Thanks to Michael for sending me these rare stills from The Cowcatcher’s Daughter which feature the talented but largely forgotten actress Marjorie Beebe (1908-1983). Thanks too for his help in writing this post. The spanking pics can be clicked to give even larger sized images.
That old cliché “They don’t make ’em like that anymore” was never truer than in the case of the spanking scene in The Cowcatcher’s Daughter (1931).
This Mack Sennett production starred Marjorie Beebe, who was Sennett’s comedienne of choice for his talkie shorts. Generally cast as an impudent, disobedient minx, her bottom was constantly being used for comic/erotic effect.
Throughout her career, she suffered numerous pratfalls, and had everything from catapults to footballs aimed at her behind, which left her ruefully rubbing her bottom.
Her pants came down in one sequence, and in another her bottom seems to be on fire!
She received at least two off-screen spankings in Dance Hall Marge (1931) and Racket Cheers (1930). Only just off-screen though – audible spankings that saw her return clutching her bottom, and in the latter film a butler provides a cushion to sooth her smarting bottom!
Finally, in The Cowcatcher’s Daughter she got her career-defining, richly-deserved, full ON-SCREEN spanking!!
The plot has the naughty daughter running off to the circus where she’d been riding her horse, bouncing up and down in the saddle on her bonnie bottom.
The build-up to the spanking begins as the runaway daughter is brought home to face her angry father played by Andy Clyde. She tries to sweet talk her way out of the spanking…but her father is having none of it.
He marches her indoors, still in her circus finery, and puts her right over his knee with her face staring at the carpet. He can see her big girl’s bottom under her buckskin skirt, and he knows he can still put a sting into it and make her really squirm under his razor strop.
There she is centre screen, and in close up, right over her father’s knee, with her bottom the highest part of her anatomy. Her father proceeds to administer a hard, measured spanking.
At last! She gets soundly SPANKED!
We can watch the effect on her, as each measured stroke is resoundingly applied to that well upholstered rear. He really lays it on to make sure it makes an impression, and one she’ll always remember.
In no time, he has her squirming and kicking her legs under the strop, her shapely bottom making a perfect target for her furious father.
She’s got that belt cinching in her waist, and Pop’s got his hand firmly on her back holding her down. Both serve to accentuate her bottom under the skirt.
You can feel his grim satisfaction each time he makes that strap resound right across her behind.
Then, she looks up to see…Oh NO!!…not…surely NOT!!
The man she secretly fancies… LOOKING IN THROUGH THE WINDOW!
The sheer embarrassment of it, being watched having her bottom spanked like a naughty little child!! The SHAME! The HUMILIATION
She REALLY wants her father to stop spanking her now:
BEEBE: But you’re hurting my pride.
FATHER: That’s just what I’m trying to do SPANK!
BEEBE: But I’ve learned my lesson.
FATHER: You can’t have – I’ve only just started SPANK!
Her face becomes contorted with pain as the razor strop really starts to bite. You can imagine her afterwards lifting up her skirt to inspect the damage – her sore bottom looking like an old world map of the British and French empires – plenty of red markings, and a few purple ones as well!
Then she’d put her hands very carefully around that burning behind and start trying to soothe the pain. Three minutes of spanking but she’d feel the effects for a lot longer.
Yes, Marjorie Beebe certainly deserves her place in the Cinema Spanking Hall of Fame alongside better known luminaries such as Maureen O’Hara, Paulette Goddard, Yvonne de Carlo and…erm…Trixie the horse.
And so does Mack Sennett himself, who couldn’t possibly have been into his spanking could he?
A quick glance through the titles of his other films suggests plenty of potential for some more undiscovered scenes. In fact there’s a series of “daughter” films that includes The Barber’s Daughter and The Plumber’s Daughter! One can have fun imagining an appropriate implement and scenario for each one.
Other Sennett film titles that sound highly promising include:
-
Daddy Knows Best (You bet he does)
-
The Giddy Age (18 – 60)
-
The Bride’s Mistake (Love, Honor and OBEY!)
-
Love Honor and Behave (Even better!)
-
Take Your Medicine (Got to be a winner)
- Alice Be Good (Or you know what’ll happen!)
-
Dangerous Curves Behind (!!)
-
Hard Knocks and Love Taps (Sounds more BDSM than spanking!)
-
Treating ‘Em Rough (Ditto)
-
Are Waitresses Safe? (Better spank them anyway just to be sure)
-
Never Too Old (Quite)
Yup, they sure don’t make ’em like that anymore!
The Spank Statement 
Valdor I’m intrigued that you know so much about the career of this largely forgotten, or to me to me at least, unknown actress. Actually I’m fascinated that you know so much about the career of Miss Beebe’s bottom. You recount at least six different scenes, let alone the cowgirl spanking, where the Beebe bottom plays a leading part. AMAZING.
Have you noticed that in the stills you use to illustrate this post Marjorie Beebe’s hair appears to be dark brown in the pre-spanking pics but, once she is over the old man’s knee, her hair has got much lighter. Incredible what a spanking can do for a woman – turns her bottom red and her hair blonde.
Even though these are stills it looks to me like the old father was not holding back with the razor strop on her bottom. I wonder if she wore padded knickers to protect a valuable asset for this scene. I’m sure you know the answer to this as you know everything else about her bottom!!! Please let us know.
Whilst on the subject of female bottom protection I wonder if Yvonne de Carlo put some padding over her derriere before she received that very hard spanking in Frontier Girl.
Well done another great post Valdor.
Michael, who co-wrote this post and has researched the life and career (and bottom!) of Marjorie Beebe, has replied by e-mail:
“I must say I’d always thought she looked a bit different over Andy Clyde’s knee from how she’d been before. I put it down largely to the absence of the hat, although it had struck me that her hair seemed straighter while she was being spanked. But SirVice is right – it’s changed colour too. Presumably filmed on different days, and Mack was cutting costs in the continuity department.
You’ve certainly done you homework on Mack Sennett titles, Valdor. And you’ve come up with at least one hit – ‘Alice Be Good’. That’s got a spanking. I’ve asked around for a pic. There was a later title called ‘Love Honor and Behave’ that you probably know of with an excellent spanking scene in it but that’s not a Sennett film of course. ‘The Bride’s Mistake’ actually stars Marjorie Beebe, but that time there were no spanking references.”
Personally, I was hoping that your theory was right Sir Vice, opening up the door for spanking to become widely practised as an “organic” alternative to peroxide!
Valdor
Val, you may also know about Marjorie Beebe’s Sennett short “Hot News Margie” (1931), released the same year as “Cowcatcher’s Daughter.”
There are no spankings in “HNM,” but Miss Beebe’s backside gets quite a workout, as she is seen falling on her bottom — twice, and HARD — and gets a load of buckshot in her rear, then running back to her office with a lot of smoke coming from her tush. She plays a “hot news” reporter who’s out to get the story, and she doesn’t care what tricks she has to pull to get it.
Marjorie Beebe may not have taken more than one spanking on screen, as in “Cowcatcher,” but she was certainly a game actress when it came to fanny humor.
Cheers,
Dan
Sounds like Marjorie Beebe’s behind certainly came in for some stick in 1931. She was 23 years old in that year, so I guess it’s peachy roundness would be at its peak of perfection, and Mack Sennett just couldn’t stop himself from dreaming up different ways of “using” it.
I’ve never seen or even heard of this film, Dan, so thanks a lot for telling me about it. 🙂