Our Gang: Inside the Clubhouse (1984) (Part 10 of 10)

Rarely seen 1984 documentary hosted by Bob Lang about Hal Roach's 'Our Gang' series (a.k.a. 'The Little Rascals') and featuring interviews with many of them as adults, including Peggy Ahern, Stymie Beard, Butch Bond, Jackie Cooper, Dorothy deBorba, Pineapple Jackson, Junior Jasgar, Spanky McFarland, Sunshine Sammy Morrison, J.R. Smith, Jackie Lynn Taylor, and Buckwheat Thomas. Also, interviewed are William Thomas Jr., Cameraman William V. Draper, Musical T. Marvin Hatley, and Producer Hal E. Roach, Jr.

[@deborahsuewho]

I've just finished watching all ten segments and want to thank you for the upload. The Rascals/Our Gang films are probably my "desert island" choice for visual media. Regardless of any disputes about facts, I found this to be the most comprehensive piece on the series and actors. I had a great time watching this - thank you.

[@rowbyrowby]

Thank goodness Mr. Lang produced this documentary while the surviving members of the Gang were still alive. ...Rowby

[@adeleking9852]

I loved watching this show as a child. It was my father's generation and the were full of character. The make do, and do it yourself generation.

[@madman37115]

Thank you so much for posting this video. It should be included in any DVD collection that's released to see these wonderful interviews. Since 1984, most all of the Gang are gone. This brought back so many childhood memories. Roach was such a visionary to assemble a gang of kids who were only bound by their affection for adventure and each other, despite differences in class, race or religion. Truly "remarkable." I had a big lump in my throat at the end. So grateful to see this video.

[@TkMeBk]

Awesome. Watched all parts in one sitting because I couldn't stop! Great memories watching the "Little Rascals" on UHF TV as a kid! Now I understand why I didn't like the latter years, produced by MGM as much as the early shorts!

[@afrosensuous]

I know for a fact that Buckwheat worked at Consolidated Film Industries (CFI) in Hollywood as a Film Lab Technician, not Technicolor. He worked in the same department as my Mother, who introduced me to him while she was on break when I was a kid.

[@liza8423]

thank you so much for this video Pt 1 - 10..... it did bring me memories of the past when i watched the series as little kid back then...it was very nice to know each and everyone of those characters which i didn't know of till now!

[@Buzz1151]

what a great documentary...wow

[@frogg002]

Awe!! Little Porky is so so so cute.

[@Lava1964]

Thanks for sharing this (despite some of the factual errors most everyone has spotted). I hadn't seen it when it aired in 1984.

[@aaronwhite3000]

Thanks for sharing this documentary, it brought back a lot of memories and was very fun to watch!

[@dreadnought45]

The first time I became aware of The Little Rascals as they were called was watching the Howdy Doody show every day from Toronto on the local WBEN channel 4 TV station from Buffalo N.Y. "Buffalo Bob" Smith would run a segment of the 'kids' every day. That was in the early 'fifties'. Ken, Toronto

[@Burgerfanny]

The plaque is on the corner of Washington and National, at the north end of the former property. You can see it on Google Street View.

[@jastoneify]

I watched em all too. It's so sad how some of them died. My favorite two rascals of all time were Scotty and Tommy. I love them and wish I could have seen more of them. :(

[@30kitcat]

This was great! Thank you for posting this!! It brought back great memories of my childhood growing up watching, The Little Rascals! As Spanky would say, "There you are!"

[@RangeRover1961]

I hadn't checked in a long while, but there are still quite few Our Gang Members left. I say quite a few because these folks are into their early and late 80's and 90's. The most notable are Dwayne Hickman of Dobie Gillis Fame & Robert Blake of Baretta fame. Hickman's 79 and Blake's 81. Remaining Our Gang members as of January 2013: Jean Darling, Mildred Kornman, Sidney Kibrick,Leonard Landy, Dickie Moore, Jackie Lynn Taylor, Jerry Tucker, Dick Jones, Peggy Lynch, Gene Reynolds, Lassie Lou Ahern, Ann Ross, Clyde Wilson, Philip Hurlic, Darryl Hickman, Juanita Quigley. **Coincidentally, Marianne Edwards passed today as I'm writing this on November 9th 2013. She was 83**

[@joshuab36]

Marianne Edwards is still alive. I just checked Wikipedia

[@RangeRover1961]

joshuab36 The day I came here a year ago the same Wikipedia said she'd passed. Probably a hoax or somebody fooled with the information. Honestly, I never checked back to see after I read where she passed away. Hey, I'm HAPPY to be wrong, and hopefully she's still alive and enjoying looking back over her years as a "Rascal" and enjoying life with her family, friends.

