From Cute to Cursed: How the Little Rascals Met Their Untimely Demise (Episode 162)

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:02):
Once upon a time in Hollywood, a bunch of toothless
kids in overalls stole America'sheart and then died in ways so
bizarre, tragic and wildlypreventable.
You'd think they were cursed.
These weren't just cute kids infloppy hats.
They were ticking time bombs ofbad luck, working for peanuts
while the studio raked inmillions and possibly angered an

(00:22):
ancient spirit that hateschildren.
This isn't just a trip downmemory lane.
It's a haunted hayride throughHollywood's darkest sandbox.
It's the curse of the littlerascals, and it's today on Death
in Entertainment.

Speaker 2 (00:40):
Live from Los Angeles 911, what is your emergency?
We're in Hollywood now.
Two counts of murder, injuryand death oh my God, shocking
new details that has stunned theentertainment world.
Um, this makes me a littlenervous.
The hair stood up on my arms,just like in the movies.

Speaker 4 (00:57):
What do you call this thing anyway?
Death In entertainment.

Speaker 1 (01:03):
Greetings Ditto Universe.

Speaker 4 (01:05):
Hi there.

Speaker 1 (01:05):
How's it going, everybody?
My name is Kyle Plouffe.

Speaker 4 (01:10):
I'm Ben Kissel and I'm Alejandro Dowling.

Speaker 3 (01:11):
Thank you all so much for checking out this episode
of Death and Entertainment.
If you want to join our Patreon, go to patreoncom.
Slash diebud, watch everyepisode live and contribute with
your comments.
Today's episode oh my god, youloved him when you were growing
up, but what actually happened?
It's the curse of the LittleRascals.

Speaker 1 (01:31):
And this is a crazy one.
So if you're at all triggeredby very tragic child's deaths,
this might not be the one foryou, but stick around, stick
around See if you're into it,yeah, it's fun To clarify.

Speaker 4 (01:44):
we're not talking about the 1994 Little Rascals,
are we?

Speaker 1 (01:48):
No, I mean not specifically.

Speaker 3 (01:50):
That movie that holds up?
It does hold up.
They do a soapbox, derby, don'tthey?

Speaker 4 (01:55):
Yeah, yeah.
And Donald Trump is in it, ishe really?
Yeah, he's one of the dads.
Is that right Of the kid thatis rich.

Speaker 1 (02:04):
Yeah, yeah, the rich kid.

Speaker 3 (02:05):
That's hilarious, by the way, son, my friend Jeffrey
Epstein's coming over.

Speaker 2 (02:20):
Hide upstairs, just go upstairs.

Speaker 1 (02:25):
Okay, so to start telling this story, you have to
start with the guy who createdit all, hal Roach.
He was born January 14th 1892,which, I believe, makes him the
oldest guy we've ever talkedabout.

Speaker 3 (02:39):
Wow, I mean I'm sitting here and I'm like that
guy must be pretty old.
But I realized I'm born 1981.
And when people hear that in,like well, even now, they think
I'm ancient.

Speaker 1 (02:51):
Yeah, you're born in the 1900s.

Speaker 3 (02:54):
What.

Speaker 1 (02:55):
Did you guys have cars then?

Speaker 4 (02:57):
Yeah, that's a great name too, Hal Roach.
Hal Roach, that was his givenname.

Speaker 1 (03:02):
Believe so.

Speaker 3 (03:03):
Comes from a long line of roaches.
They don't die, they don't goanywhere.

Speaker 1 (03:06):
No, yeah, he was born in Elmira, new York, which is
one of the rare times we've beentaken to New York State, not
New York City.
As a young boy in Elmira, halhad a paper route and one of his
customers would end up becomingone of his life's heroes.
This was a man by the name ofsamuel clements, who, if you
were paying any attention acouple episodes ago, you would

(03:28):
know better as mark freakingtwain that's amazing in his
lifetime.
He knew mark twain like Ithought mark twain was like way
older than that right yeah, Ijust found out that picasso was
alive in like the 70s.

Speaker 3 (03:42):
What?

Speaker 1 (03:42):
Yeah, I didn't know that.

Speaker 3 (03:44):
Pablo.

