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Post by mickeygubitosifan on Jan 30, 2011 21:36:21 GMT -5
I've never been able to find Sonny Bupp in Kid Millions. However, if you look closely, you can also find Donald Haines and if you look real close, and quickly, you can find Sid Kibrick too. In the 1937 film Love is on the Air you can find Marianne Edwards, Jerry Tucker, Sonny Bupp, George Billings, Tommy Bupp, and Dickie Jones. Boy's Town has the Kibrick brothers, Donald Haines, and Jerry Tucker. You can find Jerry Tucker, Tommy Bupp, Scotty Beckett and Dickie Jones in The Devil's Party. One more - if you watch The Great O'Malley you'll see George Billings, the Kibrick boys, and the Bupp brothers. When they're not both in the same film, I sometimes have trouble telling apart Leonard and Sidney Kibrick. For instance, in the Baby Burlesks short that instigated this thread, I'm not sure that I could have positively identified the involved Kibrick as Sidney if I hadn't been told that it was him. When they're together, of course, I know that the younger Kibrick is Sidney. Tommy and Sonny Bupp seem to be the Our Gang actors most often involved in outside films with other members of The Gang. One such movie that I neglected to mention before is Mr. Smith Goes to Washington; Tommy Bupp, Shirley Coates, Philip Hurlic, Dickie Jones and Delmar Watson (as well as his brothers Billy, Harry and Garry) all are credited as making appearances in the picture.
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Post by ymymeatemup on Jan 31, 2011 2:13:23 GMT -5
One such movie that I neglected to mention before is Mr. Smith Goes to Washington; Tommy Bupp, Shirley Coates, Philip Hurlic, Dickie Jones and Delmar Watson (as well as his brothers Billy, Harry and Garry) all are credited as making appearances in the picture. I watched this one pretty recently. I think there's seven kids in the family, and four of them are Watsons. Their little brother is played by Larry Simms, who's listed as 'Baby Dumpling' in the credits. Another of them is the kid who plays the younger brother in "The Blue Bird," but I can't remember his name.
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Post by mickeygubitosifan on Jan 31, 2011 2:58:02 GMT -5
One such movie that I neglected to mention before is Mr. Smith Goes to Washington; Tommy Bupp, Shirley Coates, Philip Hurlic, Dickie Jones and Delmar Watson (as well as his brothers Billy, Harry and Garry) all are credited as making appearances in the picture. I watched this one pretty recently. I think there's seven kids in the family, and four of them are Watsons. Their little brother is played by Larry Simms, who's listed as 'Baby Dumpling' in the credits. Another of them is the kid who plays the younger brother in "The Blue Bird," but I can't remember his name. I think that Johnny Russell might possibly be the actor you have in mind. It's not all that easy to find information online about his film career; search engines tend to get him mixed up with an older actor named John Russell, a fact that is even noted on their respective IMDB pages (and both actors apparently were in the cast of Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, which adds to the confusion). Johnny has no screen credits past the time that he was about six or seven years of age, in 1940. I noticed just yesterday that Larry Simms was listed as a player in Mr. Smith Goes to Washington. I never realized before that he had worked on a movie with Jimmy Stewart seven years prior to It's a Wonderful Life. Personally, I think that Larry Simms might have made a good addition to Our Gang.
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Post by ymymeatemup on Jan 31, 2011 18:26:38 GMT -5
That's right, Johnny Russell is the name I was trying to remember. I think the Larry Simms/Jimmy Stewart connection had to do with Frank Capra and Columbia. Capra, during the '30s, worked for Columbia, and that's where the Blondie movies were made - so it's logical that Simms would be in "Mr. Smith." Perhaps Capra liked him and remembered him when he was making "It's A Wonderful Life."
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Post by myhomeo on Feb 3, 2011 17:56:01 GMT -5
The eldest Watson boy, Coy Watson Junior wrote a book about his experiences as a child actor in Silent-Era Hollywood, THE KEYSTONE KID. No idea if it's still in print. He and his siblings claim to have practically invented the concept of child actors, so it's only fair one of them should be in the Gang.
Dickie Jones, it might as well be noted, did mostly B-westerns; he started out as a child trick rider. And, of course, he's most famous as the voice of Walt Disney's PINNOCHIO.
Most of you probably already know this, but might as well include it here for completists: Tommy 'Butch' Bond was the voice of the little owl singer 'Owl Jolson' in the classic Warner Brothers cartoon 'I Love To Sing-A'.
Spanky turns up in a small role in PECK'S BAD BOY AT THE CIRCUS, and it perhaps shows why the better-known Gangers didn't make it in movies. No, he's fine. But it's oddly disorienting seeing Spanky playing a different character.
