Watch The Birdie!... And Smile For Me!
So.....when did the phrase "watch the birdie" begin? As with all time honored traditions, the phrase grew over the years with the generations.
As early as July of 1879, an issue of Photographic News contained an article about C.W. Davis who had been training a canary to sing on his direction to relax a sitter who in those days had to remain in a fixed position for many minutes while the camera took the photo. The article goes on to say that "soon photographers were able to buy a mechanical bird that chirped when a pneumatic bulb was squeezed and the phrase watch the birdie became a command at portrait sessions." Patent number 1,445,332 in 1923 belongs to Oscar Schwarzkopf as a toy bird songster. A brass Victory Canary Songster, also appears to be patented around the same time and The Risdon Manufacturing Company of Naugatuck, Connecticut produced their versions throughout the first half of the 20th century.
Hollywood Gets Into The Act
At least seven films dating back to the 1920's were entitled "Watch The Birdie" that all were centered around the ever emerging field of photography.
In 1928, a Universal Pictures short film in the Buster Brown Series was called "Watch the Birdie" and by 1935, Bob Hope, Nell O'Day and Arline Dinitz starred in an 18 minute short film called "Watch the Birdie" which was shown as a warm up to the Fred Astaire film "Top Hat" which had a wide release. "Hellzapoppin'" was a Broadway show that ran from 1938-1941 with Ole Olsen and Chic Johnson who later starred in the 1941 film version. One of the lesser documented songs in the movie, "Watch the Birdie" was sung by
Martha Raye
who's career of service to our country secures her place in our country's history as a patriotic icon. Later the song was recorded by many in the swing era and probably gained the most popularity with Anita O'Day and The Gene Krupa Orchestra with a 1941 recording session. It is this version of the Don Raye and Gene DePaul song that we feature on the fun cartoon video on our
home page
. It is a fun, 42 second cartoon that stars our "birdie" making it fun to smile for the camera.
In 1950, Red Skelton, Ann Miller and Arlene Dahl teamed up for "Watch the Birdie" where Red played a camera store owner and the father and grandfather of the character in separate roles as an early precursor to Eddie Murphy in his multiple role movies. 
In 1986, Anthony Edwards as "Goose" in Top Gun grabs his polaroid camera after "Maverick" had kept up foreign relations with the MiG, and says "watch the birdie". Feature Cartoons Add To The Lore
Walt Disney's "Lady and the Tramp" of 1955 contains a "Watch the Birdie" song toward the end of the feature and in 1958, Walter Lantz and Woody Woodpecker had a six minute cartoon feature where Woody says it back to the camera man. So... when does the phrase end? Hopefully not soon because we at Smile For Me Toys think it is worth bringing back to help grab attention of infants and toddlers and to help photographers to get the best out of their subject when their smiles will be captured for future generations! Return to Home from Watch the Birdie |