Speaker 1 (03:44):
Wow.
Well, Mark Twain lived inElmira for a while and even
wrote the Adventures ofHuckleberry Finn there.
In fact, he and his wife areactually currently buried there.

Speaker 4 (03:53):
No kidding.

Speaker 1 (03:54):
For now.

Speaker 4 (03:55):
For now?
What do you mean for now?
Until they dig him up.

Speaker 1 (03:58):
Yeah, and throw him somewhere else.
Okay, why, okay, why not?
Hal would deliver Twain'snewspapers, but it wasn't until
he saw Mark Twain perform livethat he wanted to be an American
humorist as well.

Speaker 4 (04:08):
Until he saw his stand-up set.
So he saw Val Kilmer doing itAt the Chuckle Hut yeah.

Speaker 1 (04:14):
That guy's got something he does.
Hal said that he had attendedand been kicked out of every
school in Elmira.
As we know, people with comedicsensibilities or people who go
into the arts rarely arestraight A students, absolutely.

Speaker 4 (04:26):
Especially the funny ones, because they're always
making jokes in classes andteachers tend to get annoyed of
that.

Speaker 1 (04:32):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (04:32):
Unless you know, they're one of those cool
teachers that finds you funnyRight.

Speaker 3 (04:37):
Yeah, mrs Killsdonk, she was the one that found me
funny.
She was the only reason Igraduated high school.
And it's crazy, because thelarger the laugh from your
friends, the more in trouble youget and you're like these are
mixed messages.

Speaker 1 (04:48):
Yes, big time.
Yeah.
At 16 years old he faced hislast expulsion from school and
his father said he needed togrow up.
So he suggested to him thattraveling might help.
It's totally different than now, I know 16 years old.

Speaker 4 (05:06):
He's like hey, you know what would help you?
Getting the fuck out of myhouse?
Well, in a sense, gettingexpelled.
That's growing up.
Yeah, Because you're not goingto school anymore, True?
So you mean I?

Speaker 3 (05:12):
graduated Kind of yeah, I mean, you're not coming
to school anymore, right?

Speaker 1 (05:18):
Hal thought going the furthest away from Elmira would
be the best bet for him, so hechose Alaska of all places.

Speaker 3 (05:25):
That'll do it.

Speaker 1 (05:28):
When he got there he went full Yukon Revenant and
decided to be a gold prospectorand a mule skinner.

Speaker 3 (05:33):
Wow.

Speaker 1 (05:33):
So it was a full-time job just being a mule skinner,
and yeah, just going andbreaking open those hills trying
to find the gold.

Speaker 4 (05:40):
Hey, how was your day today?

Speaker 3 (05:42):
Just skinned some mules, you know, yeah yeah, you
look at that and you see a wildbeast with four legs.

Speaker 1 (05:49):
I see nothing but money he dug and he dug, but he
never found any gold.
Oh, and he didn't really likeskinning mules.

Speaker 3 (05:56):
I don't know who would I hope that they don't
associate well, you're talkingto two guys from Wisconsin, yeah
.

Speaker 4 (06:03):
I think, we know a lot of people that like skin and
things.

Speaker 3 (06:06):
That is true Hunting season.
You open up the shed and it'sTexas Chainsaw Massacre.
And you're like that'sdisgusting.
But then two weeks later you'reeating deer jerky and you're
like this is fantastic.

Speaker 1 (06:15):
Wow, that is so not what happened in Boston.

Speaker 3 (06:20):
Yeah, no murders, no one dies in Boston, nothing.

Speaker 1 (06:23):
No, but we don't kill you.

Speaker 4 (06:24):
You just have a bunch of Italians hanging upside down
, yeah exactly, I have to saytoo, at that time in the 1800s,
although I guess would this bemore like the early 1900s.

Speaker 1 (06:34):
Early 1900s, yeah.

Speaker 4 (06:35):
Okay, gold mining was more of a thing.
Yes being a 49er, it didn'tsound so outrageous that now, if
you say that they would commityou, yeah.
Absolutely, or they'd think youfound some 900 number on the TV
.
There's gold on them heels.
What is with all thosecommercials?
They still air them.
Oh, those are such scams.
You know, like Cash for gold.

Speaker 3 (06:55):
Exactly.

Speaker 4 (06:56):
It's on almost every podcast and YouTube video.