[@mtw120]

RangeRover1961 I'm sorry to tell you that it was no hoax. Bob Satterfield, one of the head honchos of the Sons of the Desert and a longtime friend of many of the former Rascals confirmed she passed a year ago. I'm guessing someone at Wikipedia removed the death date as there was no source cited for it. Either way, I wouldn't consider Wikipedia incredibly reliable. Incidentally, of the people on your list, Jackie Lynn Taylor, Dickie Jones, and Philip Hurlic all passed away not too long ago.

[@RangeRover1961]

mtw120 Thank you for the correct update! IF you notice my post above from 2013, I had been on KZbin the day she passed looking at Rascals Shorts, and it was on her birthday, November 9th, 2013, so that was weird for me in itself. I got my information from Wikipedia and then from a newspaper online from the Northern California area oddly enough earlier that day on the day she passed away. One day said she passed November 8th one day said November 9th. I feel so sad that MOST of the original Rascals are almost gone. I understand the cycle of life and that life goes on, but still....Anyway, my condolences for REAL and again to Marianne Edwards and family.

[@artytoons]

Hal Roach died in 1992 at age 100. Robert F. "Uncle Bob" McGowan died in 1955 at age 72. Robert A. McGowan (Anthony Mack) died in 1955 at age 54. Music composer Marvin Hatley died in 1986.

[@ErinHeartpenny]

Thank you for sharing this documentary. It's nice to see behind the scenes, the lives that they lived after the films. I connect very deeply with the Our Gang comedies, they have touched my heart since I was very little.

[@MsFrosteetoes]

Switzer did not pull a knife on Stiltz. Two witnesses there said that he was unarmed. It was murder and it was not justified.

[@artytoons]

Carl's brother Harold Switzer had murdered a man in Colorado during an argument and committed suicide in 1967. Darwood Kaye died in a hit and run accident in 2005.

[@Bogframe]

Thanks for posting this. I loved The Little Rascals as a kid!!

[@Sk8brdr4life]

Tommy "Butch" Bond died in 2005 Eugene "Porky" Lee died in 2005 Mary Ann Jackson died in 2003 Dorothy Debora died in 2010

[@kevinjames2238]

Tommy Bond who played Butch died in 2005 and the girl I think her name was echo died in 2010

[@matrox]

Jackie Cooper died this year. I believe Porky is the last living Roach Studio player left.

[@Dulcimerist]

Remarkable!!!

[@chazclark8040]

Automobile Show Room?!! That Sucks!!

[@meneervandepik]

Many thanks for posting this! Its a shame to hear that some scenes like the one with spanky dressed up as buckwheat and the scene where flower drops on the head of buckwheat are cut out of the original movies due to censhorship by some sauer adults who see this as racist. The movies are a product of their time and should be left alone, even if we see some scenes now as probably racist, kids wont look at that scene that way, Its the adult who judges !

[@concreterose13]

I wish they post the truth about Carl...he was unarmed and murdered. RIP Carl D. Switzer

[@DisWldFrk90]

Concrete Rose They didn't know that at this time. They got about 50% of what they said about the actors wrong, though I can't really blame them considering they really had very limited knowledge about most of them at this time. The facts about Froggy's death only came about a couple years ago.

[@floral-smoke]

DisWldFrk90 Aw that's too bad, do you know where to find the actual facts??

[@DisWldFrk90]

krisscouture About who's death? There's various ways to find out about each one. Froggy, for example, his death was uncovered by a Rascal fan who was curious. He got a copy of Froggy's death certificate, newspapers about the accident, and his obituary. Somebody also relayed information a book writer got in the 70s. Then it was revealed that, contrary to other reports, Froggy died at the hospital hours later. It also looks very much like the boy who was driving the scooter, with Froggy in the back, as an inexpereinced driver caused the accident by u-turning suddenly possibly thinking he could beat the truck coming at them. The other boy was also not killed as opposed to what other reports have said.