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Post by mickeygubitosifan on Feb 3, 2011 20:30:48 GMT -5
The eldest Watson boy, Coy Watson Junior wrote a book about his experiences as a child actor in Silent-Era Hollywood, THE KEYSTONE KID. No idea if it's still in print. He and his siblings claim to have practically invented the concept of child actors, so it's only fair one of them should be in the Gang. I believe that The Keystone Kid is still in print, available through Santa Monica Press and a variety of mainstream internet book dealers such as Amazon.com. Here it is on the Santa Monica Press website: www.santamonicapress.com/index.php?page_name=keystone&page_type=book&show=desc&hide0=excerpt&hide1=author&hide2=reviews&hide5=number5 There's no doubt that the Watson brothers had a major influence on Hollywood, though I think that Jack Pickford, Georgie Stone, Matty Roubert, Francis Carpenter and Jackie Coogan, at the very least, might have something to say about the Watson's having virtually created the idea of child stars. Spanky turns up in a small role in PECK'S BAD BOY AT THE CIRCUS, and it perhaps shows why the better-known Gangers didn't make it in movies. No, he's fine. But it's oddly disorienting seeing Spanky playing a different character. I know what you mean. Even in his small part in the movie O'Shaughnessy's Boy, it was a bit jarring to see George McFarland out of his most celebrated role. This is the case despite the fact that his character really was very similar to Spanky. I wonder why there isn't a similar "disorienting" effect for watching all of the big Our Gang stars (for example, Jackie Cooper or Dickie Moore) in other roles. Turner Classic Movies kicked off its 31 Days of Oscar celebration by showing Citizen Kane at noon on February 1, and it seems that there might actually be a peripheral Our Gang connection in the film. Sonny Bupp plays the part of Charles Foster Kane's son, but the more obscure chain of the link comes by way of a hard-to-locate character in the movie who is listed on IMDB only as "Copy Boy", reportedly portrayed by occasional Our Gang bit player Tim Davis. I should add that I watched the movie and kept an eye out for the character who might have been Tim Davis, but I didn't notice anyone who seemed to be him.
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Post by mtw12055 on Feb 3, 2011 20:45:06 GMT -5
One I forgot to mention, Alfalfa Switzer, Billy Lee, and Henry Lee (who is for some reason billed "Jerry Wilson") all starred in an Our Gang-like film "Reg'lar Fellers" (1941). Based on the very popular comic strip series, this production by PRC was intended to be the first of a series of "Fellers" films. However, PRC only made one.
This film itself is decent. I wouldn't consider it a fantastic movie (after all, it's a PRC B-movie), but I wouldn't call it terrible either. Most of the "kids" in this film are quite obviously in their early teens, and seem to lack the natuarlism of Our Gang.
PRC also made the Gas House Kids films, which seemed to have been made the cash in on the success of the East Side Kids. Around the same time the short-lived GHK films were coming out, Leo Gorcey and Huntz Hall bought the rights to the East Side Kids and changed it to The Bowery Boys.
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Post by mickeygubitosifan on Feb 4, 2011 3:54:57 GMT -5
and Henry Lee (who is for some reason billed "Jerry Wilson") all starred in an Our Gang-like film "Reg'lar Fellers" (1941). You're right, Henry Lee seems to be credited as Jerry Wilson in Reg'lar Fellers. There must have been some kind of a communication gap in the circulation of that information on IMDB; the profile page for "Jerry Wilson" on the site lists his role in Reg'lar Fellers as the only one ever performed by the actor, and makes no reference to him as Henry Lee or to any of the other film work done by Henry Lee. I've never seen the movie, but my guess would be that whoever was inputting the names wasn't familiar with Henry Lee, and while trying to add Jerry Wilson to the cast list of Reg'lar Fellers ran into the problem of there being no suitable actor with that name already in the database. So, he or she may have unnecessarily added an entirely new listing for Jerry Wilson, which would explain why it's not linked to Henry Lee's page. This isn't the first time that Henry Lee's information has caused some confusion, of course. I've yet to obtain a copy of The Little Rascals: The Life and Times of Our Gang, but I have heard about how Leonard Maltin and Richard Bann repeatedly list Henry Lee as Alvin Buckelew in the book's pages.
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Post by dadat231 on Feb 5, 2011 8:57:44 GMT -5
I watched Charley Chase's short Four Parts the other day. He had on his Gang costume of the same era, 1934, with the derby.
I also watched Charley's Life Hesitates at 40 short from 1935. Alfalfa actually had billing. He had no lines and being as short as he was at the time, he was down at the bottom of the screen. He must have made a big impact to get billing, no dialgoue, and be in the film so briefly.
