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George 'Spanky' McFarland
George Robert Philips McFarland (October 2, 1928 – June 30, 1993) was an American actor most famous for starring as a child as Spanky in Hal Roach's ''Our Gang'' series of short-subject comedies of the 1930s and 1940s. The ''Our Gang'' shorts were later syndicated to television as ''The Little Rascals''. In addition to his work in ''Our Gang'' and its feature-film spin-off '' General Spanky'' (1936), McFarland regularly appeared in co-starring or supporting juvenile roles in feature films produced by other studios throughout the 1930s. These included '' Kentucky Kernels'' (1934) with Bert Wheeler and Robert Woolsey, '' The Trail of the Lonesome Pine'' (1936) with Sylvia Sidney and Fred MacMurray, and '' Peck's Bad Boy with the Circus'' (1938). Leaving acting as a teenager, McFarland had several varying careers as an adult before finding success as a sales executive. He spent the final decades of his life as a public speaker reflecting on his child-acting career. Maltin, Leona ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Our Gang Follies Of 1938
''Our Gang Follies of 1938'' (later reissued as simply ''Follies of 1938'') is a 1937 American musical short subject, the 161st short subject entry in Hal Roach's ''Our Gang'' (''Little Rascals'') series. Directed by Gordon Douglas as a sequel to 1935's '' Our Gang Follies of 1936'', the two-reel short was released to theaters on December 18, 1937, by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Deriving its title from the concurrent MGM feature film '' The Broadway Melody of 1938'', ''Our Gang Follies of 1938'' is a spoof of the ''Broadway Melody'' films and other movie musicals of the time. In the film, Alfalfa ( Carl Switzer) decides to quit a pop music revue put on by Spanky (George McFarland) and become an opera singer, famously singing a pastiche song entitled "The Barber of Seville" several times throughout the film. The bulk of the film is made up of a dream sequence, in which Alfalfa imagines himself twenty years later failing as an opera singer, while Spanky owns a Broadway nightclub with a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hal Roach Studios
Hal Roach Studios was an American motion picture and, through its TV production subsidiary, Hal Roach Television Corporation, television production studio. Known as ''The Laugh Factory to the World'', it was founded by producer Hal Roach and business partners Dan Linthicum and I.H. Nance as the Rolin Film Company on July 23, 1914. The studio lot, at 8822 Washington Boulevard in Culver City, California, United States, was built in 1920, at which time Rolin was renamed to ''Hal E. Roach Studios''. The first series in Hal Roach Studios were the ''Willie Work'' comedies, with first short being '' Willie Runs the Park''. History Roach saw significant success in the 1920s with series of short comedy films featuring stars such as Harold Lloyd, Snub Pollard, and the ''Our Gang'' kids. The studio produced both short films and features for distribution through Pathé Exchange until 1927, when it signed a new distribution deal with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. By the early 1930s, the studio had en ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
KOTV-DT
KOTV-DT (channel 6) is a television station in Tulsa, Oklahoma, United States, affiliated with CBS. It is owned by Griffin Media alongside Muskogee, Oklahoma, Muskogee-licensed The CW, CW affiliate KQCW-DT (channel 19) and radio stations KOTV (AM), KOTV (1170 AM), KRQV (92.9 FM), KVOO-FM (98.5), KXBL (99.5 FM) and KHTT (106.9 FM). All of the outlets share studios at the Griffin Media Center on North Boston Avenue and East Cameron Street in the Downtown Tulsa, downtown neighborhood's Downtown Tulsa#Brady Arts District, Tulsa Arts District; KOTV's transmitter is located on South 273rd East Avenue (just north of the Muskogee Turnpike) in Broken Arrow, Oklahoma. History Early history On March 24, 1948, the Cameron Television Corporation submitted an application to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) for a Planning permission#Broadcasting, construction permit to build and broadcast license, license to operate a broadcast television station in Tulsa that would transmit on VHF ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Typecasting (acting)