Speaker 1 (06:59):
Yeah, because they give you way less cash than it's
worth.

Speaker 3 (07:01):
Yes, give you way less cash than it's worth.
Yes, yeah, okay, glad wecleared that up.

Speaker 2 (07:07):
Most of the gold is fillings and just things that
your grandma finds around thehouse.

Speaker 3 (07:09):
Thanks, and they're like grandma.
This is a dust bunny, it's notgold and you?

Speaker 4 (07:13):
can't get any cash for it.
You're just staring at yourgrandma all day seeing that
tooth in her mouth shining.

Speaker 1 (07:21):
So, since his experience was primarily
delivering newspapers, before hetook off for alaska, he began
delivering mail on horsebackpony express yeah.
He got stuck in a blizzard oneday, though, and nearly lost his
foot to frostbite, so hedecided he wanted a break his
foot.

Speaker 4 (07:35):
What about the horses ?

Speaker 1 (07:37):
horses strong yeah, he was like where could I go
defrost my foot?
Sunny, sunny SouthernCalifornia?

Speaker 3 (07:43):
Yeah Wow, from Elmira to Alaska, to California.

Speaker 1 (07:47):
Yep Los Angeles.

Speaker 4 (07:48):
And you know he was a paper boy but he was delivering
to Mark Twain.

Speaker 1 (07:52):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (07:52):
That's amazing.

Speaker 1 (07:53):
Awesome Citizen Twain himself.
While he was in LA he's justthere, you know, going up and
down Hollywood Boulevard airingout his foot and he randomly met
some guys that worked in thefilm industry and the guys were
asking him if he was an actor.

Speaker 3 (08:08):
Ah, he must be a good looking fella.

Speaker 1 (08:10):
Yeah, he was actually Okay.

Speaker 4 (08:11):
We got a warehouse in Simi Valley.
Yeah, we're going to need thatass.

Speaker 3 (08:16):
And yeah, you got any lube.
What are your thoughts on blackcouches?

Speaker 1 (08:19):
Hmm.

Speaker 4 (08:29):
Do you like gay sex?
I'll do it, I do enjoy it.

Speaker 1 (08:30):
He actually I mean, it's better than mule skinning,
right.
Well, well, to some he saidactually he's just visiting and
that he really delivers mail onhorseback, and they were like
whoa, you, you can ride a horse,you got yourself a job, wow.
So he became a background actorin a bunch of all the Westerns
that they were doing out here,which was a super popular genre.

Speaker 3 (08:47):
Once upon a time in Hollywood.
Yeah, very cool.

Speaker 1 (08:50):
So it was 1912 at this point.

Speaker 4 (08:52):
That's pretty much all they were making Westerns
and more Westerns.

Speaker 3 (08:57):
Yeah, right.

Speaker 4 (08:58):
I don't even think.
I think this was even pre-noir.

Speaker 1 (09:01):
Right yeah.
And within five years he hadcreated hal roach studios.
So he goes from backgroundactor to having his own studio
in culver city producing over 2000 comedy shorts, including the
topic of our show today, theour gang series, which would
come to be known as the littlerascals now, was that changed
for syndication, was it our gangfor a while it was our gang for

(09:24):
most of the time and then inthe 50s when they brought it
back to TV from film theyclaimed it was the.
Little Rascals.

Speaker 4 (09:32):
Yeah, that's cool.
It was always in the theater.
You would see these shorts.

Speaker 1 (09:35):
Yes, yeah, they were films.

Speaker 3 (09:37):
Cinematic.

Speaker 4 (09:38):
Yep.

Speaker 3 (09:38):
I think Little Rascals, it rolls off the tongue
.
It's got a more catch to it.

Speaker 4 (09:46):
The off the tongue, it's got a more catch to it.
The thing is, our gang is alsovery strong because it implies
ownership.

Speaker 1 (09:50):
Right, but it's too strong for what the kids are.
They're rascals.
Yeah, you little rapscallions,you guys are getting into
trouble.

Speaker 4 (09:56):
They're little rascals.
But gang meant something else.
Then it was like a group, ourgang.
Yeah, exactly.

Speaker 3 (10:03):
I mean I think more.
Our gang is more like theoutsiders, a little older okay
switchblades.

