“Even the big stars had to chase around and audition; it seemed like a rat race to me, with no security.” — Billy Thomas, who played Buckwheat. Here he is posing with a photo of Clark Gable.
Stage Fright (1923)
Derby Day (1923)
“I went on vaudeville tours that kept me working and traveling day and night. I have the most fun when I entertained at orphanages. Then I was allowed to play with the orphans for half an hour. I was in every kind of show businesses but burlesque and the circus. I almost appeared in the circus once. A circus asked me to lead the parade one day. I wanted to do it more than anything, but my mother wouldn’t let me. She said the circus wouldn’t pay enough.” — Jean Darling, one of the silent Our Gang cast members.
“I had made one million dollars before I was 10, but I don’t know where it went. I had a mink coat and pretty clothes and lived in the best places, but I never got any of the money.” — Jean Darling
“It took a long time for me to achieve happiness. I’m afraid it’s the same story with those other kids I appeared with in the ‘Our Gang’ comedies, and some of them never did.” — Jean Darling
“Joe Cobb was an enthusiastic kid and a kid that the other members of the Gang respected: cheerful, optimistic but reliable, dependable.” — Film historian Richard Bann
Source: Los Angeles Times (2002)
Mary Ann Jackson
Johnny Weissmuller with Our Gang star George “Spanky” McFarland in the early 1930s. Photo taken at MGM.
“‘My pappy was a crap-shootin’ fool.’ That don’t rub me too good today.” — Stymie Beard
Source: 1981
One of the more bizarre images ever to come out of the MGM photo department. Left to right: John Barrymore, Lewis Stone, Jean Hersholt, Wallace Beery, Pete, Robert Montgomery, Lee Tracy and Clark Gable. The bodies, of course, are the Our Gang kids.
