Gus Meins

[Hard-boiled Harry]

Entirely by chance I came across a website containing letters written by Stan Laurel and I was shocked to read one paragraph that he wrote in one of the letters dated 29th March 1957...

The Co-Director I regret to say, Gus Miens (or Meins) later indicted for molesting little boys & committed suicide - shocking wasn't it for his wife & 17 year old son - what a tragedy!

I did a search on the net and found several further references.

(Wikipedia)... In the summer of 1940, Meins faced prosecution of "morals charges", having been accused of sex offenses against six youths.[1] He left home on the night of Wednesday, August 1 telling his son, Douglas: "You probably won't see me again."[1] Meins was found dead in his car on August 4, reportedly having committed suicide by inhaling carbon monoxide days earlier.[1]

(Gus Meins: Tod in Toyland)... "You probably won't see me again", he told his son Douglas, as Gus Meins left his home in the Los Feliz District for the last time on the night of August 1, 1940. He drove into the hills above La Crescenta, attached a rubber hose to the exhaust pipe of his car, and asphyxiated himself.
Hours before Gus Meins was arrested on charges that he had molested three boys in the basement of his home. Released on bail, he swore his innocence to his wife and son but saw no other way than killing himself. Since the case against Gus Meins never came to trial and the charges were filed by minors and thus sealed

(Silent Comedians.com)... An Associated Press story dated August 1, 1940 related:
Hollywood Director Face Morals Charge
Long a prominent Hollywood movie director, Gustave (Gus) Meins, 47, awaited arraignment late today on morals charges for which he vehemently declared he could not account.
In arranging $5000 bond, Meins declared: “For the life of me, I cannot explain or imagine how or why such charges should be brought against me, I am innocent and will prove it."
He was arrested last night at dinner with his family.
Night Police Chief E.W. Lester said Meins was accused of offenses agains six boys.

Four days later on August 5th: Accused Film Director is Found Suicide
The police said today Gus Meins, 47 year old director of The Higgins Family and other motion picture hits, committed suicide rather than face court on a morals charge.
The director's body was found Sunday morning in his automobile in the fashionable Montrose Hills residential suburb. A hose led from the exhaust pipe to the interior. He apparently had been dead about three days.

(Find a Death.com)... There was also the specter of sexual abuse with the history of Our Gang. One of the main directors of the films GUS MEINS, was charged with molesting a ten year old boy in 1940 and Meins got out on bail, went to his garage and gassed himself to death before the trial, as an innocent person would do. I wonder if that is why some of Our Gang are very hostile to film historians when discussing Meins.

Before Our Gang, Meins was the director of a Buster Brown series for Universal. Buster Brown was played by a boy named Arthur Trimble. The dog Tighe was played by Pete the Pup of later Our Gang fame. The series ran from 1925 to 1929. When Trimble grew up he got married in 1948 and went on his honeymoon. When Arthur could not meet his manly requirements for the evening his new bride called him a name associated with British cigarettes and alluded to Mr. Trimble's association with Meins. Arthur Trimble took out a pistol and shot his new bride to death and turned the gun on himself and committed suicide on his wedding night.

The camera man for the Buster Brown series was Francis Corby. His wife was the set assistant named Ellen Corby who later played Grandma Walton on the 70's TV show The Waltons. She always refused in her later years to ever discuss Gus Meins.

Since Meins was not prosecuted until 1940, it is plausible he never touched a child abusively before then, right?

Perhaps information like this in some way accounts for the 'difficult' behavior exhibited by Carl Switzer on set? That is after all something one might expect from a victim of child abuse. It might also account for his failed marriage.

[mtw12055]

Gosh, that's a tragic story.

[Hard-boiled Harry]

Carl Switzer (aged 8) with Our Gang director Gus Meins

Attachments:

[Hard-boiled Harry]

I wonder if the removal of Gus Meins from Our Gang to a different part of Hal Roach's Studio was in any way connected with the fact that Scotty Beckett left the studio around the same time? That would be the same Scotty Beckett who took a barbiturates overdose two days after suffering a severe beating when he was only 39. The same Scotty Beckett who turned to drugs, crime and drink and who had three failed marriages. The same Scotty Beckett who had a nightmare of an adult life but one can only wonder what lay at the root of that nightmare.

Attachments:

[Hard-boiled Harry]

Wondering what ever happened to Philip MacMahon, after his scene stealing performance in Our Gang Follies of 1938 I discovered that he changed his name to Tommy Ryan and appeared in quite a few movies, mainly in the late 1930s and early 1940s. Among his acting credits were the recurring role of 'Tommy Higgins' in a series of six movies about Ma & Pa Higgins and their kids. All six movies in the series were directed by Gus Meins. In fact the sixth and final movie in the series, "Earl of Puddlestone" (1940), was the last movie that Gus Meins directed before he committed suicide. Tommy/Philip even features on the poster for the movie, if you call scrubbing floors featuring.

[daisydimple]

Jun 29, 2013 9:07:15 GMT -5 Hard-boiled Harry said:

I wonder if the removal of Gus Meins from Our Gang to a different part of Hal Roach's Studio was in any way connected with the fact that Scotty Beckett left the studio around the same time? That would be the same Scotty Beckett who took a barbiturates overdose two days after suffering a severe beating when he was only 39. The same Scotty Beckett who turned to drugs, crime and drink and who had three failed marriages. The same Scotty Beckett who had a nightmare of an adult life but one can only wonder what lay at the root of that nightmare.



