That may not sound like a big deal, but in the 1920s it was unheard of. Roach also decided to cast black kids in some of the parts. As he told Leonard Maltin in The Life and Times of the Little Rascals: Our Gang, "I thought if I could find some clever street kids to just play themselves in films and show life from a kid's angle, maybe I could make a dozen of these things before I wear out the idea." Roach started putting together a cast of archtypical kids that audiences would be able to relate to: the leader of the pack, the pretty girl who gets teased by the boys, the tomboy, the nerdy smart kid, the chubby kid, the spoiled rich kid, etc. All of a sudden I realized I had been watching this silly argument for over fifteen minutes because they were real kids." FORMING THE GANG Roach thought movies about "kids doing the things that kids do" might make interesting viewing. "I knew they would probably throw away the sticks as soon as they walked around the block," he recalled more than 60 years later, "but the most important thing in the world right then was who would have which stick. He noticed a group of kids that had snatched a few sticks to play with, and were now arguing over them-the smallest kid had grabbed the largest stick, and the biggest kid wanted it.
That afternoon when the auditions ended, Roach sat in his office and stared at the lumberyard across the street. They were usually well scrubbed and well behaved, and because the adult characters were almost always the center of the story, the kids interacted with the grown-ups more than they did with each othr. In those days child actors were supposed to act like adults, not like normal kids. It wasn't going well-the kids sounded too rehearsed and their stage makeup made them look like little grown-ups.
STICKS AND STONES One day in 1921, a Hollywood producer named Hal Roach spent a frustrating morning auditioning girls for a part in one of his movies. Here's how the Little Rascals found their way onto the silver screen.
With 221 episodes filmed over more than two decades, Our Gang/Little Rascals is the most successful, longest-running film series in Hollywood history. (Two of them actually made it into the film.The following is an article from Uncle John's Fast-Acting Long-Lasting Bathroom Reader. Ross Bagley/ Buckwheat The rambunctious (but cute) 5-year- old was a favorite on set, and the cast all remember him always making up songs. How old was the cast of Little Rascals when it was filmed? Travis Tedford - Spanky According to his social media accounts, which are all kept private, he currently resides in Texas, where he's reportedly working as a marketing specialist at the Texas Trust Credit Union. Likewise, who is the rich kid in Little Rascals? Blake McIver Ewing (Waldo) Waldo is a spoiled rich kid who attempts to steal Darla from Alfalfa in The Little Rascals, but the actor who portrays him, Blake McIver Ewing, is anything but.Īlso, where is Spanky from Little Rascals now?
Roach rebundled 79 of the 80 Our Gang shorts filmed with sound to make The Little Rascals TV series. Wheezer, Porky, Farina, Bonedust, Pineapple… How many Rascals can you name? While Alfalfa, Spanky, Buckwheat and Dorothy became the most familiar faces, they did not join Our Gang until its second decade.