Read Ebook {PDF EPUB} Our Gang The Life and Times of the Little Rascals by Leonard Maltin ‘The Little Rascals’: Norman Chaney, Who Preferred ‘Chubsy-Ubsy,’ Had a Short and Sad Life. Norman was born October 18, 1914, in Cambridge, Maryland, and found the road to stardom at about the same time that the sound era began in movies. Coincidentally, the heavy-set Joe Cobb was aging out of the series, which meant that producer Hal Roach and director Robert F. McGowan were looking for someone younger, but with a similar build. They found him in Norman, who was 3′ 11″ at the time and weighed about 113 pounds. Given the name “Chubby,” he made his debut in the second sound short, “Rail Roadin’,” and would appear in a total of 19 films over the next two years. Described Leonard Maltin and Richard W. Bann in their book, The Little Rascals: The Life and Times of Our Gang , “The changing of the guard was celebrated in publicity photos and stories and an entire film. ‘Boxing Gloves’ was contrived to feature the two fat-boys of Our Gang before Joe Cobb retired and Chubby took his place … His natural flair for comic dialogue and his open, friendly personality made Chubby an instant hit in Our Gang .” Only a Short Time with the ‘Gang’ Generally speaking, Norman’s time as part of the group was relatively short, part of the problem being that it was obvious that he was getting a little taller and was definitely putting on more weight without really trying. When his contract with Hal Roach Studios wasn’t renewed in 1931, he and his parents agreed that acting was not for him and they moved back to Baltimore. There he attended public school and did very well in his classes. Unfortunately, while his height stopped at 4′ 7″, his weight ballooned to 300 pounds. Eventually, it was discovered that he suffered a glandular ailment. He underwent a treatment for it in 1935 at John Hopkins University and, as a result, his weight dropped pretty quickly from 300 pounds to 140. The process continued until he’d gotten down to 110 pounds and he would shock everyone by dying on May 29, 1936, of myocarditis (an inflammation of the heart muscle). He was only 21. The next day, The Chattanooga News featured a short item with the terrible headline, “ Our Gang Comedy Fat Boy is Dead.” The piece reads, “Norman Chubby Chaney, the fat boy of Our Gang comedies, is dead. He was 17 [sic] years old. The boy returned here in 1932 after two years in Hollywood. He became ill last year and went to the John Hopkins Hospital for treatment to a glandular ailment. He failed to rally after an operation and died yesterday at the home of his parents.” BARGAIN DAY, Allen ‘Farina’ Hoskins, Bobby ‘Wheezer’ Hutchins, Jackie Cooper, Norman ‘Chubby’ Chaney, Shirley Jean Rickert, Pete the Pup, Mary Ann Jackson, Dorothy DeBorba, 1931. While Norman was buried in Baltimore Cemetery, there was no headstone on his grave due to the fact that his mother couldn’t afford one for him or herself. Amazingly, 76 years later, Detroit rock musicians MIKAL managed to organize a fundraiser, pulling together $4,500 for headstones to be placed on their graves — a remarkable thing to do so many years after Norman’s passing. Our Gang, from left: Matthew ‘Stymie’ Beard, Dorothy DeBorba, Bobby ‘Wheezer’ Hutchins, Jackie Cooper, Pete the Pup, Norman ‘Chubby’ Chaney, Allen ‘Farina’ Hoskins, Mary Ann Jackson, Donald Haines, ca. 1931. Around the time of his death, the “Little Hollywood” column of The Salt Lake Tribune offered up this tribute: “From Chubby Chaney, I have a letter, buried somewhere on one of my fives shelves, and I can remember some of the things he said: ‘I have a pony, but can’t ride it, for when I get up on its back, the poor thing actually cries. I am too short to ride a horse, so I can’t ride anything at all. I have a dog which I love so much I feel that it is part of me. Some day I should like to play baseball like other boys, but I am so heavy that I can’t run. Write a nice story about me now, and can I have my picture in the paper?’ Poor, good-natured Chubby. He wanted to be ‘just like other boys.’ He died following an operation. Well, I did write the ‘article’ after all, didn’t I? But it isn’t anything like what I had planned.” ‘Our Gang’ Curse. Are actors from the 'Our Gang' series the victims of a curse causing them to die unexpectedly young? David Mikkelson Published 20 April 2005. Claim. Rating. Origin. -->Classifying this entry about a purported Our Gang curse as “True” or “False” is a bit problematic: Although the facts stated in the example above are mostly true, we’ve listed this item as false because the implied significance of these facts — that they represent an unusually high pattern of tragic deaths amongst a selected group — is not supported by the evidence: Example: [Collected via e-mail, 2005] Gee, rough neighborhood! Remember Our Gang? What ever happened to those people? Well, here it is………..sad……….. THE OUR GANG CURSE… Alfalfa — Carl Switzer was shot to death at age 31. Chubby — 300-pound Norman Chaney died at age 22 following an operation. Buckwheat — William Thomas died at age 49 of a heart attack. Darla Hood — The Our Gang leading lady contracted hepatitis and died at age 47. Brisbane — Kendall McCormas, known as Breezy Brisbane, committed suicide at age 64. Froggy — William Robert Laughline was killed in a motor scooter accident at age 16. Mickey Daniels — He died of liver disease at 55. Stymie — Mathew Bear led a life of crime and drugs. He died of a stroke at age 56. Scotty Beckett — He died at age 38 following a brutal beating. Wheezer — Robert Hutchins was killed in an airplane accident at age 19. Pete the Pup — He was poisoned by an unknown assailant. and Spanky…….Robert Blake is accused of murdering his wife (recently acquitted) In general, most “curse” lists which supposedly document remarkably high levels of premature deaths and other tragedies of life within a group of people connected by some common bond should be taken as nothing more than frivolous entertainment because they are constructed through a number of misleading means: They list only entries that fit the assumed pattern, omitting any mention of the (usually much larger) group of entries that don’t fit the pattern. They include inaccurate or distorted information in order to bolster their length with entries that don’t appropriately belong there. They make the ordinary and commonplace seem unusual through the use of selective inclusion. To amplify on that last point, we’d explain it this way: If one were to choose any group of thirty or so people born in the U.S. in the 1920s and 1930s and follow them through the course of their lives, it wouldn’t be the least bit unusual to find that several of those people died well short of the average life expectancies of their times due to disease, accident, homicide, or suicide. People get sick, die in accidents, and kill each other (or themselves) all the time — these are the facts of life, sad as they are. Such deaths may be tragedies, but they’re hardly outside the pale of ordinary human experience. Before we launch into specifics, let’s briefly run down the lives of the 29 child actors who were regulars (i.e., appeared in fifteen or more installments) of the 221 Our Gang comedies (also known as The Little Rascals ) produced between 1922 and 1944. This information was compiled from Leonard Maltin’s book ( The Little Rascals: The Life and Times of Our Gang ), the Internet Movie Database (IMDb), and various news accounts: Ernest Frederic Morrison (“Sunshine Sammy”): Appeared in 28 installments. Successful post-Rascals career in show business and aerospace industry. Died of cancer at age 76. John Condon (“Jackie”): Appeared in 28 installments. Successful post-Rascals career as an accountant. Died of cancer at age 59. Allen Clayton Hoskins, Jr. (“Farina”): Appeared in 105 installments. Successful post-Rascals career as a psychological technician. Died of cancer at age 59. Richard Daniels, Jr. (“Mickey”): Appeared in 49 installments. Continued to work in show business in his post-Rascals career, then entered the engineering field and largely dropped out of sight after moving to Africa. Spent the last three years of his life as a taxi driver before dying alone in a San Diego hotel room of cirrhosis of the liver at age 55. John H. Davis: (“Jackie”): Appeared in 19 installments. Successful post-Rascals career as a doctor. Died at age 78. Mary A. Kornman (“Mary”): Appeared in 41 installments. Successful post-Rascals career in show business. Died of cancer at age 57. Joe Cobb (“Joe”): Appeared in 86 installments. Successful post-Rascals career in aerospace. Died at age 85. Andy Samuel (“Andy”): Appeared in 86 installments. Successful post-Rascals career in show business and art store management. Died at age 82. John Morey Downs (“Johnny”): Appeared in 24 installments. Successful post-Rascals career in show business and real estate. Died of cancer at age 80. Jay R. Smith (“Jay”): Appeared in 36 installments. Successful post-Rascals career in the retail business. Stabbed to death in Las Vegas at age 87 by a homeless