Opinions are still very divided as to whether Gus Meins was guilty of the crimes he was accused of, and we'll probably never know for sure either way.  Whatever the truth, this incident does prove that sexual abuse has been rampant in the entertainment industry for years (and outside of Hollywood as well), and I do suspect that Scotty Beckett was probably a victim of this. His adult behavior speaks for itself, and the fact that he had no father and was over-burdened with responsibility at a young age may have made him very vulnerable to predators. With everything that has come to light in recent years about the sexual abuse and exploitation of children in the entertainment world, and given what we know now regarding mental illness (i.e. depression) and substance abuse, we can look at many of these past cases in a different light.


In a place like Hollywood, where there are individuals in positions of power and who have the ability to make or break careers, it's not surprising that many people are unwilling to talk about this subject more openly. In the studio era there were probably a lot of cover-ups and drugs (not just hard drugs but the then prescription type that was given to the likes of Judy Garland) were very accessible, and probably still are. Notice the attempt that has been made to downplay and sometime even ignore the legacies of former child actors who had very troubled lives and in some cases met early deaths. No coincidence; this is the industry trying to protect and preserve itself, no matter what the human cost.


As much as I am a film buff, there has always been a dark side to Hollywood, as much as there is a good side.

[mark3850]

I cannot believe that an innocent person would quickly commit suicide after being charged. Yes the charges are horrendous. But wouldn't your first instinct be to protect yourself and family? To me the suicide is an acknowledgement of guilt. Who knows what was going on in that studio.

[mikefright]

This really sucks. What a tragic story. I hate to think that any of these heroes of my childhood as victims of that kind of abuse.. I'm with mark3850: if the dude killed himself, I would doubt his innocence as well.
Whether its Hollywood, or the church, or any other powerful institution: no industry is above accountability. Protecting institution over human life is beyond criminal.

[myhomeo]

In Meins' defense, lives and careers have been ruined by far less damaging accusations. He might have honestly felt there was no point of even trying to fight back.

Still, it's always possible he did do it. We'll probably never know for certain. That said, I'd prefer to think he didn't target the Gang kids, if only because they were so much younger than his professed victims. But it does put an unpleasant spin on some scenes in his films...

[sandro]

We'll never know the truth

[Buppster]

The reason why so many historic abusers 'got away with it' was because at the time the police and public had a tendency to disbelieve the accusations unless the abuser was quite literally caught with their pants down. Even then there was a tendency towards victim blaming. Society and the understanding of such issues has moved on a fair bit since those day, perhaps too far in that these days unfounded accusations have literally destroyed the careers of some people. However if any of his alleged victims actually stated that he did abuse them then my reaction would be to believe them. And yes, some of the films he directed can certainly be seen in a different light, if his possible prurient interests are factored into the equation. My own personal view is that I'd judge him by his actions not by his words, words are cheap but his actions spoke guilty to me. If he was innocent why not simply fight the case and have his name exonerated? I'd have thought that's what 99% of innocent people, who were wrongly accused of a heinous crime, would do. Presumably he knew that he'd lose the case and if convicted would bring shame on himself and his family. However it seems very unlikely that there will ever be conclusive proof one way or the other. The evidence at the time was locked away and presumably after his death it was all destroyed. Everyone involved in the investigation, including his possible victims, are probably all long dead.

[myhomeo]

Meins would almost certainly remember the Fatty Arbuckle case. Arbuckle was found innocent, even received a formal apology from the court, and by most accounts was probably innocent, but his reputation and career were still ruined. To this day, if someone mentions Fatty Arbuckle, they're probably talking about that.

On the other side, it's difficult to imagine why his accusers would have simply made up something like that, especially back in the 40's.

[Buppster]

I can't imagine why a group of boys would falsely claim to have been sexually molested, at a time when homosexual acts were not only illegal but seen as deviant, sinful and the people who took part in them as being inverts who were mentally ill. Boys who allowed men to touch them inappropriately would be seen as less than fully male, wannabe woman, sissies, pansies and a whole host of other insulting terms. I can't for a moment imagine why any boys at that time would knowing have subjected themselves to the verbal abuse that they'd have been subjected to if the case had gone to court and been reported in the newspapers. The only reason I can imagine for the boys complaining is that they were telling the truth. The fact that there was more than one of them gave them the courage to complain, knowing that they were not alone, and that perhaps they could corroborate each other's testimonies. The police at the time must have considered that they had sufficient evidence to warrant an arrest and the pressing of charges.

[mtw12055]

There's been some discussion of this on one of the Our Gang Facebook groups. Some of the kids, like Jerry Tucker, remembered Gus fondly. But there are always things about people not everyone knows. Guilty or not, the clothes-tearing gags in films like "Hi'-Neighbor!" are uneasy to watch. Actually, even as a kid those jokes would make me uncomfortable.

[Buppster]

They'd brought in some new faces to the Gang around that time, Wally Albright, Scotty Beckett and Tommy Bupp all ended up in their unions suits at the end of that short (along with the rest of the kids). Tommy was only in that one short, the other two didn't stay for too many shorts either. Scotty's later life went completely off the rails and as an adult Tommy said that he didn't want any of his own kids being involved in the movie industry, because he didn't want it to spoil their lives. That's a pretty strong thing for someone, who appeared in over a hundred movies, to say but I imagine he must have had his reasons for holding that opinion.