Our Gang

"My boy says, 'There aren't any kids like that anymore, are there?'..... [T]hat age of innocence is, looking back at it now, just unbelievable....You look around and say 'Where am I going to see that today?'" - Jackie Cooper

Baby boomers know them as The Little Rascals. Movie audiences of the twenties, thirties and forties knew them as Our Gang. By any name, Hal Roach's irrepressible group of fun-loving kids have amused and amazed us for over 75 years.

THE SILENT YEARS

The idea of creating a series starring real children came to Hal Roach in 1922 as he was looking out his office window. He became fascinated with a group of young boys fighting over a pile of sticks. As he stood there laughing, he thought that if he could capture that natural youthful energy on film, he might have a hit.

Roach always believed that the most successful comedians are childlike, and the Our Gang series took his theory one step further, making children themselves the comedians. It soon became one of the most popular of all his series, and aside from Laurel and Hardy, it is the only Roach series that the general public is still familiar with.

Mickey Joe Roach comedian Charlie Chase, under his real name of Charles Parrott, supervised some of the earliest Our Gang shorts, but Robert F. McGowan eventually became the guiding director behind the series. The silent Our Gang films featured a marvelously talented group. Freckle-faced Mickey Daniels was the leader, and fat Joe Cobb, scruffy Jackie Condon, pretty Mary Kornman and smiling "Sunshine" Sammy Morrison rounded out the eclectic group. Though this set of rascals has not been burned into the collective consciousness of those who grew up watching The Little Rascals on television (the silents were not included in the Film Classics TV package), the silent shorts are truly delightful and are a perfect example of the wit, warmth and pure fun that was the hallmark of Hal Roach films.

PETE THE PUP

The silent films also introduced the eternal symbol of the series, Pete the Pup. The original Pete was a movie veteran even before entering the Our Gang series, having starred in Harold Lloyd's THE FRESHMAN (1923) and the Buster Brown series. The distinctive ring around the talented pitbull's eye came from his days as Buster Brown's dog, Tige, and was not a natural phenomenon - it was actually painted on with dye by the Buster Brown people and it would not come off! Petey was not actually one dog, but a series of dogs, each with its own distinctive look, as can be seen by comparing the picture above with the one at the top of the page (note the placement of the rings). Since Petey could be replaced every few years, he became one of Our Gang's longest lasting cast members, staying on through 1938.

THE EARLY TALKIES

By 1929, talking films were here to stay, and there was no doubt that Our Gang, its popularity undiminished after 8 years of being on the screen, would continue. However, it took a while for the series to adapt to the new technology. The first Our Gang talkies were often awkward and slow. Shorts could be too enamored by the novelty of sound (Small Talk, When the Wind Blows), or just plain weird (Boxing Gloves, a strange hybrid of sound and silent footage). But after about a dozen films, the series found its footing again and maintained a remarkable consistency that no other Roach series could hope to match. From Pups is Pups (1931) through Hide and Shriek (1938 - the last Hal Roach short), there are dozens of classics, an equal amount of great films, a large group of thoroughly enjoyable romps, and only a small handful of genuine misfires. This consistency can be attributed to Hal Roach, who always paid special attention to the series and handpicked many of the members, and to directors McGowan, Gus Meins and Gordon Douglas, the three men who helmed the majority of the films through the years.

The early Our Gang sound films from 1931 to 1933 are uniformly heartwarming and funny, and based on real situations audiences of the Great Depression could easily relate to. They featured the Gang stuck in a world with mean step-mothers, irritable neighbors, heartless dog-catchers, shotgun toting chicken farmers, befuddled cops, and, once in a while, a kindly old grandma. The Gang was always remarkably diverse, featuring white kids, black kids, Oriental kids, fat kids, skinny kids, tough kids, wimpy kids, rich kids, poor kids, young kids, older kids, dogs, monkeys, mules, the occassional goat... always hanging tough together and rising above their troubles through their wit, spirit and creativity. As Our Gang enthusiast Leonard Maltin has noted, the Our Gang shorts had more integration between races than the feature pictures being filmed in the same era. Whereas in most feature films, black men were almost always porters or janitors, in the world of Our Gang, the black members, like Stymie and Farina, were always on an equal footiing with their white counterparts. Skin color meant nothing to the other kids.