[@Muirmaiden]

+Concrete Rose The events leading up to Scotty Beckett's death are suspicious also, but I doubt the truth will be revealed. It's a shame.

[@matrox]

Thats true! I was there and saw the whole thing when it went down.

[@MrLemmy2000]

so many died too young alphalpha frogy

[@Muirmaiden]

Jerry Tucker is still alive, as is Sidney Kibrick (The Woim). The circumstances surrounding the deaths of Carl "Alfalfa" Switzer and Scotty Beckett are very suspicious. Jay R. Smith was murdered in his 70s, and the actor who played Waldo was hit by a car. Sad.

[@gergwhite410]

Carl raised fighting dogs (pit bulls) and he made a deal with a guy who bought a dog on credit. Carl had given him the dog with the understanding that this guy was supposed to come up with the 50 bucks to pay for the dog - that he had a fight for the dog and the winnings would pay Carl. The Dog not only lost the fight but was killed by the other dog. The guy was furious thinking Carl sold him a shit dog. The final story is a bit cloudy with most saying Carl went to the guy and said look buddy I sold you a good dog and you agreed to pay and that not to blame him if the guy didn't know dogfighting that well. Carl had a gun pulled on him and was shot in the stomach and died. The guy said Carl pulled a knife but I think that was bullshit. He just didn't want to pay. Of all the stories Weazer, Stymie and Carl's were the saddest along with froggy and Waldo.

[@zzzbbbooo]

No, Carl DIDN'T raise fighting dogs at all and certainly not pit bulls. His niece Judiann specifically said that he didn't agree with dog fights. There are 2 or 3 photos out there of him with his dogs and one glance shows they are a hound-type breed, not what you are claiming. She also said that Carl loaned his best lead dog (given to him by Roy Rogers) to Stiltz, not the other way around and that the media has got the story wrong for decades.

[@DisWldFrk90]

@afrosensuous I'm sure you're right. This documentary had a lot of things wrong in it. It was all wrong about Froggy's death. Froggy and his friend did not lose control of the motorscooter at all. They were rear-ended from behind and both of them were killed. This documentary implied the other one survived. Unless it was talking about the truck that rear-ended them where the driver of course wasn't hurt as he hit them.

[@DestinyHogue]

@artytoons wrong, Darwood died in 2002. Melvyn Gary Jasgur died in 1994. Froggy did not died in the 1950s, but he died in 1948.

[@MsFrosteetoes]

Really? Did you know Carl Switzer? I want to know ALL about him. Please message me.

[@adam-remy8377]

Google Map....Landmark Street, Culver City, CA....that is where the Hal Roach Studios were.

[@burlone718]

WTF Alfalfa!!!

[@DisWldFrk90]

@TheVirajster This documentary is actually quite wrong on what happened to a few of them. And some of the ones that it didn't know what became of them, I don't see how it didn't know. I still liked the documentary regardless, but I do wish it had been more accurate on what happened to some of them.

[@TheVirajster]

THANKS!! Now I don't have to purchase Richard Bann's book on whatever became of them. Can't stand Alfalfa but enjoyed hearing the wonderful days on the Roach lot.This was such a wonderful film to watch!!

[@cdream5414]

Every one of us is born uniquely, lives uniquely, and dies uniquely. So what? At then end every unique story seems similar to other stories, therefore boring, written on the tombstones. Is there any story in this world that is always exciting and it never gets boring? yes there is, and it's the story of being a child, a child in the treasure island, forever.

[@simontwain1885]

Where's John Collum?

[@DisWldFrk90]

David Rull They miss identified his character so they didn't know he was in this.

[@matrox]

Blake wasnt with Roach I dont think, he started at MGM.

[@TheRodriguez900]

nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo i cant beleive it wahhhwahaahhwahawhwahawhahwahh im crying

[@SatchmoSings]

The music recreations are terrible; this is way before the Beau Hunks.

[@honestbutugly]

same!