Getting Back into The Little Rascals

[cgcmgr]

Hi,

I've been trying to collect every episode of The Little Rascals as many of you have been.

I have taken some time off building my collection as I have been trying to put other collections together. Well I'm back to the Little Rascals and I have a few questions.

1. I know a few episodes have been listed as lost. Have any of them been found and if so, are they available to the public? Here is a list of what I'm talking about:

Yale vs Harvard
Heebee Jeebees
Edison, Marconi & Co
Fair And Muddy
Growing Pains
School Begins
The Holy Terror

2. How do I tell an original beginning and end from one that isn't?

2. Are there any complete sets out there that have all the original beginnings and ends? original beginnings?

Thanks,
Chris

[mtw12055]

Jun 5, 2013 11:20:32 GMT -5 cgcmgr said:

Hi,

I've been trying to collect every episode of The Little Rascals as many of you have been.

I have taken some time off building my collection as I have been trying to put other collections together. Well I'm back to the Little Rascals and I have a few questions.

1. I know a few episodes have been listed as lost. Have any of them been found and if so, are they available to the public? Here is a list of what I'm talking about:

Yale vs Harvard
Heebee Jeebees
Edison, Marconi & Co
Fair And Muddy
Growing Pains
School Begins
The Holy Terror

2. How do I tell an original beginning and end from one that isn't?

2. Are there any complete sets out there that have all the original beginnings and ends? original beginnings?

Thanks,
Chris

Hi, Chris. Welcome to the forum!

To answer your first question, of the shorts you listed, "Fair and Muddy" does exist (a print was discovered in England around 2008), and a 35mm print of "School Beings" is rumored to exist at the Museum of Modern Art. To my knowledge, the remaining shorts on the list are still lost.

2. Usually, a non-original opening title card will either be a blank title card with just the title of the short (with no information about who is presenting the short), or a title bearing the names "Kids and Pets", "Famous Kids Comedies", etc. Any title that doesn't bear the names "Hal Roach's Rascals" or "Our Gang Comedies"/"Our Gang" is non-original. That includes any title that bears the name "The Little Rascals", as that was a name that wasn't given to the series until after its initial run in theaters.

Additionally, anything from a home movie company (Blackhawk Films, Exclusive Movie Studios, etc.) is not original. Original endings, at least with the case of the silent shorts, is a little more tricky. But if the design of the end title matches the design of an original opening, then it most certainly is original.

3. To my knowledge, all of the original openings and endings for the Hal Roach sound shorts are available on these volumes:

www.amazon.com/The-Little-Rascals-Vol-1/dp/B004G9UXDK/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1370453888&sr=8-4&keywords=little+rascals+dvd

www.amazon.com/Little-Rascals-2-George-34/dp/B004IF4EYQ/ref=pd_bxgy_mov_img_y

www.amazon.com/The-Little-Rascals-Vol-3/dp/B004RBC5HE/ref=pd_bxgy_mov_img_z

www.amazon.com/The-Little-Rascals-Vol-4/dp/B004RBC5KQ/ref=pd_cp_mov_2

www.amazon.com/Little-Rascals-Vol-5/dp/B004RBC5QU/ref=sr_1_1?s=movies-tv&ie=UTF8&qid=1370454084&sr=1-1&keywords=volume+five+little+rascals

www.amazon.com/Little-Rascals-Vol-6/dp/B004RBC5M4/ref=sr_1_1?s=movies-tv&ie=UTF8&qid=1370454096&sr=1-1&keywords=volume+six+little+rascals

www.amazon.com/Little-Rascals-7-George-34/dp/B004RBC5GK/ref=pd_cp_mov_3

I would avoid buying this set, as it does not contain all of the original titles:
www.amazon.com/Little-Rascals-Complete-Collection/dp/B001CDFY5U/ref=sr_1_2?s=movies-tv&ie=UTF8&qid=1370454140&sr=1-2&keywords=little+rascals

The MGM shorts (all with original titles) are available on this set:
www.amazon.com/Gang-Comedies-Shorts-1938-1942-Discs/dp/B002OGHGSW/ref=sr_1_2?s=movies-tv&ie=UTF8&qid=1370454172&sr=1-2&keywords=our+gang

Original titles, as well as complete versions of the silent films are much harder to track down. However, for a good quality set of the majority of the existing MGM/Roach silents, I would recommend this set:
www.amazon.de/Die-kleinen-Strolche-1927-1929-Stummfilme/dp/B002880H7S/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1370454241&sr=8-4&keywords=die+kleinen+strolche

As for the Pathé silents, ReelclassicDVD currently offers what can arguably be considered the best-looking copies. They don't offer all of the Pathé shorts, but do have a nice collection nevertheless. Some of these shorts have their original openings, while others do not (sadly, those openings are still lost).
www.reelclassicdvd.com/silent_era.htm

Hope that helps!

[cgcmgr]

Thanks for all the info.

