Amazing Stuff Learned From This Very Board

[malaria]

10.  "Citizen Kane" and "Grapes Of Wrath" aside, the greatest black-and-white film ever was... "Beginner's Luck."  

9.   If you ever let yourself think you're in the top one percentile of knowledge of Rascals obscuriana (as I formerly did), you are emphatically WRONG;

8.   Buckwheat, Stymie and Farina were all the same person, and were male, female, intersex, transgender and Rigelian.  Spanky, Joe Cobb and Chubby were the same person but male;

7.   By far the most beloved Rascal was... Dorothy DeBorba.  (Either that or the Portuguese have taken over here, MWAHAHA!!);

6.   Many even mildly committed Rascals fans can chat knowledgeably about ***Janet Burston***, who certainly never burst on the scene of any Rascals short I saw;

5.    Eastasians got .00000001% of Rascals screen time... but everyone here can name them.  

4.   Every person on this board can recite, with unerring accuracy, every line from every short involving a fire engine;

3.    The precursor to Bart Simpson's "I didn't do it" one-dimensional komic-katchphrase character was "Uh-huh," who is universally beloved here;

2.    Yes, Virginia, there are people out there who watched all the silents, knew them backwards and forwards, and enjoyed them just as much as they did the talkies;

1.     All of the above is... "REMARKABLE!!!"    


  

[shirleymurphy]

"Many even mildly committed Rascals fans can chat knowledgeably about ***Janet Burston***"

Eh, when she's an adult and her tits are "Burston" out, I'm sure guys will want to know *even more* about her

An adult Dorothy DeBorba, perched on top of a convertible, in a sheath dress, would also have caused a few dings in undies

[malaria]

I must protest this horrifying notion that many men may actually enjoy looking at women's sweater-puppies. In fact there were a number of guys at the (Greenwich Village, cough cough) college I attended who were demonstrably UNinterested in women's firm, pouting chestal appendages. Guys like me, who did derive pleasure from proud pink-nosed female twins, had to skulk about in shame, by God.

In fact Janet seems not to have been doin' much Burstin' at all when a fan dug her up some years later. Imagine being waited on by her at Denny's: www.catsafterme.com/blog/archives/2460

As for Dorothy, dress or no, I'm sure she was decidedly in the eye-candy latitudes for many decades

[shirleymurphy]

Janet was in an impossible position following Darla.

[myhomeo]

I try not to blame the actual kids. They were KIDS, they were doing the best they could. Poor Mickey was working his butt off with the eyebrow thing.

But really, I don't think Janet's problem was entirely being eclipsed by Darla. She was clearly being encouraged to ape Shirley Temple with the coy cutesyness and it was rather nauseating.

[malaria]

I wondered about this, since as a Noo Yawka, we didn't get the post-Roach MGM shorts, so I had never seen Burston in action. Hence I googled the name and was directed to "Waldo's Last Stand."

Now my expectations were low, since I knew there was general agreement that quality fell off once Roach moved on, but this short was just stunningly bad.... bloodless, charmless, dull and unfunny. Burston was a pretty little thing, but the whole enterprise was just excruciatingly unfunny. I have no idea how that transformation even occurred. And I can't say, "ahh, no McGowan;" he co-wrote it. Something essential was lost there.

[tboneator64]

May 23, 2019 18:09:53 GMT -5 malaria said:

I wondered about this, since as a Noo Yawka, we didn't get the post-Roach MGM shorts, so I had never seen Burston in action. Hence I googled the name and was directed to "Waldo's Last Stand."

Now my expectations were low, since I knew there was general agreement that quality fell off once Roach moved on, but this short was just stunningly bad.... bloodless, charmless, dull and unfunny. Burston was a pretty little thing, but the whole enterprise was just excruciatingly unfunny. I have no idea how that transformation even occurred. And I can't say, "ahh, no McGowan;" he co-wrote it. Something essential was lost there.

To be fair, it was the Robert A. McGowan who went by the Anthony Mack pseudonym when the series was at Roach who was involved with the MGM series, not his uncle, Robert F. McGowan, who was at the 'Our Gang' helm for most of its glory years.  Confusing, I know!