In film, television, and theatre, typecasting is the process by which a particular actor becomes strongly identified with a specific character, one or more particular roles, or characters having the same traits or coming from the same social or ethnic groups. There have been instances in which an actor has been so strongly identified with a role as to make it difficult for them to find work playing other characters. Character actors Actors are sometimes so strongly identified with a role as to make it difficult for them to find work playing other characters. It is especially common among leading actors in popular television series and films. ''Star Trek'' One example of typecasting occurred with the cast of the original ''Star Trek'' series. During ''Star Trek''s original run from 1966 to 1969, William Shatner was the highest-paid cast member at $5,000 per episode (equivalent to $ in ), with Leonard Nimoy and the other actors being paid much less. The press predicted that Nim ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
United States Air Force
The United States Air Force (USAF) is the Air force, air service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is one of the six United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. Tracing its origins to 1 August 1907, as a part of the United States Army Signal Corps, the USAF was established by transfer of personnel from the Army Air Forces with the enactment of the National Security Act of 1947. It is the second youngest branch of the United States Armed Forces and the fourth in United States order of precedence, order of precedence. The United States Air Force articulates its core missions as air supremacy, intelligence, surveillance, target acquisition, and reconnaissance, global integrated intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance, airlift, rapid global mobility, Strategic bombing, global strike, and command and control. The United States Department of the Air Force, Department of the Air Force, which serves as the USAF's ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Unexpected Riches
''Unexpected Riches'' is a 1942 ''Our Gang'' short comedy film directed by Herbert Glazer. It was the 211th Our Gang short to be released. Plot Weighing themselves on a penny machine, the gang receives a fortune card predicting that they will receive "unexpected riches." Acting upon this, the kids decide to dig for buried treasure, using a fraudulent map provided by one of their wise-guy acquaintances. Though the treasure hunt comes a-cropper, the fortune card's prediction comes true in an unexpected fashion. Cast The Gang * Bobby Blake as Mickey * Billy Laughlin as Froggy * George McFarland as Spanky * Billie Thomas as Buckwheat Additional cast * Barry Downing as Ken Reed * Emmet Vogan as Mr. Reed * Ernie Alexander as Mickey's father * Margaret Bert as Mickey's mother * Willa Pearl Curtis as Big Shot's mother * Symona Boniface as Person in Froggy's dream * Stanley Logan as Person in Froggy's dream * Ernestine Wade as Person in Buckwheat's dream Notes ''Unexpected Riches' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc. (also known as Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures, commonly shortened to MGM or MGM Studios) is an American Film production, film and television production and film distribution, distribution company headquartered in Beverly Hills, California. Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer was founded on April 17, 1924, and has been owned by the Amazon MGM Studios subsidiary of Amazon (company), Amazon since 2022. MGM was formed by Marcus Loew by combining Metro Pictures, Goldwyn Pictures and Louis B. Mayer Pictures into one company. It hired a number of well-known actors as contract players—its slogan was "more stars than there are in heaven"—and soon became Hollywood's most prestigious filmmaking company, producing popular musical films and winning many Academy Awards. MGM also owned film studios, movie lots, movie theaters and technical production facilities. Its most prosperous era, from 1926 to 1959, was bracketed by two productions of ''Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Came The Brawn
''Came the Brawn'' is a 1938 ''Our Gang'' short comedy film directed by Gordon Douglas. Produced by Hal Roach and released to theaters by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, it was the 165th entry in the ''Our Gang'' series. Notes ''Came the Brawn'' marked Spanky McFarland's, Tommy "Butch" Bond's, Sidney "Woim" Kibrick's, and Darwood "Waldo" Kaye's final appearances in the Hal Roach-produced ''Our Gang'' shorts. Butch, Woim, and Waldo were recurring characters and would not be needed for the last three episodes but would all return for '' The Little Ranger'', the first ''Our Gang'' short produced after the series' sale to MGM in mid-1938. Spanky's contract expired after the completion of ''Came the Brawn'', and he officially retired from the series at this time. After going on a personal tour, Spanky rejoined ''Our Gang'' in the late summer of 1938, after its transfer to MGM. He would remain another four and a half years. Cast The Gang * Darla Hood as Darla * Eugene Lee as Porky * George ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Fritz Lang
