chested in almost every episode, but any adult who views 5-year-old boys and girls as sexy should not exist as far as I'm concerned. I simply saw these movies for what they were, to entertain young children back in the 1930s. In one of the episodes, Temple marries one of the boys, and the episode ends with Temple and her hubby giving a baby a bath. "Baby Burlesque" did indeed push the envelope for children in adult themes, but it was not offensive to me. The last episode is a short biography about Shirley Temple and seeing her excited about eating cake with other children on her birthday was a smile fest. This biography also shows Temple and Bill 'Bo' Jangles Robinson tap dancing up a stair case while holding hands from one of her feature fims with him. The holding hand part I think was cut from the orinal movie, because the studio feared the American white masses couldn't handle seeing an African American man holding hands with a young white girl. From what I've read, Temple & Robinson were Hollywood's first interracial dance team and Shirley Temple called Robinson uncle Billy even in her adult years. Young children would like "Baby Burlesque" more then adults I think. Defintely not too racist, and certainly not child pornography. Film buff historians should view these films for themselves.

Shirley Temple is a most amazibg child. This was. Early in her career. She was quite young, maybe 4 or 5.It did seem like they sexualized the children and I did find that repulsive.I do realize the world was operating in many ways common for the time.Admittedly, I found it somewhat disturbing.

These movies are satires of movies popular at the time they were made using young children in the roles. It may seem odd to have the boys topless, but its nothing you wouldn't see at the old swimming hole. One reviewer called it racist because Philip said "yes boss." to another character. But somehow she did not comment about when the boy called Philip "boss." Looked up "yes boss" in urban dictionary and there's nothing racist in that term. I did some research and found where church groups were showing the movies for its entertainment value and comedy. Great to see that Shirley Temple's natural charm at an early age. These are young kids acting, so there's no polished performances

Fun to see unshown shorts

I never review films on here, and the other reviewers pretty much nailed it, but this creeped me out so much I felt compelled to rate it anyway. Why are all the toddlers half to mostly naked at all times? In the first one, why is the one kid sucking milk out of a glove (after catching a stream of it on his face from above) when there are BOTTLES EVERYWHERE??? Why is the poor Black kid speaking twice as slow as the others and stripping on the table? Why are the male "Native Warriors" tugging the screaming Shirley Temple into different directions as if to imply they're about to cart her off? Oh my God -- so many questions. I have so many questions and I want none of them answered. I get that this was A Different Time, and I'm capable of watching other time capsules of racism and problematic themes while taking into consideration the context, but I reeeeally don't understand how this was okay back in the day. Maybe the jazz cigarettes were a little too potent back then, who knows, but in the meantime I'm going to take a long shower and try to steel wool this collection out of my brain.

I would give this ZERO stars! I agree with all the reviewers. It is extremely disturbing that there is so much pedophilia (sexualization and sexual exploitation of girls/children), racism and misogynistic stereotyping in these videos. It appears that all of the so-called Christian groups censoring Hollywood thought this was ok. It is not OK but this explains how they can sidewind their way around morality today. No one else needs their brains/thoughts polluted. This should only be watched by cultural anthropologists studying the degradation of American society. We have evolved to it's ok to keep children in cages. I feel so angry at Shirley Temple's parents and all the sick adults involved in the production of these shorts. I now understand a lot more about Shirley Temple. She was a survivor.

I wish I could unsee the the few scenes I watched of these films since it make me so sad to see how these young children were exploited. I wanted to see some of the early work of Shirley Temple since she was such an incredibly precocious child. I had no idea that her acting career started this way. I know adult burlesque during this period was replete with sexual innuendos, but I didn't expect that these preschoolers would used in this way. These short films are very disturbing.

In my opinion, these belong in a different camp from the rest of the interesting material from the early 20th century that has recently made it to Prime and may not be suitable for the audience it's being suggested for. These films were made as a way to normalize racism and pedophilia. The only reason anyone should be watching these today should be if they're writing a report on why racism and pedophilia is so rampant and normalized in America...