CACrown ArchivesThe cinema collection
EN/FR
Search
Menu
Research dossier · Arts & Letters

My Friend the Monkey

1939 film by Dave Fleischer

Manuscripts, fine bindings, an engraving plate and preserved performance ephemera
Arts and lettersInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionJun 27, 2026
Entity authorityQ6945524 ↗
Source-derived summary

My Friend the Monkey is a 1939 Fleischer Studios animated short film starring Betty Boop.

Synopsis

A hurdy-gurdy man comes by Betty Boop's house. She wants to buy his cute baby monkey. While Betty is outside haggling over the price, the monkey is inside causing plenty of trouble for Pudgy the Pup.

References

External links

My Friend The Monkey on Youtube.

My Friend the Monkey at the Big Cartoon Database.

Editorial summary

The public source identifies “My Friend the Monkey” as 1939 film by Dave Fleischer. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Friend, Monkey and film.

Editorial reviewBest approached as a cultural-object dossier: authorship and date matter, but circulation and reception often explain the wider significance. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1939—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1939-01-01. Its value is orientation rather than verdict, with Friend, Monkey and film providing the first useful test.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

A short description can identify a subject without explaining its stakes. For “My Friend the Monkey”, the useful work is to connect “1939 film by Dave Fleischer” to the records capable of establishing context and consequence.

Evidence profile

Object files, edition statements, performance records and contemporary criticism preserve different stages of the work’s history. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jun 27, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q6945524. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1939.

Critical limits

Titles can refer to several editions, objects or performances, making precise identification essential before interpretation. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Separate the work, its editions or performances, and its later reception. Catalogue records, publication histories and object files often preserve different parts of that story.

Best used for
  • Identifying works and editions
  • Tracing reception history
  • Finding collection records
Verify next

The original object or edition, catalogue raisonné, performance record, rights file and holding institution.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “My Friend the Monkey”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow My Friend the Monkey primary sources, My Friend the Monkey archive and Friend research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “My Friend the Monkey”?
  2. How did later circulation or interpretation alter the work’s reception?
  3. Where is authorship, date or provenance documented?
Subject index

Search terms from this dossier

Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “My Friend the Monkey” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.