Our Gang in 1929: Joe Cobb, Allen "Farina" Hoskins, Harry Spear, Jean Darling, Mary Ann Jackson, Bobby "Wheezer" Hutchins, and Pete the Pup.
Our Gang in 1929: Joe Cobb, Allen "Farina" Hoskins, Harry Spear, Jean Darling, Mary Ann Jackson, Bobby "Wheezer" Hutchins, and Pete the Pup.
They lived a different culture then, not like this rot we have to wade through now. With each passing the cultural rot just gets a little stronger.
Prayers up... RIP spent many many hours watching the Gang as a kidI had the biggest schoolboy crush on Miss Crabtree.
Rest in Peace
Some of them like Froggy passed away young. I always wonder how he did that with his voice, was that natural?
I can’t place her, though I only saw the Our Gang/Little Rascals shorts a time or two as a kid. My favorite was “Spooky Hooky”, where the guys skip school only to find out the entire class got taken on a field trip to the amusement park. Pretty funny stuff.
BTW, I found out recently that the 1994 Little Rascals film by Penelope Spheris is something of a cult classic among many 20-somethings. The critics hated it, but I’ve seen it spoken of on many forums by that group with the same sort of reverence aging Gen-X’ers like myself think of A Christmas Story. Weird.
Jean Darling, Photos: http://liambluett.com/tag/jean-darling/
I do remember Darla Hood, Darla of course:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Darla_Hood
Wasn’t she a cutie? And then all the makeup they did to get her mini bee stung lips. Probably curlers too.
I watched those reruns as a child. I remember little Mickey - I think that was Robert Blake’s name.
ping
Here’s little known fact for ya, Sammy: George “Spanky” McFarland made a cameo appearance on one of the last episodes of “Cheers” shortly before his death.
I knew that Darling was still around, and basically even out-lived virtually all of the younger, talkie-era Our Gang members. Not many connections left to the old Hal Roach studio. They produced some top-notch 2-reel comedies in the 1920s and 1930s... Laurel and Hardy, Charley Chase, Thelma Todd and ZaSu Pitts. A lot of the humor tended to be more ‘situational’ than slapstick (like Mack Sennett), although there was still an ample amount of the latter. Hal Roach himself lived a long life. I nearly got to see him at a film festival one time, but he wasn’t feeling up to it, and cancelled out.
The early-talkie Our Gang shorts really capture that semi-rural americana vibe that was still hanging over from the pre-Roaring 20s time. Something you’re more apt to find in 1910s/early-1920s film fare. And that nice, lilting soundtrack that was so reflective of West Coast dance-bands of the time. Quite differenct from the harder-edged East Coast sound.
Roach sold the rights to Our Gang over to MGM around 1938, and the subsequent 1938-44 shorts (with Froggy and Robert Blake) are total crap.
YUM YUM...EAT “EM UP!!!!
Little Rascals - Spooky Hooky 1936 in Color!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xPdcFhvaECE
Crazy House
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UII4553UITo
The Haunted House
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ndJRORZ4SHM
She was hot!!!
Imagine when kids were all free range.
RIP.
Loved the little rascals, too. Anyone remember The Bowery Boys? We were visiting Yosemite Park shortly after we arrived in this country, and standing against a rock cropping there was Little Louie, the guy who ran the soda shop in the series. All four of us in the car, stopped and shouted out “Little Louie” and the poor guy, who was then elderly, was all smiles and blushed the deepest red. We were too shy to do much more than wave, smile, (and hold up traffic) we were so reluctant to move on. Our first spotting of a movie star!!!
-PJ
Many of the Our Gang actors died before 60 and a several before 25.