Is Cheaper by the Dozen a True Story? Is the Movie Based on Real Life?

Gail Lerner directed the 2022 rendition of ‘Cheaper by the Dozen,’ a family-oriented comedy film from the home of Disney. The story follows struggling interracial mother and father Zoe Baker and Paul Baker (Gabrielle Union and Zach Braff, respectively) within the journey of managing their sprawling household. The truth is, with youngsters from their earlier marriages to the combination, the mother and father have a tough time holding observe of the household. On the similar time, they try and help the household enterprise. The New Jersey-based Bakers maintain sufficient attraction to entice you totally of their immersive journey. Nevertheless, chances are you’ll be desperate to know whether or not the story has a foundation in a real-life household. If the query surrounding the film’s authenticity is bugging you, allow us to embark upon an investigation.

Is Cheaper by the Dozen a True Story?

‘Cheaper by the Dozen’ is partially primarily based on a real story. Nevertheless, after a number of film diversifications, spin-offs, and reboots, the later initiatives change into fairly indifferent from actuality. In 1948, US-based journalist and writer Frank Bunker Gilbreth Jr. wrote the semi-autobiographical account ‘Cheaper by the Dozen’ co-authoring together with his sister Ernestine Gilbreth Carey. The story was loosely primarily based on the Gilbreth superfamily, together with Frank and Ernestine’s mother and father, Frank Bunker Gilbreth and Lillian Moller Gilbreth. The New Jersey-based couple, well-known for his or her pioneering Movement Examine work, seemingly made their residence a residing laboratory.

Frank and Lillian Gilbreth certainly had twelve youngsters who survived infanthood. Nevertheless, whereas writing the guide, solely eleven have been alive, as Mary died of diphtheria at age 5. Throughout Mary’s loss of life, seven of her siblings have been but to be born. Thus, there by no means have been twelve youngsters within the family concurrently. The writers didn’t need the guide to have an easy novel construction. Subsequently, they envisioned the guide as a sequence of tales. They took the title from one among Frank Gilbreth Sr.’s favourite jokes. If anyone on the street would ask how he acquired so many youngsters, he would confidently reply – “Effectively, they arrive cheaper by the dozen, you understand” – and drive off.

Though the writers took some artistic liberty within the preparations of the tales, they have been largely taken from reminiscence. The guide abruptly ends in 1924, with Frank Sr.’s tragic demise. Across the time, a lot of the Gilbreth youngsters have been both toddlers or youngsters — the oldest, Anna, being solely round 20 years previous. The 1950 Technicolor film saved the essence of the unique story all the way down to the character names. The pair of siblings additionally wrote a sequel to the guide ‘Belles on Their Toes,’ which figured right into a 1952 movement image.

In 1992, Christopher Sergel tailored the story for a stage musical, the place David Rogers and Mark Bucci composed the rating. Then, in 2003, Shawn Levy directed a reboot of the 1950 film with the identical title. A sequel of the 2003 Disney film, titled ‘Cheaper by the Dozen 2,’ was launched in 2005, the place Adam Shankman dealt with the duty of course. Other than the core construction of a household struggling to rear twelve youngsters, the reboot motion pictures had little to no ties with the guide.

In August 2019, Disney acquired Twentieth Century Fox. Shortly after, then-CEO Robert Iger introduced that Disney would reboot the franchise with a recent rendition. Geil Lerner co-wrote the script with Kenya Barris and Jenifer Rice-Genzuk Henry. The Geil Lerner film sticks to the fictional “Baker” household, following Shawn Levy’s model. Nevertheless, it modifications the backdrop from Midland, Illinois, to New Jersey, the place the Gilbreth household initially lived. Subsequently, contemplating all of the elements, the 1950 film is the one one which follows the story from shut quarters. Within the case of the later installments, fiction outweighs actuality.

Learn Extra: The place Was Cheaper by the Dozen (2022) Filmed?