I already have this set: www.amazon.com/Gang-Comedies-Shor....ywords=our+gang

so that's a good start on all the original beginnings and ends.

As far as the 2 titles that you say are no longer lost, are they available to the public anywhere in trade?

I had purchased 2 additional sets (one is of 71 silent episodes - www.sell.com/23XLV2. I'll have to look at them to see if they are original beginnings or not.

The other set was this on: www.amazon.com/The-Little-Rascals-Collectors-Edition/dp/B005OASMLU/ref=sr_1_12?ie=UTF8&qid=1370464258&sr=8-12&keywords=the+little+rascals

again, I will have to check if they are original beginnings and endings.

Thanks for the help.

Chris

[mtw12055]

Jun 5, 2013 15:33:57 GMT -5 cgcmgr said:

Thanks for all the info.

I already have this set: www.amazon.com/Gang-Comedies-Shor....ywords=our+gang

so that's a good start on all the original beginnings and ends.

As far as the 2 titles that you say are no longer lost, are they available to the public anywhere in trade?

I had purchased 2 additional sets (one is of 71 silent episodes - www.sell.com/23XLV2. I'll have to look at them to see if they are original beginnings or not.

The other set was this on: www.amazon.com/The-Little-Rascals-Collectors-Edition/dp/B005OASMLU/ref=sr_1_12?ie=UTF8&qid=1370464258&sr=8-12&keywords=the+little+rascals

again, I will have to check if they are original beginnings and endings.

Thanks for the help.

Chris

Chris,

To my knowledge "Fair and Muddy" is still in the hands of private collectors, while "School Begins" (assuming that the rumor is true) could probably be viewed at the Museum.

As for the 71 set that you're referring to, it's a mixed bag of material from old VHS tapes. The majority of them sadly don't have their original titles. And a good handful of the shorts are edited. However, a fellow board member put together more complete versions of a number of the silent shorts, many of which can be found on the Internet Archive.

The other set is actually a bootleg set, which is all from the old Cabin Fever VHS's. As I recall, the bootleg sets do have the original titles, but are usually cut off slightly at the very beginning and very end of the shorts.

[cgcmgr]

Thanks, I'll have a look at the Internet Archive. Now, if you can point me in the right direction that would be great.

Jun 5, 2013 16:54:05 GMT -5 mtw12055 said:

Jun 5, 2013 15:33:57 GMT -5 cgcmgr said:

Thanks for all the info.

I already have this set: www.amazon.com/Gang-Comedies-Shor....ywords=our+gang

so that's a good start on all the original beginnings and ends.

As far as the 2 titles that you say are no longer lost, are they available to the public anywhere in trade?

I had purchased 2 additional sets (one is of 71 silent episodes - www.sell.com/23XLV2. I'll have to look at them to see if they are original beginnings or not.

The other set was this on: www.amazon.com/The-Little-Rascals-Collectors-Edition/dp/B005OASMLU/ref=sr_1_12?ie=UTF8&qid=1370464258&sr=8-12&keywords=the+little+rascals

again, I will have to check if they are original beginnings and endings.

Thanks for the help.

Chris

Chris,

To my knowledge "Fair and Muddy" is still in the hands of private collectors, while "School Begins" (assuming that the rumor is true) could probably be viewed at the Museum.

As for the 71 set that you're referring to, it's a mixed bag of material from old VHS tapes. The majority of them sadly don't have their original titles. And a good handful of the shorts are edited. However, a fellow board member put together more complete versions of a number of the silent shorts, many of which can be found on the Internet Archive.

The other set is actually a bootleg set, which is all from the old Cabin Fever VHS's. As I recall, the bootleg sets do have the original titles, but are usually cut off slightly at the very beginning and very end of the shorts.

[cgcmgr]

Found it, nevermind and thanks again

[Hard-boiled Harry]

Hi, I've noticed these two sets of Our Gang silents on Amazon. Does anyone know whether they are any good or not?

www.amazon.com/The-Little-Rascals-Silent-Shorts/dp/B0073WQBC4/ref=pd_cp_mov_0

www.amazon.com/gp/product/B003TZM92U/ref=pe_164420_27992340_email_1p_0_ti

[antifrodis]

The one with the yellow cover contains a couple shorts that I posted to Youtube. They're the exact same versions that I edited together. I believe they removed the soundtracks that I added to them, but I could be wrong. I don't know if they just copied them from Youtube, or if one of the short list of people I entrusted the videos to decided to break my trust and try to cash in on them. Either way, I can't recommend them. Same thing goes for archive.org. Someone has blatantly posted films that they shouldn't have to that site. Thank God they decided to pull a few of them. Those films will see the light of day when the owner decides to make that happen. Until then, either wait patiently or spend A LOT of money and find the original film sources and have them transferred to DVD yourself.

[Hard-boiled Harry]

Thanks for the information. I never buy unofficial copies of anything so I'll just wait for official releases or simply do without them.