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Post by mtw12055 on Jul 7, 2007 15:51:02 GMT -5
It has been 2 years since the information about the upcoming Laughsmith set was first announced here. We're all still patiently waiting for its arrival. But there's good news before the set arrives. Looser Than Loose has released a dvd set containing films from Our Gang and several rival series. There's also a few surprises. The 2 disk dvd set is $29.00 plus $6 shipping and handling. Here's the information given on their site: Kid Gangs and Juvenile Stars All of your favorite juvenile stars and kid gangs are represented on this two-disc set. Our Gang, The McDougal Alley Kids, Big Boy, the gang from Hey Fellas, Arthur Trimble as Buster Brown, Mickey "Himself" McGuire and a handful of others appear in these obscure two-reel comedies. Titles include Our Gang in One Wild Ride and Monkey Business. The McDougal Alley Kids put in an appearance in a rare, complete two-reeler called The Big Pie Raid. The kids from "Hey Fellas" (including Mickey Daniels' brother) star in Fire Flies. Educational Pictures juvenile star "Big Boy" (Malcolm Sebastian) appears in two shorts: Navy Beans and Bearcats. Mickey "Himself" McGuire (Mickey Rooney) entertains you in Mickey's Big Game Hunt and Arthur Trimble, Doreen Turner and "Pete the Pup" round out the bill in the Universal-Stern Brothers short Buster's Nose Dive. In addition to these titles there are dozens of toy projector reels featuring mny of the above listed folks - including Our Gang in Donkey Delivery Service - and an excerpt from Our Gang, the very first Our Gang short. We also have included an audio file of the 1930s Our Gangers from George Jessel's radio program 30 Minutes in Hollywood. Some additional Easter Egg surprises await you also. The overall visual quality is good to excellent. The scores are restored 78 rpm acoustic recordings. The radio program is digitally remastered and restored. This is a two-disc set. www.looserthanloose.com/main.html |
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Post by zootmoney on Jul 7, 2007 16:47:37 GMT -5
It's a pretty nice set.
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Post by mtw12055 on Jul 7, 2007 18:44:21 GMT -5
I think the most interesting part will be the audio file of the gang from the 30 Minutes in Hollywood radio program.
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Post by zootmoney on Jul 7, 2007 21:46:09 GMT -5
Which I have not listened to.
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Post by Froggy0705 on Jul 11, 2007 10:11:38 GMT -5
Anybody heard of the release date yet? If so is it going to be in stores or is it going to be ordered online or something?
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Post by mtw12055 on Jul 11, 2007 13:04:33 GMT -5
No officical release date for the Laughsmith set yet. I'm pretty sure it will be sold at amazon, and eventually ebay.
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Post by mtw12055 on Jul 11, 2007 13:17:55 GMT -5
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Post by mtw12055 on Jul 12, 2007 9:13:18 GMT -5
I just visited Laughsmith's website, and they no longer have there previous description of what the are doing now to get the Our Gang set ready. Now all they have is the DVD cover. So, hopefully, it will be out sooner then we think.
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Post by Mark on Jul 12, 2007 12:03:38 GMT -5
Wow... it was *just there* last night when I checked to see if there were new updates after reading your post above.
I hope to get this set by early-mid next year!
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Post by mtw12055 on Jul 14, 2007 21:11:09 GMT -5
I just got the set today, and yes it is pretty good. One Wild Ride appears to be complets. The rival Our Gang series are... interesting. The McDougal Alley Kids films feature a fat boy named Tiny Tim(who might be Tommy Hicks), a black kid named Oatmeal(!), and an asian kid named Free Gin among the the main characters. These films have some bad racist jokes, such as a scene where the boys play football, at one point, they mistake Oatmeal for the football. During the finale with the mud fight, when Free Gin get's hit, an title card show a bunch of Chinese words exploding like a bomb. Hey Fellas a.k.a Kiddie Kute Komedies, and a.k.a Our Kids(only in short home movie versions, are just as bad. The other films aren't bad, and the raido program features Spanky, Alfalfa, Darla, Buckwheat, and Porky, plus special guest star Johnny Downs, who by this time was a succesful actor. They are featured in a classroom sketch.
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Post by Mark on Jul 15, 2007 21:15:33 GMT -5
I need to hear that radio program. Sounds interesting.
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Post by ymymeatemup on Jul 16, 2007 1:06:32 GMT -5
A few thoughts....
I noticed a few peripheral Gangsters in The McDougall Alley Kids, particularly Jack McHugh and Artye Folz. It's interesting to note when these films grab gags out of the Our Gang series, like the gag from "Our Gang" (the first film) in which the sissy beats up the tough kids, or the fat boy gag taken from "Fast Company" where all the furniture in the room is bouncing up and down. But more interesting is the fact that the 'Kids' staged a mudfight about a year earlier than the Gang (in "Fair And Muddy"). It's also interesting that the Farina ripoff in this series also appears in one of the short Mickey McGuire clips on disc two, and also appeared in some of the late-period Buster Browns.
The "Hey Fellas" series seems to have fewer peripheral Gangsters, but one of note is Jimsy Boudwin, who appeared in about three of the mid-silent Our Gangs. It also appears to me that one of the girls in this series was 'Nancy' in "Uncle Tom's Uncle."
The Juvenile Comedies featured Malcolm Sebastian as Big Boy - he later appeared in "Shivering Shakespeare." They also featured Jack McHugh, who was also one of the McDougall Alley Kids. I could also swear that the girl in "Open Spaces" is the same girl who later appeared in "Dog Heaven." Most notable, though, is Harry Spear - prior to his entry into the Gang.
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Post by mtw12055 on Jul 16, 2007 7:44:51 GMT -5
I thought that was Harry Spear in the Big Boy short, and looking at the McDougal Alley Kids film, that does look like Artye Folz.
Also, I saw an early Mickey McGuire talkie on youtube, Donald Haines played Katrina a.k.a. Katrink. The character of Katrink was played by several different actors, most notably Marvin Stephens in the late talkies. Mickey Rooney and James Robinson Jr. (Hambone) were really the only kids that stayed with the series from beginning to end.
As it turns out, Mickey McGuire was just as popular as Our Gang was. But when the talkies came in, the kids got older, and the series ended. A different girl played Tomboy Taylor from the beginning of the series, up to the early talkies, then she was replaced by Shirly Jean Rickert, sometimes refered to as Shirley Jeane Rickert in the titles.
According to Leonard Maltin and Richard Bann, Kendall "Breezy Brizbane" McComas played Mickeys kid brudder in some of the films before Billy Barty was introduced. Although he was very short for his age, he was 6 years older then Mickey Rooney, so I'm not sure if its true or not. Also, the Internet Movie Database states that Kendall McComas played Stinky Davis in a few silents. Douglas Scott played Stinky Davis in the late talkies.
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Post by ymymeatemup on Jul 16, 2007 16:01:47 GMT -5
The earlier Tomboy Taylor was Delia Bogart. I hadn't previously known what Hambone's real name was. I, too, was wondering about Kendall McComas's role in the series since 'Mickey's Kid Brudder' is obviously a baby.
It's good to see a much more complete print of "One Wild Ride" on that set. It's also funny how un-Our Gang-like the radio performance from 1938 is.
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Post by mtw12055 on Jul 16, 2007 16:22:46 GMT -5
According to www.kiddiematinee.com, which has a page for the Mickey McGuire series, Delia Bogart played a girl named Mary Ann, who was eventually dropped in the later talkies. |
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