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Post by mickeygubitosifan on May 20, 2011 0:02:17 GMT -5
This is a quirk of the film industry that I've been wondering about recently. I've heard stories about child actors naturally losing their baby teeth while movies in which they were acting were still being filmed. Since movies are often shot out of chronological sequence, this slight but obvious change in appearance can cause problems for producers; after all, it would be kind of odd for a young actor to have all of his or her teeth at one point in the movie, then be pictured with a couple of them missing, and then to have them all back again, especially if all of the action in those scenes was to have taken place over a short span of time.
In combat of this inevitable situation, I've heard of temporary fake teeth being used. It might feel strange to the actor to be wearing something like that, but I can see how such a measure might be necessary in order to maintain a believable timeline for the film.
Does anyone know what was done by the Our Gang production staff to address this problem? Shooting schedules wouldn't have been as drawn-out as for films of feature length, of course; was there, then, not really any continuity problem at all due to the shedding of baby teeth while in production, or was this an issue to which the Our Gang producers had to come up with a workable solution?
Off the top of my head, two Our Gang films in which a principal player had noticeably lost baby teeth are Wiggle Your Ears (Harry Spear) and The Lucky Corner (Scotty Beckett, missing his front teeth). I'm sure that there are other examples, of course. There were no issues of continuity break in these two films as a result of the lost teeth (I presume that they had fallen out before shooting began), but I do wonder what was done in the Our Gang studios if/when a situation arose in which chronological continuity might be affected by the loss of baby teeth.
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Post by ymymeatemup on May 20, 2011 0:26:26 GMT -5
IIRC, Stymie is missing his front teeth in "Birthday Blues," and Wheezer in "Free Eats" or thereabouts. I think Mickey Daniels was missing his in "A Quiet Street." I don't think the studio ever needed to do anything about it, since the films were almost always shot within a week or two. Even with feature films in those days, they usually shot them over the course of a month or so, especially the Saturday matinee variety that would feature the likes of Jackie Cooper or Shirley Temple. I wouldn't be surprised if they would occasionally fit a false tooth into the kid's mouth if a tooth happened to fall out in the middle of production, but somehow I don't think this was much of a concern with short subjects like the Our Gang series.
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Post by mtw12055 on May 20, 2011 16:17:47 GMT -5
IIRC, Stymie is missing his front teeth in "Birthday Blues," and Wheezer in "Free Eats" or thereabouts. Stymie is missing his teeth in some scenes in "Birthday Blues", but pay close attention to the scene where he goes to 'borrow' some money. During the shots of Stymie talking with Dickie on the curb (for the entire sequence as I recall) he is missing his front teeth. But when he says to the unseen person inside the building, "Well, what do ya have the sign up for?", his teeth are clearly not missing. |
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Post by mtw12055 on May 20, 2011 16:27:31 GMT -5
Some other moments that come to mind:
Farina is missing one or both of his front teeth at various times during the late 1926- early 1928 period. Jackie Condon is missing his from "High Socitey" through "Every Man For Himself". Jackie Cooper may have been missing his during "The First Seven Years". Stymie may have also been missing his around "Free Wheeling" and "A Lad an' a Lamp", in addition to "Birthday Blues". Alfalfa was missing his at least up through "Sprucin' Up". In fact, this inspired to give Alfalfa missing teeth in the Little Rascals comic book series, as well as in "The Singing Lesson" and at least one advertisement Carl Switzer did after he left Our Gang. Buckwheat is missing his during some of the earliest MGM shorts. Spanky is missing his around the 1937 period.
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Post by ymymeatemup on May 20, 2011 20:34:25 GMT -5
Forgot about "Sprucin' Up." That one actually has a 'missing teeth gag.'
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Post by mickeygubitosifan on May 21, 2011 0:11:48 GMT -5
IIRC, Stymie is missing his front teeth in "Birthday Blues," and Wheezer in "Free Eats" or thereabouts. I think Mickey Daniels was missing his in "A Quiet Street." I don't think the studio ever needed to do anything about it, since the films were almost always shot within a week or two. Even with feature films in those days, they usually shot them over the course of a month or so, especially the Saturday matinee variety that would feature the likes of Jackie Cooper or Shirley Temple. I wouldn't be surprised if they would occasionally fit a false tooth into the kid's mouth if a tooth happened to fall out in the middle of production, but somehow I don't think this was much of a concern with short subjects like the Our Gang series. This is pretty much how I would have guessed it to be. Since only a few taping dates generally went into the making of any single Our Gang short, the effects of physical change between scenes would have tended to be fairly minimal. Still, I know that it's completely possible to naturally lose a few baby teeth in a single day. I remember that when I was in fourth grade, I once lost three teeth in one day (this flurry of activity was kind of a surprise, as I had not shed any deciduous teeth since second grade). Something else along these same lines that I've been wondering about is if the studio crew sometimes had to give hair trims to the Our Gang players after an initial taping date had been completed and before the next day's shooting began, in order to limit noticeable changes in appearance. I know that this is commonly done prior to taping scenes for feature films, but I'm not sure how that standard practice would apply to cinematic shorts. Stymie is missing his teeth in some scenes in "Birthday Blues", but pay close attention to the scene where he goes to 'borrow' some money. During the shots of Stymie talking with Dickie on the curb (for the entire sequence as I recall) he is missing his front teeth. But when he says to the unseen person inside the building, "Well, what do ya have the sign up for?", his teeth are clearly not missing. That's something to note. If the response in the Birthday Blues situation was to not make any particular effort to mask the wrinkle in continuity, then I wonder if the matter of lost baby teeth on-set was something for which the producers and crew just never bothered to form a contingency plan. Perhaps they assumed that the short taping schedules would preclude the loss of baby teeth among the actors while filming was in progress, and so it wasn't an important enough issue to take the time to address.
