When parents and grandparents ask me – and they often do – what’s the secret to turning young people on to the wonders of vintage black and white movies, I invariably answer “The Little Rascals!!!” (with just that level of enthusiasm, and sometimes I make the “okay” sign with my fingers and say “O-TAY”). Here’s how it’s always worked for me, my sons and their friends: I start the kids when they’re 4 or 5 on the Rascals; within a year or two, I slide in a Laurel and Hardy film, to equal acclaim. A short time after that, I slip in a silent L&H like Liberty or Big Business, which the kids find hilarious (so do the grownups), and then we’re on to Keaton and Chaplin and pretty soon you’re getting kids whining to see “Modern Times again!”

Sneaky, but effective.

The Our Gang films were successful (22 years, 220 shorts and one feature) and found new life with a couple of generations of kids who grew up watching them on TV. Nearly all their talking films are available on Blu-ray, and only recently a new direct-to-DVD/BD remake, The Little Rascals Save the Day, appeared out of nowhere. Unfortunately, there is a wealth of misunderstanding and misapprehension for the series on the part of many “enlightened” people, and this article intends to lay as much of that to rest as possible. Before we swat down a few tall-tales, let’s present a brief overview of the series, shall we? O-tay!

The Silent Era

Producer Hal Roach always claimed he was sitting in his office one day, when through the window he noticed a group of kids playing with sticks and arguing over who was going to get the biggest one. He sat enthralled for several minutes, and decided a short subject series about, um, short subjects would be a crowd-pleaser. He already had 7-year-old star “Sunshine Sammy” Morrison under contract, and filled out the cast with the children of studio hands and their friends. He christened them Hal Roach’s Rascals, and after a rough start as the kids – non-actors save for Sunshine Sammy – got used to their duties, the fourth film produced, One Terrible Day, was the first to be released in September 1922.

By the fourth release, Our Gang, in November of that year, the series was popular enough that theatre owners were requesting more “Our Gang” comedies. Charley Chase was the supervising producer, Robert F. McGowan was the director, and the core group of kids during this era included Sunshine Sammy, Allen “Farina” Hoskins, Mickey Daniels, Mary Kornman, Jack Davis, Jackie Condon and chubby little Joe Cobb.

By 1927, Roach moved from Pathé to MGM to distribute all of his films (including what would become the Laurel & Hardy series), and the cast had been joined by Bobby “Wheezer” Hutchins, Jean Darling, and Pete the Pup, the Gang’s trademark mascot with the ring around his eye. In late 1928, Roach wired for sound, and the Gang’s first talkie was released in May 1929, although earlier silent adventures continued to be released through the end of the year.

To date, the only “official” release of the silent Our Gang films consists of the 14 existing shorts from the 1927-1929 MGM period (several others are lost).

The Talkie Era

The cleverly-named Small Talk was the Gang’s 89^th film and the first to feature them speaking. Because most of the kids were too little to read, improvisation was called for, part of the charm.

In those days, movie series ran as TV series do today, from fall until spring (most theatres weren’t air conditioned), but the first talkie season for the Gang consisted of 11 films, the first of 3-reels (about 30 minutes) and the others of two reels each. The stars of Our Gang this season included Jackie Cooper (age 7), Wheezer (4), Mary Ann Jackson (6), Norman “Chubby” Chaney (11), and veterans Joe Cobb (12) and Farina (11). Highlights from this year included Boxing Gloves, with Joe set to fight Chubby, only Joe can’t get mad enough and Chubby’s a-scared; and The First Seven Years and When the Wind Blows, with Edgar Kennedy as Kennedy the Cop, alternately serving as a help and a hindrance to the Gang.

The 1930-31 season brought three delightful new additions to the troupe, Matthew “Stymie” Beard, Dorothy “Echo” DeBorba (both only 5), and the Gang’s legendary schoolmarm, Miss Crabtree, a/k/a June Marlowe. A wonderful and hilarious three-part series featured Jackie and Chubby as rivals for their teacher’s affections: Teacher’s Pet, School’s Out, and Love Business. Teacher’s Pet also introduced the beautiful tune Good Old Days, written by LeRoy Shield. It instantly became the Our Gang theme song.

The Depression hit Roach, like other producers, hard, and at the end of this season, he’d sold Jackie Cooper’s contract to Paramount and released Mary Ann, Chubby, Farina, and Shirley Jean Rickert (must be sad to be washed up when you’re still a pre-teen). The 1931-32 season relied on Stymie, Wheezer, “Breezy Brisbane”, Dorothy, and some minor players… until Free Eats introduced three-year-old (you read that right) George “Spanky” MacFarland, who would stay with the Gang for nearly 100 shorts over the next 11 years. This year’s classics included Shiver My Timbers (the Gang runs away to become pirates), Spanky (the Gang puts on their rendition of Uncle Tom’s Cabin), and – my particular all-time favorite – Dogs is Dogs, with Stymie showing Sherwood how ham and eggs can talk.

Roach continued to produce eight 2-reelers a year starring Our Gang, and as kids outgrew their parts, they moved on and were replaced by newcomers, many from nationwide talent searches that also served as great publicity for the Gang, who made many public appearances during this period. (The Gang’s busy schedule and the unavailability of Spanky left time for only six shorts in 1933-34).