JACKIE COOPER

Jackie Cooper dominated the 1931 films, one of the series greatest years. Cooper, a good-looking, scrappy young lad, inherited the role of "gang leader", left vacant for a while by the departure of Mickey Daniels from the series. Cooper was always good, but he was never better than in the "Miss Crabtree" trio of films Teacher's Pet, School's Out and Love Business, where he falls for his teacher (and who could blame him for falling for June Marlowe?). In these three classics, he shows such a range of emotions, it is no wonder that other studios wanted him. He is fondly remembered today not only for his work with Our Gang but also for his non-Roach features like SKIPPY, TREASURE ISLAND and THE CHAMP. Cooper was also one of the few child actors from Our Gang that went on to a long successful acting career. Film fans will remember him as grouchy Daily Planet editor Perry White in all four of the Christopher Reeves SUPERMAN movies.

FARINA AND STYMIE

Another great early talent was the laconic and hilarious Allen "Farina" Hoskins, who had started as a toddler in the silent films. Farina was a natural talent who knew how to give his lines just the right inflection. Farina was as versatile an actor as Cooper and had an amazing ability to cry on cue. Stymie

When he grew too old to remain in the series, Farina was replaced by Matthew "Stymie" Beard, who earned his nickname by constantly being underfoot of director Bob McGowan ("Boy, that kid stymies me all the time!"). Stymie could handle jokes and wisecracks with the best of them, and consequently got some of the best lines and dialogue routines of the series. According to Stymie himself, the derby he wore actually belonged to his hero Stan Laurel. Avid Rascals fans can spot a grown up Stymie in television shows and movies of the 70s, such as THE BUDDY HOLLY STORY.

WHEEZER, CHUBBY AND MARY ANN

Stymie often teamed with Bobby "Wheezer" Hutchins, an adorable kid with a smile that lit up the screen. Some of the most enjoyable moments in the films of this period comes from simply watching Wheezer frolic in bed with Pete the Pup or seeing his face light up with honest admiration while listening to the latest rambling stories from his pal Stymie. Wheezer's best film, and indeed one of the best shorts Roach ever produced, is Dogs is Dogs. Using a typically melodramatic plot (Wheezer battling an evil guardian and her spoiled brat of a son, and oh yeah, they hate his dog too), Dogs is Dogs, like all the great Our Gang films, combines humor, dialogue, pathos and pure slapstick, and concludes with a fairy tale ending that undoubtedly brought smiles to the faces of Depression audiences.

Chubby Norman "Chubby" Chaney replaced Joe Cobb as the fat kid. Chubby Mary Ann had an abundance of everything, especially comic talent. Chubby's rotundity, combined with an innocent, babylike face, made him instantly lovable, and he seemed to have learned a great deal from Oliver Hardy in the art of facial pantomime --- Chubby was always good for a killer closeup. Mary Ann Jackson, a befreckled tomboy, owned the the best repetoire of facial expressions in Our Gang history. Her talents are shown to great effect in films like When the Wind Blows, The First Seven Years and the Miss Crabtree trilogy.

ALL RASCALS GREAT AND SMALL

Hal Roach and his casting directors had an unfaltering ability to find just the right kids to add to the mix year after year, a talent evident not only in his choice of the "stars" but even in the lesser spotlighted youngsters. Each one of the gang members possessed a distinctive face, a knack for doing takes and doubletakes, and a remarkable facility for taking a tomato in the face without blinking an eye. Roach and company had such discriminating tastes when it came to who would and wouldn't join the Gang that they actually turned away both Mickey Rooney and Shirley Temple, not because they lacked talent, but because they did not fit into Roach's vision of the Gang.

At Roach, everybody learned from the success of Laurel and Hardy that you could double the laughs in a film by following a gag immediately with a funny reaction shot from someone else, and many Gang members seemed to be recruiited specifically for such shots. Typical of these unsung, mid-level gang members was Dorothy DeBorba, the kind of Our Ganger who never had a story built around her, but who could steal a scene from a more seasoned member with a perfectly executed popeyed look or scowl. Our Gang directors, especially Bob McGowan, were experts at coaxing great performances out of these kids, even for two second closeups.