Friedrich Christian Anton Lang (; December 5, 1890 – August 2, 1976), better known as Fritz Lang (), was an Austrian-born film director, screenwriter, and producer who worked in Germany and later the United States.Obituary ''Variety Obituaries, Variety'', August 4, 1976, p. 63. One of the best-known ''émigrés'' from Germany's school of German expressionist cinema, Expressionism, he was dubbed the "Master of Darkness" by the British Film Institute. He has been cited as one of the most influential filmmakers of all time. Lang's work spans five decades, from the Expressionist silent films of his first German creative period to his short stay in Paris and his work as a Hollywood director to his last three films made in Germany. Lang's most celebrated films include the futuristic science-fiction film ''Metropolis (1927 film), Metropolis'' (1927) and the influential ''M (1931 film), M'' (1931), a film noir precursor. His 1929 film ''Woman in the Moon'' showcased the use of a mult ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Technicolor
Technicolor is a family of Color motion picture film, color motion picture processes. The first version, Process 1, was introduced in 1916, and improved versions followed over several decades. Definitive Technicolor movies using three black-and-white films running through a special camera (3-strip Technicolor or Process 4) started in the early 1930s and continued through to the mid-1950s, when the 3-strip camera was replaced by a standard camera loaded with single-strip "monopack" color negative film. Technicolor Laboratories were still able to produce Technicolor prints by creating three black-and-white matrices from the Eastmancolor negative (Process 5). Process 4 was the second major color process, after Britain's Kinemacolor (used between 1909 and 1915), and the most widely used color process in Cinema of the United States, Hollywood during the Golden Age of Hollywood. Technicolor's #Process 4: Development and introduction, three-color process became known and cele ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Wheeler & Woolsey
Wheeler & Woolsey were an American vaudeville comedy double act who performed together in comedy films from the late 1920s. The team comprised Bert Wheeler (1895–1968) of New Jersey and Robert Woolsey (1888–1938) of Illinois. Collaboration The Broadway theatre performers were initially teamed as the comedy relief for the 1927 Broadway musical ''Rio Rita (musical), Rio Rita'', and came to Hollywood to reprise these roles for the Rio Rita (1929 film), film version. During production RKO signed Bert Wheeler to a movie contract, but not Robert Woolsey. It wasn't until the financial returns for ''Rio Rita'' came in that the studio signed both Woolsey and Dorothy Lee for further films alongside Wheeler. Wheeler & Woolsey continued to make very popular comedy feature films from 1930 until 1937, all for RKO Radio Pictures—except the 1933 Columbia Pictures release ''So This Is Africa'' (which was made during a contract dispute with RKO). Curly-haired Bert Wheeler played an ever-sm ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Carl "Alfalfa" Switzer
Carl Dean Switzer (August 7, 1927 – January 21, 1959) was an American child actor, comic singer, dog breeder, and guide. He was best known for his role as Alfalfa in the ''Our Gang'' series of short subjects, short-subject comedies. Switzer (rhyming with "Schweitzer", as referenced in the 1939 film ''Alfalfa's Aunt'') began his career as a child actor in 1934. He appeared in the ''Our Gang ''Our Gang'' (also known as ''The Little Rascals'' or ''Hal Roach's Rascals'') is an American series of comedy short films chronicling a group of poor neighborhood children and their adventures. Created by film producer Hal Roach, who also pr ...'' shorts as Alfalfa, one of the series' most popular and best-remembered characters. After outgrowing the series in 1940, Switzer struggled to find substantial roles, but was typecast as a juvenile actor. As an adult, he appeared mainly in bit parts and B-movies. He later became a dog breeder and hunting guide. Switzer married heiress Dia ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
