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Post by Buppster on Mar 4, 2018 18:32:14 GMT -5
Spanky & Dickie Moore as guests on Buck Jones radio show, alongside fellow child stars Freddie Bartholomew, Frankie Darro and I'm not sure but the other two could be Jackie Searle & Delmar Watson. What do you think?  |
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Post by Buppster on Mar 5, 2018 11:37:49 GMT -5
I suppose that he was worried that using soap too frequently might wash his freckles away.  |
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Post by Buppster on Mar 5, 2018 12:45:42 GMT -5
Who has the skinnier legs Pete or Jay R?  |
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Post by Buppster on Mar 5, 2018 12:49:20 GMT -5
Speaking of Harry Spear I just watched Olympic Games (1927) again today and something struck me about Harry. I was sure that I'd seen a post on this thread about the same thing and sure enough I've just checked and I had. Harry was undoubtedly left handed. So it's somewhat strange that in Olympic Games he threw his 'javelin' and later fruit & veggies, with his right hand. Confusion over which is the dominant hand is something that frequently occurs with dyslexics. So in Harry's case that might also account for his rather immature hand writing, using only capital letters. And just to add to the confusion in this advert for Mikado pencils Harry is clearly writing with his right hand. Of course he might have written on the blackboard with his left hand and then simply swapped hands for the photograph. Alternatively perhaps Harry was ambidextrous, dyslexic or just confused about which hands to do things with? Unless of course it's actually someone else who was writing on the blackboard and the photographer has simply superimposed Harry's head onto the photo.  |
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Post by myhomeo on Mar 5, 2018 14:33:46 GMT -5
Well, it is a drawing and it's unlikely it was taken from life. You'll notice all the kids are depicted as right-handed.
Also just occurred to me, back then left-handed kids were frequently forced in school to write with their right hands. For some reason or other, being left-handed was considered 'wrong' and teachers tried to discourage it as much as possible.
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Post by myhomeo on Mar 5, 2018 14:40:02 GMT -5
Holy... I just did the math. He would've been about ten in that shot. Still, Billy Lee was a scene-stealer. I've mentioned elsewhere his mugging for the camera as a back-up dancer in 'The Pinch Singer' and there's a sequence in an old Bobby Breen film where he, Bobby, and some other kids are singing 'Polly Wolly Doodle' and Billy and Bobby seem to be trying to out-cute one another. |
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Post by Buppster on Mar 5, 2018 14:46:51 GMT -5
Sorry Bobby but Billy was the cuter by far and the magic mirror agrees with me.  |
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Post by Buppster on Mar 5, 2018 18:21:27 GMT -5
Well, it is a drawing and it's unlikely it was taken from life. You'll notice all the kids are depicted as right-handed. Also just occurred to me, back then left-handed kids were frequently forced in school to write with their right hands. For some reason or other, being left-handed was considered 'wrong' and teachers tried to discourage it as much as possible. Actually it's a lithograph, based on a hand tinted photograph. All of the kids, except Harry, were right handed, as can be seen in a photo of the classroom that was posted earlier in this thread.  You might be right about the antagonism towards left handedness back then being an issue. So, although it might have been perfectly fine for Harry to write left handed within the confines of the Our Gang schoolroom it is entirely possible that he was instructed to hold the pencil in his right hand for a photograph that was going to be used as part of a national advertising campaign. |
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Post by Buppster on Mar 5, 2018 18:34:13 GMT -5
Actually there's another lithograph earlier in this thread, I've just looked at all of the older posts, which is taken from the A Story Of Our Gang (1929) book. It clearly shows three of the kids and their teacher all writing with their right hands and Harry writing with his left.  |
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Post by Buppster on Mar 5, 2018 19:00:31 GMT -5
Further trawling through this thread revealed a lithograph showing Harry scribbling on a blackboard with his left hand.  Harry holding a yo yo in his left hand  All of the kids pointing with their right hands, except Harry who is pointing with his left.  |
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Post by Buppster on Mar 5, 2018 19:06:44 GMT -5
So there's a lot of circumstantial evidence that Harry was indeed left handed but that he threw javelins and old veggies with his right hand. He could also hold a pencil in his right hand for photographs when required. Of course being Harry Spear nothing is ever straightforward and simple. Take for example the avatar used by former member (I presume that he's left) Hard-boiled Harry, with which hand is left handed Harry holding his hammer?  Someone wrote in this thread that there was something of The Devil about Harry, too true. The Devil was apparently left handed too. |
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Post by myhomeo on Mar 6, 2018 13:32:25 GMT -5
Sorry Bobby but Billy was the cuter by far and the magic mirror agrees with me. View AttachmentThat's from the film I mentioned, MAKE A WISH. The scene in question has a bunch of kids sitting in what seems to be a stairwell for some reason singing 'Polly Wolly Doodle,' Bobby and Billy mugging their little hearts out to the camera. Bobby's the lead, while Billy plays the little scamp tagalong in the summer camp scenes. |
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Post by Buppster on Mar 6, 2018 14:16:33 GMT -5
I've seen Make A Wish, in fact I've got it on DVD. I'm not really a fan of Bobby Breen or of Billy Lee (who played Pee Wee in it) but Tommy Bupp also appeared briefly in it, in an uncredited role, in the scene where they find the pups. Johnny Arthur was also in it too.  And as for Polly Wolly Doodle.  |
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Post by Buppster on Mar 6, 2018 14:22:58 GMT -5
Gender fluidity and the breaking down of stereotypical gender roles might be in vogue these days but back in the 1920s girls were girls, they played with toy tea sets or dolls, while boys wouldn't be seen dead doing stuff like that, would they?  It's probably perfectly explainable, they were all members of a Voodoo cult, obviously. |
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Post by imnotallenhoskins on Mar 6, 2018 14:34:24 GMT -5
Gender fluidity and the breaking down of stereotypical gender roles might be in vogue these days but back in the 1920s girls were girls, they played with toy tea sets or dolls, while boys wouldn't be seen dead doing stuff like that, would they? View AttachmentIt's probably perfectly explainable, they were all members of a Voodoo cult, obviously. Those are props from "Mary Queen of Tots" if I remember correctly. |
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