man whom he had befriended. Jean Darling (“Jean”): Appeared in 35 installments. Successful post-Rascals career in show business and mystery writing. Still alive at age 92. Robert E. Hutchins (“Wheezer”): Appeared in 58 installments. Joined the Army Air Corps and died just short of age 20 when his plane crashed on landing during a training exercise. Harry Spear (“Harry”): Appeared in 58 installments. Post-Rascals activities unknown. Maltin reports rumors that he was working in a bank or had become a surgeon; IMDb lists him as dying in 1969 at age 46; other sources claim he is still alive but denies being a former Little Rascal. The best evidence to date indicates that his real name was Harry Sherman Bonner, and that he died of heart disease in 2006 at the age of 84, maintaining to the grave that he was not the Harry Spear who appeared in several dozen Our Gang comedies. Mary Ann Jackson (“Mary Ann”): Appeared in 32 installments. Married, raised two children, and died of a heart attack at age 80. Norman Myers Chaney (“Chubby”): Appeared in 32 installments. Died of a glandular ailment in early adulthood. (Maltin reports he was 18 years old at the time of his death; IMDb lists him as being 22.) Jackie Cooper: Appeared in 32 installments. Very long and successful post-Rascals career in films and television. Died of natural causes in 2011 at the age of 88. Dorothy DeBorba (“Echo”): Appeared in 32 installments. Married, raised two children, worked as a clerk at UC Berkeley. Died in 2010 at the age of 85. Matthew Beard, Jr. (“Stymie”): Appeared in 36 installments. Had post-Rascal problems with drug addiction and served time in prison, eventually underwent successful rehabilitation and returned to show business. Died of pneumonia at age 56. Jerry Tucker: Appeared in 36 installments. Successful post-Rascals career with RCA. Still alive at age 89. George Robert McFarland (“Spanky”): Appeared in 95 installments. Successful post-Rascals career as a sales manager with Philco-Ford and a lecturer. Died of a heart attack at age 64. Tommy Bond (“Butch”): Appeared in 27 installments. Successful post-Rascals career in television directing and production work. Died of heart disease at age 79. Scott Beckett (“Scotty”): Appeared in 15 installments. Suffered post-Rascals problems with divorce, violence, alcohol, drugs, and crime. Committed suicide by barbiturate overdose at age 38. William Thomas, Jr. (“Buckwheat”): Appeared in 93 installments. Successful post-Rascals career as a film laboratory technician. Died of a heart attack at age 49. Carl Dean Switzer (“Alfalfa”): Appeared in 61 installments. Worked at playing bit parts in film and television, tending bar, and serving as a hunting guide. Shot to death at age 31 in a dispute over a $50 debt. Eugene Gordon Lee (“Porky”): Appeared in 42 installments. Operates a merchandise licensing company. Died of cancer in 2005 just days short of his 72nd birthday. Darla Hood (“Darla”): Appeared in 42 installments. Successful post-Rascals career in show business as a singer/songwriter and voice-over artist. Died of hepatitis at age 47. Darwood Kaye (“Waldo”): Appeared in 21 installments. Had a successful post-Rascals career in show business before joining the ministry. Killed by a hit-and-run driver at age 72. Robert Blake: (“Mickey,” but inexplicably listed above as “Spanky”): Appeared in 40 installments. Very long and successful post-Rascals career in show business. Arrested in April 2002 for the murder of his wife; acquitted at trial in March 2005. Still alive at age 81. William Laughlin (“Froggy”): Appeared in 40 installments. Killed at age 16 when his bicycle was hit from behind by a truck. Frankly, the first thing that seems evident from this list is that the Our Gang bunch has been, on average, remarkably long-lived (especially considering that many of the men served in the military during World War II). Prior to a detailed analysis of their longevity, however, we should first dispose of a couple of names that don’t belong on this list: Kendall McComas, who played “Breezy Brisbane,” doesn’t really belong here, because he appeared in a mere handful (8) of Our Gang films. (If we included every child actor who was in more than one installment of the Our Gang series, we’d just be making our case stronger by watering down the “cursed” list with an even greater preponderance of people who led very long and successful lives.) Although Kendall McComas did eventually commit suicide (reportedly because he was despondent over his forced retirement), he still enjoyed quite