SPANKY, SCOTTY AND ALFALFA

A three year old George "Spanky" McFarland arrived in 1932 and had so much natural charisma, even at that age, that Roach and the directors refocused the entire series around him. Eventually adding dozens of slang replies into the Gang lexicon ("Don't rush me, Big Boy", "You're tellin' me!", "And how!"), Spanky became the center of the Our Gang world almost as soon as he entered it, and continued to be through the forties. He was soon joined by Scotty Beckett (the kid with the sideways baseball cap), and together they provided some funny moments of the early and mid-thirties Our Gang, sitting on the sidelines and commenting on the actions of the bigger kids ("They'll never learn.").

Alfalfa In the middle of the decade, as the country struggled to overcome the Depression, Our Gang slowly evolved into a happier, more streamlined, less atmospheric series. Spanky eventually grew into the role of gang leader. When Scotty Beckett moved on to other studios, talented newcomer Carl "Alfalfa" Switzer replaced him as Spanky's best friend.

CHANGING STYLES AND FORMATS

Trying to move all his stars from shorts to features, Roach produced an Our Gang feature film, GENERAL SPANKY, in 1936. The film, a period piece about the Old South, was a big disappointment, managing to overlook almost everything that made the shorts so wonderful. Roach learned his lesson and never made another Our Gang feature.

The Our Gang shorts steadily continued, however, but they were changing again with the times. The hearttugging stories of the early thirties faded away, replaced now by pure comedies and several "let's put on a show" shorts. The popularity of this latter type of film (beautifully illustrated by 1935's The Lucky Corner) convinced Roach to film yearly musical showcases: Our Gang Follies of 1936, Reunion in Rhythm (1937) and Our Gang Follies of 1938. Alfalfa, Our Gang's "crooner", usually stole the show in these mini-musicals.

THE LATER ONE-REELERS

With his other comedy stars now either off the lot (Charley Chase) or moved firmly into features (Laurel and Hardy), and short films losing their importance on the average movie theater bill, Roach might have ended production on Our Gang, especially with the failure of GENERAL SPANKY. But MGM, Roach's distributor, convinced Roach that movie goers still wanted to see more Our Gang stories. Roach agreed to keep the series going, producing a series of one-reel films. These later films, which are the ones many people remember today, featured Alfalfa's off key singing and his crush on the adorable but fickle Darla Hood; a more mature

take-charge Spanky; and the indecipherable mumblings of Billie "Buckwheat" Thomas and Eugene "Porky" Lee ("O-tay!"), who took over as the younger kids, a la Spanky and Scotty. This group, like every horde of kids before them, had enormous screen presence and an almost uncanny ability to be funny. Alfalfa, in fact, grew into one of the most accomplished comedians on the Hal Roach lot and the sometimes Laurel and Hardyesque dynamics between his dumbwitted trust in Spanky ("Well, what are we going to do now?") and Spanky's indomitable optimism ("I've got an idea! Come on!") brought new levels of situation comedy to the series.

And the inspired reintroduction of former unsung member Tommy Bond as "Butch", also kept the series going strong late in the decade. Tommy, originally one of the mid-period kids (and seen in the picture at the top of this page, second from the left) was usually in the background, spotlighted only "Butch" once in a blue moon, as in Mush and Milk where he offers an unforgettable interpretation of the song "Friends, Lovers No More". But after a two year absence, he was asked to come back to play the villainous Butch (usually traveling with his oily pal, "Da Woim"), and Bond played it for all it was worth. Put on this earth to terrorize Alfalfa (usually for some innocent transgression of the Laws of Butch), Tommy Bond's "Butch" was a scowling, sneering characterization worthy of a Charlie Hall, Walter Long or Dick Cramer. The addition of "Butch" to the cast showed how the series, under Roach's guidance, could continually renew itself. The Spanky and Alfalfa shorts were certainly different from the Stymie and Wheezer era - more formulaic with most of the rough edges smoothed out - but they were solidly built, expertly executed and above all still funny and charming.

KIDS AND ADULTS

Having so many kids on the lot meant that Roach and company were never stuck when another film needed a child actor. Spanky made a guest appearance in the Thelma Todd-Zasu Pitts short One Track Minds, while Darla Hood found herself working with Laurel and Hardy in THE BOHEMIAN GIRL and with Charley Chase in Neighborhood House. Tommy Bond also worked both with the Boys and Chase, appearing in L&H's BLOCK-HEADS (as the kid whose football Ollie kicks down the stairs), and with Chase in I'll Take Vanilla and The Cracked Ice Man where he was joined by fellow Gang members Spanky and Stymie. Other studios found Our Gang to be a casting goldmine. Dickie Moore and Spanky McFarland are just two of the gang members who were frequently loaned out to other studios.