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Post by bigshotjones on Feb 5, 2011 10:47:34 GMT -5
Wild Guess: Billy Lee gets top billing in "Reg'lar Fellers. Maybe they thought it would look a little odd for another "Lee" to show up so early in the credits and used a fake name for him. After all, when it was being shown, there might have been some people saying, "I think that kid was in 'Our Gang,'" but I doubt anyone would have known his name.
I'll have to get a ruling on this, but. . . under the IMDB guidelines, a person's primary entry name is supposed to be the name that they are most commonly credited with--or in the case where someone has their registered name changed later on, their "official name." With that, from a cursory glance it would appear that Henry Lee's credits (under IMDB guidelines) should be merged under Jerry Wilson--which is just not right, in my opinion.
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Post by mtw12055 on Feb 5, 2011 12:12:58 GMT -5
Wild Guess: Billy Lee gets top billing in "Reg'lar Fellers. Maybe they thought it would look a little odd for another "Lee" to show up so early in the credits and used a fake name for him. After all, when it was being shown, there might have been some people saying, "I think that kid was in 'Our Gang,'" but I doubt anyone would have known his name. From what I remember, Lee did get top billing. He and Alfalfa (billed as Carl "Alfalfa" Switzer) both have the largest billing, and the producers seemed to think it was a good idea to pair them up, as they do quite a few scenes together. I have actually seen at least one theater poster for the film where Alfalfa actually kids top billing (pretty large, and above the title!), while Lee and the other kids get regular billing towards the bottom of the poster.
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Post by mickeygubitosifan on Feb 5, 2011 22:30:18 GMT -5
I'll have to get a ruling on this, but. . . under the IMDB guidelines, a person's primary entry name is supposed to be the name that they are most commonly credited with--or in the case where someone has their registered name changed later on, their "official name." With that, from a cursory glance it would appear that Henry Lee's credits (under IMDB guidelines) should be merged under Jerry Wilson--which is just not right, in my opinion. It would seem odd to catalogue all of Henry Lee's film credits under the general heading of the name Jerry Wilson, especially if it were, in fact, a false name thought up primarily to make the bill for that one movie look better. My thoughts are that the "Jerry Wilson" tag can probably be written off as a measure of convenience for the studio rather than a genuine shift in Henry Lee's stage name, in which case merging his credits under the name Henry Lee would still be the option that makes the most sense. Unless, of course, there's more to the name change than we know. From what I remember, Lee did get top billing. He and Alfalfa (billed as Carl "Alfalfa" Switzer) both have the largest billing, and the producers seemed to think it was a good idea to pair them up, as they do quite a few scenes together. I have actually seen at least one theater poster for the film where Alfalfa actually kids top billing (pretty large, and above the title!), while Lee and the other kids get regular billing towards the bottom of the poster. I'm not surprised to hear that Billy Lee was awarded the distinction of top billing. He was so successful during the peak years of his child acting career, sometimes I think that he was more David Holt than even David Holt ever turned out to be. Of course, Carl Switzer had his own formidable star power...
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Post by mickeygubitosifan on Feb 14, 2011 2:19:24 GMT -5
I just noticed that Bobby Young (as Clifton Young) and Bobby Blake are both credited in the cast of the 1948 film The Treasure of the Sierra Madre. These two actors were separated in their Our Gang stints by a number of years, so I find it particularly interesting to see them in the same motion picture, albeit in uncredited roles, representing Gangster alumni from both the silent and talking picture eras.
As part of the Turner Classic Movies 31 Days of Oscar countdown, The Treasure of the Sierra Madre is going to be be shown at 12 A.M. Eastern Time on February 15.
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Post by dadat231 on Feb 16, 2011 19:28:17 GMT -5
I guess I'm a little late on this one. Did you see the film? Mickey Gubatosi is easy to pick out. He had a decent little scene. But if I remember correctly, it's been quite a while since i"ve seen this film, Bonedust's part was very small. I can't recall if he ad any dialogue or not.
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Post by mickeygubitosifan on Feb 16, 2011 19:57:42 GMT -5
I didn't notice Bobby Young at all, to tell the truth, but Bobby Blake had a good amount of dialogue, especially for an uncredited role. He sells the lottery ticket to Humphrey Bogart's character, Dobbs (with unflappable persistence, I might add), and then comes back a little bit later to talk to Dobbs again. I know that Mickey Gubitosi/Bobby Blake was frequently called upon to portray Mexicans and American Indians on film, but it's still strange to me whenever I see it.
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