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Post by mtw12055 on May 21, 2011 10:47:30 GMT -5
That's something to note. If the response in the Birthday Blues situation was to not make any particular effort to mask the wrinkle in continuity, then I wonder if the matter of lost baby teeth on-set was something for which the producers and crew just never bothered to form a contingency plan. Perhaps they assumed that the short taping schedules would preclude the loss of baby teeth among the actors while filming was in progress, and so it wasn't an important enough issue to take the time to address. During the music practice scenes in "Lodge Night", Mickey Daniels' hair is longer in some shots than in others. He more than likely got a haircut during filming. Incidentally, Jackie Condon gets his hair (actually a wig) cut by a barber in "Ten Years Old". For some reason, I wonder if the gentleman cutting Jackie's hair was the Hal Roach Studio's actual barber. |
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Post by mickeygubitosifan on May 22, 2011 0:12:38 GMT -5
Incidentally, Jackie Condon gets his hair (actually a wig) cut by a barber in "Ten Years Old". For some reason, I wonder if the gentleman cutting Jackie's hair was the Hal Roach Studio's actual barber. Is it at all possible that this could be reasoned out in the same way as the confirmation of Dick Henchen's identity? If the studio's official barber were to have been regularly listed by name in the records among the other Our Gang crew on days that he worked, and if he were hired specially as a day worker to appear on-screen in a small part for Ten Years Old, then would it be possible to figure out if the haircutter in that film was actually the studio's regular barber? |
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Post by ymymeatemup on May 22, 2011 13:44:09 GMT -5
If the studio's official barber were to have been regularly listed by name in the records among the other Our Gang crew on days that he worked, and if he were hired specially as a day worker to appear on-screen in a small part for Ten Years Old, then would it be possible to figure out if the haircutter in that film was actually the studio's regular barber? I think this is very possible, and hopefully I'll remember to look up the studio hairdressers in the payroll ledger the next time I'm in L.A. I'm currently in the middle of the 1926 ledger, which means I'll be researching "Ten Years Old" before long. Presumably, the barber in the film will be among the extras listed. To be specific, though, any hairdresser/barber working for the studio would not normally be listed for the current Our Gang production. His/her salary would be part of studio overhead. |
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Post by mickeygubitosifan on May 23, 2011 0:34:53 GMT -5
To be specific, though, any hairdresser/barber working for the studio would not normally be listed for the current Our Gang production. His/her salary would be part of studio overhead. I think I understand what you're saying. In the thread about Dick Henchen, speaking on the subject of payroll ledgers, you said, "Everything is divided up week-by-week, and for each week, there are various categories. A couple of pages are devoted to company employees who don't directly work on the films. Another couple of pages list contract players and crew members. Another page or two list carpenters, painters, electricians, etc. (the only category that I haven't bothered copying down)." Would the regularly used barber for the studio not fit into any of those comprehensive listings, then? In that case, I would imagine that identifying the actor who played the barber could be done by checking the payroll ledger for Ten Years Old, but finding out whether or not he had actually been the regular studio barber would be an entirely different matter. Is that right? |
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Post by littlerascal4891 on May 23, 2011 18:25:13 GMT -5
This is a very interesting topic. I wouldn't have thought to look for missing teeth to determine when episodes were filmed. Good catch.
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Post by ymymeatemup on May 23, 2011 18:48:57 GMT -5
Would the regularly used barber for the studio not fit into any of those comprehensive listings, then? In that case, I would imagine that identifying the actor who played the barber could be done by checking the payroll ledger for Ten Years Old, but finding out whether or not he had actually been the regular studio barber would be an entirely different matter. Is that right? Hairdressers are listed in the first category - that is, among those whose work isn't charged to any particular production. Once in a while, their salary might be charged to a production if, say, somebody like Thelma Todd was working in the film and some concentrated effort was needed, but normally they're just part of the overhead. So to answer your question, it's highly possible that one of the extras listed for "Ten Years Old" will also appear in the ledger as a hairdresser - unless they simply used an actor. |
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Post by Buppster on Oct 28, 2018 7:21:36 GMT -5
Several of the kids lost their front teeth while they were Rascals, ones that immediately spring to mind, other than those already mentioned is Harry Spear. In 'A Story Of Our Gang' book it mentions Harry as having, "A million freckles and no front teeth" as he was missing them from both top and bottom gums.   Then there were Sherwood Bailey & Wheezer, who were both missing front teeth at the same time.  And of course there's also Alfalfa  |
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Post by RJH on Oct 28, 2018 11:35:38 GMT -5
Other films where lost teeth are featured prominently include "The Awful Tooth," "Seeing the World," and "Noisy Noises," where Joe's tooth gets pulled like Mickey's in "A Quiet Street." And then not so prominently for the other Mickey's tooth in "Wedding Worries."
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Post by myhomeo on Oct 29, 2018 12:43:24 GMT -5
Nowadays, fake teeth for child performers are fairly common. If I understand correctly, they're called 'flippers.'
Back then, I doubt they worried that much about such things around the Hal Roach Studios. Granted, their continuity scripts during filming were pretty exact, up to and including which hand a kid was holding a prop in during an earlier scene. But stuff like that, they probably just figured there wasn't much they could do so why worry about it.
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