Miss Crabtree Though adults did not figure too much in the Our Gang world, a handful did leave their distinctive mark on the series. Edgar Kennedy did what he could to keep the very early sound fims amusing, reprising his bumbling Kennedy the Cop character in half a dozen films. June Marlowe was not much of an actress, but she made for a very endearing Miss Crabtree. Rosina Lawrence inherited the role of the Gang's teacher in the Spanky-Alfalfa years, and she was as lovely as always in this role in the mid-thirties. Johnny Arthur, who appeared in three Our Gang films, retains the distinction of being one of the few adults able to steal scenes from the Gang. His fussy, neurotic character was a perfect foil to the antics of the kids.

Other adults who added something special to the series were Billy Gilbert in Shiver My Timbers and Pups is Pups, Margaret Mann in Helping Grandma and Fly My Kite, Gay Seabrook and Emerson Treacy (emulating Gracie Allen and George Burns) in Wild Poses and Bedtime Worries, Zeffie Tilbury in Second Childhood, Henry Brandon (reviving his Barnaby character from BABES IN TOYLAND) in Our Gang Follies of 1938, and Don Barclay, the fussbudget chauffeur in Honky Donkey ("Listen, cop, I'm on the verge of disliking you."). Laurel and Hardy even entered the Our Gang world, albeit as "children", in Wild Poses. (Both Stan Laurel and Babe Hardy appeared separately in some silent Our Gang shorts, as did Harold Lloyd and Charley Chase).

THE MGM SHORTS

In 1938, Roach folded his short films unit and sold Our Gang to MGM, who characteristically misunderstood, mishandled and destroyed it. (See the careers of Laurel and Hardy, The Marx Brothers and Buster Keaton for further evidence as to how this outstanding studio had no clue when it came to handling classic comedians.) As Spanky, Darla, Alfalfa and Buckwheat grew up, a host of new characters came along, including a young Mickey Gubitosi, who, as Robert Blake, went onto fame and fortune as TV icon "Baretta" in the 1970s, but achieved his highest level of notoriety in 2005, when he was found not guilty of murdering his wife. There was also Billy Laughlin, whose annoying ability to imitate Popeye somehow convinced MGM that he would be a perfect addition to the series as "Froggy". The simple storylines of the Roach years eventually became poorly acted morality plays with titles like Time Out For Lessons. The Hal Roach kids, who could do wonders on any old Culver City backlot, looked strangely out of place amidst the splendor and glamour of MGM sets.

The most distressing aspect of the MGM films is the mannered acting of the kids, even from the veterans Spanky, Darla and Alfalfa. Even relatively amusing shorts like Clown Princes and Bubbling Troubles are marred by amateurish, loud line reading and grade-school level acting. In addition, time waited for no rascal, and popular stars such as Buckwheat and Spanky grew too old to be convincing. Shorts like the forgettably stupid Don't Lie prove that Mother Nature never intended a clear speaking, well groomed Buckwheat to step before a movie camera. Add to the mix an assortment of corny sight gags created by double speed and stop motion camera work, extremely visible piano wire and half-hearted animation, and you've got a recipe for comedy films that deserve to be forgotten. The MGM Our Gang shorts desperately needed Wheezer frolicking in bed with Pete the Pup, Dorothy DeBorba screwing her face into an inscutable scowl, or Jackie Cooper spitting a wisecrack out of the side of his mouth, but those days were over. The MGM shorts didn't even feature "Good Old Days", the evocative theme music LeRoy Shield wrote for the series in 1931. MGM produced 51 Our Gang shorts, some good, some indifferent, many bad, and then in 1944, after 22 years and 221 films, Our Gang disappeared from the movie screen forever.

"THE LITTLE RASCALS" ON TV, VIDEO AND THE BIG SCREEN

The Roach films regained new popularity on television in the fifties and sixties under the title of The Little Rascals (MGM still owned the rights to the name Our Gang). Day after day, year after year, on local stations across the country, the adventures of Wheezer, Stymie, Spanky and Alfalfa played again and again, to the delight of American children everywhere. Though some shorts were edited for content and others weren't shown at all (the beautiful Farina and Stymie showcase, Little Papa, for one), Our Gang were still as fun as they had been twenty years before. In the video era, Our Gang was poorly represented by various random tapes containing spotty prints until the release of Cabin Fever's massive uncut and digitally remastered 21 volume set, hosted by Leonard Maltin. With four shorts on each tape, the entire Roach sound era was once again available to the public. Cabin Fever even included four good silent films (and a fifth one on a special 75th Anniversary tribute to Pete the Pup), so that fans could finally see the early Rascals in action. Many of the Roach shorts can also be found on DVD

An attempt to recreate Our Gang in the nineties resulted in the feature film THE LITTLE RASCALS, a movie which, despite some mildly charming moments, proved only one point - the inimitability of the original series.

