Mary, Queen of Brats

Released
November 25, 1923

Starring

 * Farina
 * Jackie
 * Joe
 * Mary
 * Mickey

Story
Lonely rich girl Mary is miserable because her mean governess won't let her play with dolls. One bright day Mary's kind gardener gives her four adorable figures clad only in short grass skirts. Unbeknownst to her the dolls bear uncanny resemblances to Mickey, Joe, Jackie, and Farina. Mary tells a story to her stuffed animals that has a jungle theme. She is being held by Jackie and Joe while Farina stirs a giant pot over a fire. Mickey comes in swinging on a vine, knocks out the other three boys, ties them to a tree, and swings away with Mary.

When Mary wakes from her nap the dolls are gone, having been thrown in the garbage by the governess. Mary searches inside and outside, and she sees the boys at the corner of her street playing with knives, and having just delivered laundry to a house on her block. She runs over and hugs all of them, and invites them in even after they explain why they’re in grass skirts. They make a mess of the house while Mary is preparing food for them. The governess returns and catches them and goes to get a policeman. The boys hide and Mary puts the dolls her gardener found in the trash in their place to confound the governess. Mary convinces the policeman the governess is crazy, and she is taken away.

However, one week later everything is straightened out. The governess was found not to be crazy, and the ruse of substituting the dolls for the real boys was uncovered. For punishment, Mary was forced to wear a grass skirt for the next three months. While it might have been different if she was under age five, Mary had to wear a top which consisted of two shells connected on a string, like Ernie made Farina wear in “Speedy Company.” Ernie had liked to tease Farina by dressing him up as a girl, but that stopped as soon as the original grass skirt sentence had been imposed. Also, the boys had three months of wearing grass skirts added to their sentences.

Mary was very apprehensive, but Mickey assured her that she would get used to it. He hugged her, and it felt very good to her (and Mickey, too). Joe, Jackie, and Farina laughed at Mary and Mickey’s reactions, but the act gave Mary enough confidence that she would get through this if she could be with this gang as much as possible.