successful post-Rascals careers in show business and electrical engineering, and he was a few weeks short of his 65th birthday at the time of his death. Although Photoplay magazine stated in 1930 that Pete the Pup (a pit bull) had been fatally poisoned, one cannot say that the “Pete the Pup” died, since (as was common practice with film animals) the part was played by a succession of several different animals (sometimes, reportedly, by multiple dogs within a single episode). So, what do we find? Analyzing the information about the 28 Our Gang child stars described above, we calculate the following: 55% of the actors are still alive or lived to be at least 72 years old. 76% of the actors reached the average life expectancy at birth for persons of their time. 83% of the actors reached what we would now consider “middle age” (i.e., late 40s or higher). This may not sound impressive by modern standards, but it’s a significant figure given that the average life expectancy at birth for most of the actors listed here was in the mid-50s range. On the “tragic” side, we find that: Three of the actors (10%) were victims of homicides (although two of the three were already well advanced in age at the time of their deaths). Two of the actors (7%) were killed in accidents (and one of them was a military pilot, a high-risk occupation). One of the actors (3%) committed suicide. Two of the actors (7%) died prematurely from medical ailments. Two of the actors (7%) had significant problems with substance abuse (and related crimes). Although these percentages may be higher than one would expect to find among the general population, they’re not at all out of line with reasonable expectations given the extremely small sample size (29) used here. One man’s “curse” is another man’s normal cross-section of society. Our Gang: Life and Times of the Little Rascals. Title: Our Gang: Life and Times of the Little . Publisher: New York: Crown Publishers, Inc. Publication Date: 1977. Binding: Hardcover. Book Condition: Near Fine. Dust Jacket Condition: Near Fine. Signed: Signed by Author(s) About this title. More than three hundred production stills and publicity photographs illustrate an anecdotal account of the gang's years at Hal Roach Studios and MGM and career profiles of its star ragamuffins. "About this title" may belong to another edition of this title. Visa, Mastercard, American Express, Discover Card, Shipping costs are based on books weighing 2.2 LB, or 1 KG. If your book order is heavy or oversized, we may contact you to let you know extra shipping is required. Payment Methods accepted by seller. Bookseller: Betterbks/ COSMOPOLITAN BOOK SHOP Address: Burbank, CA, U.S.A. AbeBooks Bookseller Since: March 9, 1999. Shop With Us. Sell With Us. About Us. Find Help. Other AbeBooks Companies. Follow AbeBooks. By using the Web site, you confirm that you have read, understood, and agreed to be bound by the Terms and Conditions. ISBN 13: 9780517583258. When originally published in 1977 as Our Gang , this book sold more than 52,000 copies. This new edition, with an extensive amount of fresh material, will prove irresistible to all fans of the most popular TV series of all time. Illustrations. "synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title. lly published in 1977 as Our Gang , this book sold more than 52,000 copies. This new edition, with an extensive amount of fresh material, will prove irresistible to all fans of the most popular TV series of all time. Illustrations. Biography. Leonard Maltin is one of the most recognized and respected film critics of our time. He recently completed his 30th season with the long-running television show, Развлечения сегодня вечером (1981). Maltin was born on Friday, December 18th, 1950, in New York City and grew up in suburban Teaneck, New Jersey. He credits the huge volume of old movies shown on New York television - and access to the City's famous revival theaters, as well as the Museum of Modern Art - with his "basic training" in film history. He attended New York University as a journalism major, and quickly became the entertainment editor of the campus' daily newspaper. He and a friend published their own home-grown magazine when they were in the fifth grade. This evolved into a mimeographed publication called "Profile", which reflected Leonard's growing interest in show business and film history. At the age of 13, he volunteered his services as a writer to two fanzines: "The 8mm Collector", of Indiana, Pennsylvania, and "Film Fan Monthly", of Vancouver, Canada. Two