OUR GANG THEN AND NOW

Yes, there are moments in Our Gang films that remind us how much times have changed. Some of these moments are funny, some are of questionable taste, and some are downright uncomfortable. Though many rightly find Our Gang films as fresh and funny as ever, they can be a nightmare for the Politically Correct crowd.

In Free Eats, a three year old Spanky waves a pistol around. (The pistol turns out to be a cigarette dispenser, which to some people is even more heinous!). In Big Ears, Dorothy and Stymie systematically feed Wheezer everything they find in the medicine cabinet. In Feed 'Em and Weep, Johnny Arthur accidentally locks baby "Junior" in the refrigerator. And, of course, there are ethnic references. In Free Wheelin', Stymie is referred to as "that little pickanniny". In other films, he refers to his "crap-shootin' fool" of a pappy, and frequently mentions nonchalantly how said pappy in jail again. In the silent film Derby Day, Sunshine Sammy yells at an Oriental character "Speak English - I can't understand 'chop suey'".

But moments like these in Our Gang are rare. 75 years ago is a long time in American history, a time when the massive influx of immigrants during the first two decades of the century made ethnicity a staple of language and humor everywhere from the local neighborhood to vaudeville and the movies. Words that were uttered innocently long ago come down to us all these years later as racial epithets we wouldn't dare use today. However, in the Our Gang comedies, most of the small handful of gags where race or skin color is involved are usually presented from a child's unjaundiced point of view. For example, in Three Smart Boys, Alfalfa and Spanky paint black dots on their face to simulate measles. When it comes to their friend Buckwheat, the black dots don't show up on his skin --- so they paint white dots instead.

Allen "Farina" Hoskins had no problem with the series approach to the occasional racial humor. "Even the whites were stereotyped, " he theorized for Leonard Maltin and Richard Bann's The Life and Times of Our Gang. "There was the classic fat boy, the freckled-faced boy, the little blonde angel... but they related to each other as a bunch of kids..." Summing up, he said marvelled at the foresight of the series' creators: "I think Bob McGowan and Hal Roach were ahead of their time; I can't think of anything that compared to the series that showed the equal inner relationships among the races."

The gags, lines and situations mentioned above can seriously unnerve the easily offended, people who believe that history is should not be written but rewritten and revised until all the uncomfortable moments no longer exist. But watching Our Gang with any agenda besides laughing is a losing proposition. It is much better to relax and just enjoy them for what they are - innocent depictions of a time long ago, when we still had the good sense to let kids just be kids.

The End .

Bibliography:

THE LITTLE RASCALS: THE LIFE AND TIMES OF OUR GANG by Leonard Maltin and Richard Bann, Crown, 1992.
TWINKLE, TWINKLE, LITTLE STAR (BUT DON'T HAVE SEX OR TAKE THE CAR) by Dick Moore, Harper and Rowe, 1984.
THE LITTLE RASCALS, REMASTERED AND UNEDITED Video Set, Cabin Fever, 1994.

OUR GANG'S GREATEST HITS
(a personal selection of the best of the sound shorts)

1929: Railroadin'
1930: The First Seven Years, Pups is Pups, Teacher's Pet, School's Out
1931: Helping Grandma, Love Business, Fly My Kite, Dogs is Dogs
1932: Readin' and Writin', Free Eats, The Pooch, Free Wheelin', Birthday Blues,
1933: The Kid from Borneo, Bedtime Worries, Wild Poses
1934: Hi'-Neighbor, Honky Donkey, Mike Fright, Mama's Little Pirate
1935: Anniversary Trouble, The Lucky Corner
1936: Second Childhood, Pay as You Exit
1937: Glove Taps, Rushin' Ballet, Night N' Gales, Fishy Tales
1938: Our Gang Follies of 1938, Three Men in a Tub

Laurel and Hardy Central