Some of the great films from this period include Free Wheeling (the Gang builds their own taxi); Birthday Blues (real-life best friends Dickie Moore and Stymie bake a cake that makes the stove pulsate and go “BWEE-BWAHB!”); Fish Hooky (the kids play hooky but the truant officer chases them down at the amusement park; now all-grown-up Mary Kornman and Mickey Daniels return to the series for this one); the screamingly funny Kid from Borneo pits Spanky against “Uncle George”, actually an escaped sideshow freak (“Yum! Yum! Eat ‘em up!”); Wild Poses with Franklin Pangborn as a sissy baby photographer, with a guest appearance by Laurel & Hardy; Hi’-Neighbor! is another particularly funny one, as the Gang build a car and challenge the snotty rich kid to a race; The First Round-Up, with Spanky and Scotty Beckett, the two “little kids”, proving their worth on an overnight camping trip. I could go on and on but you get the idea; there are a LOT of very wonderful Our Gang films to be remembered (and don’t miss Mama’s Little Pirate, and Shrimps for a Day, and Our Gang Follies of 1936, and The Pinch Singer and…), and in case you’re wondering, it was during this era that we met the two youngsters known only as “Uh-Huh” and “Remarkable.”

1936-1938

For his last two seasons as producer, Roach signed a special deal with MGM. He agreed to twelve Our Gang films a year, but they’d be only one-reelers (about ten minutes). Gone were the lavish Rube Goldberg-like homemade automobiles and play equipment, as the Gang was now studio-bound and decidedly more middle-class than they had been. By this time, the Gang consisted of Spanky, Carl “Alfalfa” Switzer, Darla Hood, Billie “Buckwheat” Thomas, and Eugene “Porky” Lee, plus their nemesis, Tommy “Butch” Bond and his pal, the Woim.

Highlights of this era include Bored of Education (the Gang’s only Oscar winner, for Best Live-Action Short Subject); Spooky Hooky; Reunion in Rhythm, bringing back several retired Our Gangers, including Stymie;  and Hearts are Thumps, the first of the “He-Man Woman-Haters Club” shorts.

Two other films that stand out during these years. First, Our Gang Follies of 1938 was a one-time return to the two-reel format, as Henry Brandon forces Alfalfa the opera singer to croon in the streets while Spanky puts on a swell show in a swank nightclub. And Roach’s deal with MGM included financing for an Our Gang feature, which turned into General Spanky, a misfired attempt to emulate the success of Shirley Temple in similar films.

Surprisingly but happily, all 80 of the Hal Roach-produced Our Gang talkie shorts are available on DVD, most of them with the original openings (sliced away during the TV era) restored.

1938-1944

Roach finally sold the Our Gang name and the kids’ contracts to Metro outright in 1938. Over the next six years, MGM produced 52 more Our Gang shorts, and we’d hesitate to call them “comedies” at all. A few of them had moments, but for the most part, the kids were respectful of their parents, helpful to grownups, learned and taught lessons well, and in general lost all the charm, piss and vinegar they’d once had. Alfalfa, Darla, and eventually Spanky grew up and left, leaving only Buckwheat from the glory days. The replacements, Mickey Gubitosi, Billy “Froggy” Laughlin, and Janet Burston, were untalented replacements. The series limped to a close with the aptly-titled Tale of a Dog in 1944, the 221^st Our Gang film.

The 52 Our Gang MGM-produced films are available from Warner Archive in a boxed set.

And now, to your questions…

Whither “The Little Rascals”?

In the 1950s, Roach bought back his films from MGM to reissue to theatres and sell to television, but he had to give up the “Our Gang” name and so The Little Rascals title was born, the name by which the Gang is most fondly remembered today. Although they were billed occasionally as “Hal Roach’s Rascals”, they were never referred to as “The Little Rascals” in the original credits in any of the films.

Is there a curse on the kids?

Don’t be silly. As with any other group of kids, some had truncated lives (notably Wheezer, killed in a WW2 training accident, Froggy, killed on a motorcycle, and Chubby died of natural causes), and of course Alfalfa went out in a blaze of non-glory, but many others had long, happy lives and successful careers, although only Jackie Cooper and Bobby “Mickey Gubitosi” Blake stuck around in show business as the decades rolled by.

So what DID happen to Alfalfa?

In the late 1950s, he was training hunting dogs with a business partner; one of the dogs ran away, and they offered a reward for him. Alfalfa found the dog, and demanded the reward from his partner. The argument got ugly, Alfalfa pulled a knife, and the partner pulled a gun. Ouch.

Is it true that Shirley Temple was rejected for Our Gang?

Yes. Hal Roach wanted “normal” kids for Depression-era comedies, and Miss Temple was as un-normal as a kid could get, wasn’t she?

Did you know that Bill Cosby bought the films to keep them off of TV because they’re racist?

No, he didn’t. Many of the films were pulled from TV packages or mangled in editing to remove sequences that were considered what we now call politically incorrect. Mr. Cosby had nothing to do with it.

But the Little Rascals films ARE racist, right?

No. Sadly, some of the humor is dated, and they often got laughs at the expense of Farina, Stymie, or in particular Buckwheat. However, examples of true hate in the films are non-existent, and let’s face it – the kids were playing together and going to school together, black and white, in an era where that was rare in “real life”. The few and far between wince-inducing moments should be used as a springboard to talk to your kids about then vs. now and open-mindedness vs. prejudice. It’s a good thing.

Did any of the Gang appear in films as grownups?

Sure! Want to see the kids when they weren’t kids no more? Watch any of these:

• It’s a Wonderful Life (1946) with Alfalfa
• The Bat (1959) with Darla
• In Cold Blood (1967) with Mickey
• The Buddy Holly Story (1978) with Stymie
• Superman (1978) with Jackie Cooper

Clifford Weimer is a writer and film historian in Sacramento, CA. He can usually be found lurking about the dark corners of a movie theatre at inthebalcony.com.