|
|
Post by Mary Ann fan on May 10, 2004 18:41:00 GMT -5
Hi,
I was wondering if there are any other fans of Mary Ann out there.
She's right up there with Spanky and Stymie as my favorite rascals.She wasn't one of those prissy,pretty rascals girls but she could hold her own with the boys.
One of my favorite episodes is "The First Seven Years",where Jackie is in love with Mary Ann and fights a duel with Speck over her.Before the fight,Jackie takes bad advice from Kennedy the cop,and tries to bully Mary into being his woman.She responds by shoving him to the ground,pouncing on him and beating him up.Her trouncing of him ends only when she lets him up and plants a swift kick to the seat of his pants as he is getting away!It is very funny and shows who's the real boss,even though Jackie goes on to defeat Speck.
|
|
|
|
Post by sidewayscap on Aug 26, 2005 14:34:35 GMT -5
|
|
|
|
Post by zootmoney on Aug 26, 2005 18:24:22 GMT -5
Watching the shows as a kid, I didn't like Mary Ann. But watching as an adult, I realize that she was very good. I feel bad that I didn't like her.
|
|
|
|
Post by no1halopfan on Aug 26, 2005 18:32:40 GMT -5
Mary Ann is my 7 year old daughter's favorite. The last time I asked her anyway.
|
|
|
|
Post by maliejandra on Oct 1, 2005 0:09:55 GMT -5
I always liked her because she reminded me of my cousins, but now I like her because she was funny in a very subtle way. She was a tomboy, motherly type and I love that about her. Plus, since Wheezer is my favorite, I see her a lot and she's always very cute, even if she tattles a lot.
|
|
|
|
Post by chubby on Jun 3, 2006 7:23:06 GMT -5
Mary Ann was such a natural. She was really level headed and so reliable and sensible. What a phenomonal pantomime artist she was. Her expressions were priceless, especially during close-ups. If I could have met any rascal, I would have picked her!
|
|
ina
Junior Member
Posts: 64
|
Post by ina on Jun 4, 2006 9:01:06 GMT -5
Speaking of Mary Ann, I wonder whatever became of her life after the Little Rascals? I remember reading that she made a guest appearance in the 1941 movie, "Here First Beau," starring Jackie Cooper and Jane Withers, and that her stand-in in the movie was Edith Fellows. I think that was the first and last movie Mary ever appeared in according to the Internet Movie Database.
|
|
kay
New Member
Posts: 6 
|
Post by kay on Jun 4, 2006 13:14:23 GMT -5
Speaking of Mary Ann, I wonder whatever became of her life after the Little Rascals?  From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia: Mary Ann Jackson (born January 14, 1923 in Los Angeles-died December 17, 2003) is an American former child actress who appeared in the Our Gang short subjects series from 1928 to 1931. Mary Ann's film career began under the shadow of her actor relatives, mother Charlotte Jackson and older sister, "Peaches" Jackson. Peaches had a fairly prolific stint as a child actress, working with such greats as Rudolph Valentino and DW Griffith in full-length features. Mary Ann made her film debut in a 1925 Ruth Taylor short, Dangerous Curves. Her first big break came with the role of Baby Smith in the comedy short series The Smiths, which starred Billy Gilbert. Mary Ann made her feature debut in 1927's Smith's Pony. Mary Ann joined the Our Gang features in 1928, the tail end of the silent era. Often used as the second female lead or the spunky older sister of "Wheezer" (Bobby Hutchins), Mary Ann's snappy delivery came in handy during the series' somewhat rocky transition to sound. With her bob hairstyle and freckles, tomboyish Mary Ann was a vast departure from the winsome miniature heroines who would populate the series before and after her tenure. In 1933 longtime Our Gang director Robert McGowan wrote in an Los Angeles Times feature that they normally preferred to cast children who had no previous acting experience, but Jackson was a rare exception: "Mary Ann proved a real find and was my ideal little gang leading