OUR GANG: "Wiggle Your Ears" (1929)

[robbiebratc]

i love this video great work

[willrothfuss]

Thanks for posting- I'm a real Our gang fan, but I've never seen this one. Mary Ann is terrific. A gem.

[gamecock366]

Blondie was lucky Mary Ann didn't really lose her temper and beat the crap out of her.

[Titiwasalwayshere]

This is so adorable! I only found out about this because I wanted to know what 'buckwheat' the grain was, then I saw this! I absolutely adore this!

[neddly]

I spent an evening with Mary Ann buying her martini's in a bar in Santa Monica. She charmed the pants off me. RIP, Mary

[alexandermakoto]

This is awesome. I love Wheezer and Mary Ann. The best were Farina, Jackie Cooper, Wheezer, Mary Ann and Chubby.

[gropingwithastoker]

Harry Spear had a great face. Mary Ann Jackson was a great silent film actress. Wheezer Hutchins had to have been on of the cutest movie kids of all time. Hal Roach sure did know how to cast kids.

[ac1dchr15t]

ho'se radish.

[allthatluv99]

Aww its true I can't help love joe Cartwright from Bonanza series!He can wiggle his ears. The episode "Joe Cartwright, Detective" he did it!How cute!

[TheTaoJoannes]

crack me a nut, woman!

[Uncrazamatic]

Yes the ones with her and Jackie Cooper!They were great together!

[eskimospy77]

Joe Cobb is a real man!

[robphilll22]

I liked the girl who played Miss Daisy Dimple in Beginners luck. I know Mary Ann Jackson as a tough and No-nonsense type of girl with just a smattering of vulnerability.Mary shows a wide range of emotions in this short..

[northbreed1]

@robphilll22 I think it was Marianne Edwards who played "Daisy Dimple."

[B0FF01]

My mother looked like her as a little Depression Era child, same haircut! She grew into a real looker!

Poor babies had it rough.

[WithdrawnAccount]

I never did like Mary or Darla.

I liked Dorothy, (often seen with Wheezer.) She died last year.

[RRaquello]

If you want to see Mary Ann Jackson in color check out the film "Trail Of The Lonesome Pine" She has just a tiny bit part with no lines There are a bunch of hillbilly kids eating dinner at a table One of them turns around & it's Mary Ann. She's not listed in the credits, but the girl is the right age (a few years older than MA in her Little Rascals days) and looks exactly like her and there couldn't be two faces like that. And, sitting at the same table is Spanky, who had a big part in the film

[sixroute]

I agree about Mary Anne, although a little homely was adorable

[yohannbiimu]

I don't know what it is about Mary Ann Jackson, because some would say that she was a homely child, but I think she was adorably cute. In a way, she was a female version of Alfalfa, because it seemed like she was (for a time anyway) the focus of the boys' romantic attention, especially Jackie Cooper. BTW, I think Jean Darling (the cute curly-haired blonde girl) is the only one in this film who is still alive.

[northbreed1]

@yohannbiimu Mary Ann had terrific charisma and was a real little mistress of the "double-take." Thanks for your comment!

[yohannbiimu]

@northbreed1 Another good "double-taker" was Dorothy DeBorba, and she was an adorable kid too. She was at her best when she heckled Norman "Chubby" Chaney as he was practicing his "love-making" for Miss Crabtree. Unfortunately, it seems like the Our Gang bunch lost a lot of its edge when it became totally dominated by boy characters in the mid-to-late 30's. They were still funny, but the titles that featured Darla Hood seem rather formulated. I never liked her that much.

[TheJediCharles]

@yohannbiimu

While Mary was cute in a less magazine-cover sort of way, it's important to her role in the rascals that she had something more than looks. She was true blue, honest, unselfish, and was willing to play with the boys in rugged ways the prissy girls found unthinkable.

The cute girl might show up and visually distract the boys for a while, but they always came runnin' back to Mary when they wised up.

[MagicFreddie]

anyone know what the tune at the start of this short is called? I mean, I love it and I hear it a lot when I watch these silent shorts, but I never know what it's called

[DesperatelyKind]

I loved Mary! She was an evil kickass! LOL hahaha

[NJDominicana246]

absolutely adorable!

[neddly]

I had the pleasure of running into Mary Ann in a bar in Santa Monica in 1989. I spent the better part of two hours listening about her stories of old Hollywood. What a treat and delight!

[katiekawaii]

This really was completely bizarre! I love it.

[admyr75]

I love this movie. My own little daughter looks just like Mary Ann, who is my all time favorite Little Rascal :)

[Mambold]

I never saw this episode before. Very cute.

[markybgoode]

I'd never seen this episode. Very cute. I too own THE LITTLE RASCALS: THE LIFE AND TIMES OF OUR GANG. I bought it many years ago and still read it occasionally.

[MetalHeart8787]

@markybgoode yeah me too

I bought in 1994. when they had them released on VHS.

Hey they had sound in 1928 in the episode when the wind blows

why is this 1929 episode silent?

[diamondfirewolf]

now this is funny

[MrFlashBazbo]

The single most Avant Garde Silent Two Reel Comedy...Bar None!!

[Zizumia3]

look at his cloths XD you could totaly tell it was the depression! and what's sad is the director paid them nothing

[Diceydee]

@Zizumia3 The Depression had not yet started when this was filmed in 1928. And the kids were actually fairly well compensated for the times. Where they got screwed was in the lack of residuals. These films were made to be shown in theatres for a few months and then forgotten. Before TV, just the idea of us actually discussing this film 80 odd years later could not have been imagined, so there were no contractual provisions for later residuals. And I must say, Mary Ann was a great actress.

[SilverLightSpecial]

I love this! Thanks for sharing it!

[cbc51]

For those who don't know:

Harry Spear, who was born Harry Sherman Bonner, denied being a part of the Little Rascals. He died of liver cancer on September 22, 2006 in San Diego, CA.

[katiekawaii]

@cbc51 Why?

[MrsSuratt]

I don't care what he could wiggle, I can't see what either one of them saw in that nasty mug Harry Spear. (actually in real life, Jean Darling hated Harry. And she still does 80 years later!)

[jonahbegone]

Thank you for uploading this! I've wanted to see it ever since I read Maltin and Bann's book in the mid-1990's! Yes, bizarre!

It pained me to see poor Mary Ann used so cruelly... you don't see her cry often. But as least Joe was in support with a doughnut...

Isn't fascinating how the Battle of the Sexes was often waged in the vacant lots and alleys of the Our Gang neighborhoods?

[Sheri451]

That was cute!

[rippingdon]

How fortunate to be able to see this - its with me forever now

[JCMarra]

Love this film! Thank you!

[MistressDivine]

love it it was classic

[rockbottom206]

i like the detail in the description

thanks for the upload

[northbreed1]

Thanks for the comment, mickhaus. Mary, ah, did her own "flapper" make-up. Harry wasn't impressed; Joe didn't notice; Wheezer didn't care.

[mickhaus]

this is tremendous on many levels. poor trapped harry - the grass is always greener ....  but who did mary's make-up: ringling bros?