If you think WALDO'S LAST STAND (1940) was stunningly bad, you should view most of the post Spanky McFarland shorts after 1942.  There's some rather painful viewing in that batch!

For myhomeo:  I think your Janet Burston observation is spot on, and it quite possibly explains how some people who have seen her in films outside of 'Our Gang' thought she was actually a very talented performer. They probably weren't trying to make her a Shirley Temple clone in those.

CHEERS!

[mtw12055]

From this board, I’ve learned that a few... um... interesting people like The Little Rascals - ones with stripping and spanking obsessions. *shudders* Normally I wouldn’t judge, but when that’s brought over to the Our Gang kids... *shudders*

“Yum, yum, eat ‘em up” and “weep wow” are quotable enough to be popular usernames.

Scotty Beckett is quite popular with the ladies.

There are really good Scooter Lowry detectives out there.

[malaria]

The Mystery Of The Mixed Up McGowans. Good god. It's got "Hardy Boys" written all over it:

"What is this terrible Rascals film?" asked dark-haired 18-year-old Frank Hardy, who was a year older than his more blond and impetuous younger brother, Joe.

"I don't know, Frank," replied Joe, who was blond and more impetuous than his brother Frank, who was a year older. "No plot, no music, no ha-ha, no Stymie..."


Thanks for solving that mystery, tbone.

[shirleymurphy]

"Yep, yep, yep" was The Land Before Time and not Our Gang

I'm sure a LOT of guys wouldn't mind ADULT DeBorba and Hood wearing nothing but a chair ala Christine Keeler

[myhomeo]

May 23, 2019 18:09:53 GMT -5 malaria said:

I wondered about this, since as a Noo Yawka, we didn't get the post-Roach MGM shorts, so I had never seen Burston in action. Hence I googled the name and was directed to "Waldo's Last Stand."

Now my expectations were low, since I knew there was general agreement that quality fell off once Roach moved on, but this short was just stunningly bad.... bloodless, charmless, dull and unfunny. Burston was a pretty little thing, but the whole enterprise was just excruciatingly unfunny. I have no idea how that transformation even occurred. And I can't say, "ahh, no McGowan;" he co-wrote it. Something essential was lost there.

It's worse than that. That wasn't Janet in 'Waldo's Last Stand.' That was still Darla. Janet was even more annoying.

[malaria]

LOL. I thought I saw Janet (or some fake Shirley Temple) tap-dancing in about halfway through the lugubrious proceedings. But, again, as of a few days ago, she was unknown to me.

The marvelous "Lucky Corner" site, which provides amazing detail on all Roach Our Gang shorts up to and including "Hide and Shriek", goes eloquently silent when it comes to the post-Roach stuff.

[myhomeo]

Most of the Our Gang shorts don't turn up on Youtube; MGM's very fierce about copyright. So I'm not sure how you can, shall we say, experience Janet without investing in the DVDs...

[mtw12055]

May 24, 2019 13:01:53 GMT -5 malaria said:

LOL. I thought I saw Janet (or some fake Shirley Temple) tap-dancing in about halfway through the lugubrious proceedings. But, again, as of a few days ago, she was unknown to me.

The marvelous "Lucky Corner" site, which provides amazing detail on all Roach Our Gang shorts up to and including "Hide and Shriek", goes eloquently silent when it comes to the post-Roach stuff.

Bob Demoss, the great guy behind that site, used to have pages for the Metro shorts, but took them down. I think he was wanting to save much of his info for a book project.

Janet is in WALDO’S LAST STAND during the final number. Two smaller kids come out and join in the closing number - one is Janet and the other is Clyde Willson.

Here’s a clip of her in BLONDIE GOES LATIN.
m.youtube.com/watch?v=GJOh5QQUnZk

[malaria]

I am blown away by the depth and breadth of Rascal knowledge of those posting here.

As for the clip of Burston, she clearly was the poor man's Shirley Temple, despite the Strahan-like tooth gap. I see she was Canadian, so tooth gaps are second nature up there, given that hockey is the national religion. But this is of course light-years away from Rascaldom.