Help wanted! What did I see?

[santos]

Hello, dear Rascal-nerds!
Im having a problem..


When I was a small child I had a home recorded VHS containing a mixed bag of cartoons and some Rascal-episodes.
We LOVED that tape! Im an adult now and have been nostalgia-tripping a lot on games and films in my years, but these films had went under the radar until recently. I have been trying to find the episodes I saw on Youtube, the place of everything, but I am terribly confused. And here's why:

Ive went through all episodes I could find, with according to a list of episodes on wiki is ALL of them, and I can't make almost any connection to what I remember, which is vivid images! Although somewhat dreamy. What I remember is the kids being outside a lot, and the quality of the film is primitive. So after being in contact with the episodes on youtube I would say we are in 1923-25 somewhere. I also remember the face of the girl played by Mary Kornman, because I was completely in love with her. So mysterious and cool, oh god.. And I remember this black kid, seems to be called Sammy? At some point his eyes popped out of his head with a very cheesy cutting technique and big fake eyes. In browsing Youtube I also recognized a wild bear, because it was the first time I ever saw one, and some kids peeking through fences, messing up peoples shoes. So far so good, right? 

Here are my vivid memories I CANNOT FIND ANYWHERE:
Sound. Yes, voices, shouts. I remember what it sounded like when they talked. How is this possible if the films where silent? 
I remember a tiny half naked nature boy with a raccoon hat chasing off a crocodile with a whip. Someone was stuck in a cage. 
A circus with dancers in a little room, spinning on their heads shouting something that sounded like "whaila whaila".
A lion, also real live lion, stuck with someone in a room and kind of roaming around.

Can it be that this is a completely different film? 


It's so frustrating, you know. Expecting a total recall of childhood imagery and instead being like.. "hey, wait what even is this, is it even the right show?". Our parents said it was called rackarungarna, in Swedish translates to the rascals.

[malaria]

Hur mar du?

Sunshine Sammy left the series in 1924.  Unfortunately, my knowledge of the silents is limited; in New York, where I grew up, they only showed one or two, and I can't put a finger one either of the two Leonard Maltin books I have floating around here.

If you are indeed of Swedish extraction, I offer this:  littlerascals.proboards.com/thread/1738/swedish-rascals      

Now to find one of the Maltin books.

[malaria]

This?

www.youtube.com/watch?v=DMU5Ko3nB-c

[santos]

Jag mar bra, tack!

Ah, well I'm not sure of anything anymore. Is my life a dream? Why are my vivid memories without detail?

Indeed Swedish, have you seen the classic Astrid Lindgren movies? They are all more or less Rascalian.

[santos]

Yes! That. I remember the bear, but I remember so much more that isn't there. Its like I've seen a parallell universe version of the show.

I mean, how many films starring a bunch of kids running around in the south from that exact era can there be?

[malaria]

Lindgren was some lady.

Tomorrow I will be seeing a Swede named Calle Jarnkrok at a nearby NHL hockey game. This is not so unusual but for the fact that when I met him here a few years back, I addressed him in Swedish, and he answered me...in Swedish. Most Swedes, especially in the NHL, answer you in (perfect) English. I was very impressed.  (Finns always answer in English even if you address them in that unusual language).  

I got the Rascalian feel from the brilliant "My Life As A Dog," which I wanted to never end. I think I've seen it about 20 times since it first came out.

My memories of old Rascals episodes I saw once or twice before they were pulled off the air in NY were likewise jumbled.

Did they in fact play the Rascals in Stockholm? Gothenburg? Malmo? Many of the later Rascals episodes have a very Jantelag take on the world.  

A Rascals episode in which the kids are introduced to surstromming would have been delightful, just for the kids' expressions.  

[santos]

"Did they in fact play the Rascals in Stockholm? Gothenburg? Malmo? Many of the later Rascals episodes have a very Jantelag take on the world."

I wouldn't know, I watched it on tape in early 90s. I have no idea where the recording came from. Cable TV is my wild guess.
Haha, yes they do. I liked the early raw and wild.

As long as the surströmming isn't some wild circus animal on the loose.

[malaria]

I have never tried surstromming, but I understand it to be one of the smelliest concoctions in the world... basically fermented (read:  "borderline rotten") fish in a can.  

I ran the marvelous word rackarungarna through the Google and found this:


www.youtube.com/watch?v=NRxfujYdVPg


Grownup rascals... with Swedish subtitles.  Hence, there must have been a following for the show in Sweden, well back in the day.   I had no idea... 

[santos]

I've actually never eaten, smelled or seen a can of it in my life. Mythological food, you could say.

It appears so! No wonder really

[mtw12055]

The one with the crocodile sounds like it could be the Mickey McGuire short "Mickey's Ape Man".

[malaria]

Dec 16, 2019 20:28:52 GMT -5 santos said:

I've actually never eaten, smelled or seen a can of it in my life. Mythological food, you could say.

It appears so! No wonder really

LOL.  Supposedly, some Finns were originally behind it:

"There are many theories as to how surströmming became part of Sweden’s culinary culture. The most colourful story traces its roots back to Swedish sailors in the 16th Century. The sailors were running low on salt -- which was commonly used to preserve food -- and their barrels of herring began to go bad. They sold the rotten fish to some locals at a Finnish port, but a year later, when the sailors returned, the Finns requested more rotten herring because they had enjoyed it so much. This prompted the Swedish sailors to try it themselves and produce more of the fish..."

www.bbc.com/travel/story/20120605-swedens-stinky-tradition

PERKELE!!! 


Seriously, fish aside, as a Jew, I am grateful to both countries.  Finland protected her Jews during the darkness, and Sweden took in threatened Jews from Denmark and Norway.  Nordic folk have much about which to be proud, smelly fish concoctions notwithstanding. 

But I would like to see the Rascals dubbed into BOTH Swedish and Finnish.  THAT would be cool.   

[santos]

What, I thought you were making that up on the spot!
Yeah, we seem to have kinda great reputation.

[santos]

Yes! YEES! THATS IT! Mickey McGuire it is.
gosh darn, thank you!!
This is sooo nice

Earth, what a great place

[RJH]

Messing up people's shoes, if it was with white paint, could be "A Pleasant Journey" or "Every Man for Himself." Sunshine Sammy was in the former, while there was looking through holes in fences in the latter.

The cheesy bug-eyed effect brings Farina in "War Feathers" to mind, when he sees a bear through his legs.

[santos]

Thats just right!

Have just watched Mickey for an hour straight now, and its completely hilarious. That little guy, Billy - magical!
What energy that show have, I think it have probably influenced me on some deep level.
Instruments, dirt, animals, life. Milk in the accordion..