lady. She wasn't pretty, but she was intelligent and willing and had just a touch of pathos in her makeup. She proved a rare find for me." She left the franchise in 1931 and appeared in a few two-reel Mickey McGuire comedies; some attempts were made to ease her into features, but she said in 1990: “I wasn’t a girlie girl type. I didn’t fit the mould so I was discarded like a piece of rubbish.” Mary Ann felt that children distorting themselves for a part in a short or feature was "sick", and at age eight, she walked away from Hollywood. She told her mother: "This is not for me. I don't want the responsibility or the rejection. I'm not an actress, I'm not talented, leave me alone, let me get on with my life!" She eventually took a job at the Mays Company in downtown Los Angeles, and made only a few brief forays into acting. In 1941 she doubled for Edith Fellows, in 1951 she played Rosie Kettle in Ma and Pa Kettle Go To Town, and played Mrs. Rigsby in the 1964 The Andy Griffith Show episode Opie's Fortune. Mary Ann married at age twenty, but was widowed. She spent many years with her second husband and her two children in San Fernando Valley. Later in life Mary Ann (dressed in 50's attire) and her sister Peaches would stop by Santa Monica bars and sip vodka martinis. Upon recounting her Our Gang years she laughed at the many women who claimed to be Mary Ann Jackson - they often cited their Louise Brooks style bangs, which she loathed and had chopped off as soon as she left her acting career. In 1990, she was delighed and amused to learn that during their stint in the Little Rascals, Jackie Cooper had been "desperately in love with her". Asked to recall her thoughts on the Gang, she responded, "Everything I have to say about Roach and the gang is nice. There's not one bad thing I can think of. It was just fun and fun and fun." Mary Ann died in December 2003. Her death was not announced until April 2005, because Peaches thought "nobody cared". |
|
|
|
Post by sidewayscap on Jun 7, 2006 18:02:55 GMT -5
Sounds like "Peaches" is a bit jealous...lol.
|
|
|
|
Post by chubby on Jun 8, 2006 2:12:29 GMT -5
I heard that after Mary Ann's days were finished at Roach, she went on to star as the daughter in a series called "The Smith Family". Does anyone have any information about this series? Has anyone seen any of these episodes?
|
|
|
|
Post by zootmoney on Jun 8, 2006 7:30:07 GMT -5
She was in the Smith Family before Our Gang. There is a short on the Grapevine DVD Sampler- along with Our Gang's Commencement Day.
|
|
|
|
Post by rhapsody on Jun 8, 2006 14:01:43 GMT -5
Does anyone happen to know if Dickie Jackson was/is the brother of Peaches and Mary Ann? I could have sworn I read somewhere that he was, but the IMDB does not link them. He was a minor player in the early 30's.....the kid who was with Spud when he fell in the well....well, well, well.
|
|
|
|
Post by ymymeatemup on Jun 8, 2006 15:59:09 GMT -5
The Maltin & Bann book identifies him as her brother.
|
|
|
|
Post by floradoradolly on Jun 8, 2006 23:32:34 GMT -5
I heard that after Mary Ann's days were finished at Roach, she went on to star as the daughter in a series called "The Smith Family". Does anyone have any information about this series? Has anyone seen any of these episodes? I found a couple of Smith Family episodes on VHS on Ebay a few years ago. They were made about a year before Mary Ann joined the Gang. She looked pretty much the same as she did in the early silents. The Smith Family films aren't as laugh-out-loud funny as the more well-known silent comedies, but I thought they were cute and fun to watch. The storylines are similar to what you'd see in a 1950s TV sitcom. Mary Ann gets a lot of screen time. There are other children here and there, but mostly she interacts with adults. And of course, she is smarter than they are! |
|
|
|
Post by cubear on Jun 11, 2006 18:39:34 GMT -5
I Love Mary-Ann! Her and the Whezzer were my favorite Our Gangers!!
|
|