years later, he assumed responsibility for "Film Fan Monthly" and continued publishing it for the next nine years. It was that magazine that inspired an English teacher in his high school to suggest that he meet a friend of hers who was an editor at Signet Books. That meeting led to an offer for him to compile a paperback compendium of capsule movie reviews. The book was published in 1969, when Maltin was 18 and a freshman at NYU. Decades later, he is still best-known for that now-annual paperback reference, "Leonard Maltin's Movie Guide". A perennial best-seller, "The Guide" has become an indispensable tool for movie lovers and includes over 16,000 film reviews, with ratings and essential facts about each title. In 2005, he introduced a companion volume, "Leonard Maltin's Classic Movie Guide", which focuses on movies made before 1965, going back to the silent era. Leonard's other books include "The Best 151 Movies You've Never Seen", "The Disney Films", "Of Mice and Magic: A History of American Animated Cartoons", "The Great American Broadcast: A Celebration of Radio's Golden Age", "The Great Movie Comedians", "The Art of the Cinematographer", "Selected Short Subjects" and (as co-author) "The Little Rascals: The Life and Times of Our Gang". Leonard has been teaching at the USC School of Cinematic Arts for the last fifteen years. His popular class screens new films prior to their release, followed by a Q&A with the filmmakers. Guests over the years have included: Alexander Payne, Judd Apatow, James Franco, David Lynch, Spike Jonze, Charlie Kaufman, Costa-Gavras, Bertrand Tavernier, Anthony Hopkins, Annette Bening, Paul Haggis, Paul Weitz, Mark Ruffalo, Walter Salles, Guillermo del Toro & Jason Segel, to name just a few. In addition to top writers and directors, Maltin welcomes costume and production designers, editors, composers, cinematographers, casting directors, and other creative collaborators, in order to explore all aspects of the filmmaking process. This direct access to top talent has proven to be invaluable in his students' own filmmaking endeavors. Leonard's reviews and signature on-air interviewing style can now be seen on his weekly program, Maltin on Movies (2010), on ReelzChannel, where he has appeared since the channel went on the air. He also previews movies-on-demand on Comcast and appears occasionally on "Turner Classic Movies". For three years, he co-hosted the weekly syndicated movie review program, "Hot Ticket", which was produced by Развлечения сегодня вечером (1981). Leonard is a prolific freelance writer, whose articles have appeared in "The New York Times", "The Los Angeles Times", "The London Times", "Smithsonian", "TV Guide", "Esquire", "The Village Voice" and "American Film". He has contributed to Oxford University Press' "American National Biography", and was the film critic for "Playboy" magazine for six years. Additionally, Leonard frequently lectures on film and was a member of the faculty of New York City's "New School for Social Research" for nine years. He served as Guest Curator at the "Museum of Modern Art" film department in New York on two separate occasions. Leonard created, hosted and co-produced the popular "Walt Disney Treasures" DVD series and appeared on Warner Home Video's "Night at the Movies" features. He has written a number of television specials, including "Fantasia: The Creation of a Disney Classic and has hosted, produced and written such video documentaries and compilations as The Making of 'The Quiet Man' (1992), The Making of 'High Noon' (1992), "Cartoons for Big Kids", The Lost Stooges (1990), "Young Duke: The Making of a Movie Star", Cliffhangers! Adventures from the Thrill Factory (1993) and _Cartoon Madness: The Fantastic Max Fleischer Cartoons (1900)_. In 2006, he was named by the Librarian of Congress to join the Board of Directors of the National Film Preservation Foundation. He also has received awards and citations from the American Society of Cinematographers, Anthology Film Archives, The Society of Cinephiles and the Telluride Film Festival. In 1997, he was made a voting member of the National Film Registry, which selects 25 landmark American films every year. Perhaps the greatest indication of his fame was his appearance in a now-classic episode of the animated series, Южный парк (1997). He has been married, since 1975, to fellow movie lover Alice Tlusty Maltin. They are the proud parents of Jessie Maltin (aka Jessica Bennett Maltin), who in recent years has become a valued contributor to the annual Movie Guide.