Speaker 1 (10:08):
You know you're knocking people up yeah, I mean,
little rascals are strong,don't get me wrong roach was
famous for keeping it loose onset and not caring if things
went over budget, and whichended up meaning he got less
profit.
He wasn't really worried aboutit.
He was a true blue collar guywho wanted to keep things fun
maybe a little too fun oh boythis carefree disposition may

(10:30):
have contributed to the curse ofthe little rascals just so.

Speaker 3 (10:34):
Just so I can be prepared.
Is he lou perlman?
No, okay, great so that's thatwhen you said too fun I was, was
like oh man.
Yeah, that's not when producershave too much fun.
Usually there's too much crying.

Speaker 4 (10:48):
No, I think he was a pretty decent guy Am.

Speaker 2 (10:50):
I right.

Speaker 4 (10:51):
Okay.

Speaker 1 (10:52):
For the most part.

Speaker 4 (10:53):
Oh, for the most, really.

Speaker 1 (10:54):
He had some, he got some skeletons dug up.
He's got some things thatweren't very nice.
He's a human being, yeah.

Speaker 4 (11:00):
Black face was normalized at the time.
Okay.

Speaker 3 (11:02):
Yes.

Speaker 4 (11:03):
Get over it Wow.

Speaker 3 (11:05):
Wow.

Speaker 1 (11:07):
Alejandro coming in hot.

Speaker 3 (11:08):
He was also normalized in 2016, when Jimmy
Kimmel was doing it.

Speaker 4 (11:12):
Oh yeah.

Speaker 1 (11:13):
And.

Speaker 4 (11:14):
Jimmy Fallon too.
Yeah, Every Jimmy was doing it.
Whoa.

Speaker 1 (11:19):
And that's another slur too, for.

Speaker 3 (11:21):
Jimmy, yeah, is it.
Yeah, Jim Crow was like theslur for them, and then they
would call black people jimmy's.
Oh no, kidding.

Speaker 1 (11:29):
Oh wow, accidental races, yeah jimmy cag corn and I
don't care, jeez and that's theepisode of accidental racing
we're learning, though we'realways learning, we are if
you're not familiar with thelittle rascals, they were
essentially a group of poorchildren who were all
neighborhood kids, getting intofunny situations and often,
often butted heads with the richkids and their parents.

(11:50):
It was the first show of itskind to show black and white
children playing together andgetting along, and this was
during the jim crow era see,that's what I'm saying about hal
roach.
That was a very good thing yeshe was promoting that yeah, in
that way it was absolutelygroundbreaking, despite the fact
the films featured a lot ofharmful stereotypes.

Speaker 4 (12:09):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (12:10):
And slurs.
Even though all the filmsseemed like they were fun-loving
, carefree set experiences, wewould come to find out that,
because of the stage, moms andgrandmothers, racial tensions
would become very real on set.

Speaker 4 (12:22):
Oh God.

Speaker 1 (12:27):
The first momagers, tensions would become very real
on set.
Oh god, the first mama jurorsyeah, awful.
Although the kids loved eachother, there was still an air of
like stay in your own lane andbe with your own kind type of
mentality coming from the oldergenerations on set.
So, with that said, let's getinto the drama.
Yes, robert mcgowan was theoriginal director of the series
and he was ended up being forcedto retire from the series after
needing to take multiplemedically mandated sabbaticals

(12:49):
due to the overbearing stress ofdealing with stage mothers and
child actors they went.

Speaker 3 (12:54):
So he had.
He had to deal with so many airquotes, karens, that he went
into a medical crisis.

Speaker 1 (13:00):
Yes, wow doctors were like you have to take breaks,
so he would go and record abunch of different ones, and
then they would be like, okay,take a month off and then see if
you can come back.
And he did it a few times andthen they were like, just,
you've got to stop because yourheart's going to explode.

Speaker 3 (13:14):
I can't even look at a woman's hair without freaking
out.

Speaker 4 (13:18):
Yeah, I absolutely believe that must have been
terrifying, because this isyears before the jackie coogan
law, which protected kids yes,oh interesting, so the kids were
being probably overworked.
Yeah as well, okay yeah, theywere money bags with teeth got
you uh robert became very illand would die of cancer in 1955

(13:40):
yeah, it turns out you've beendiagnosed with bitch cancer.

Speaker 3 (13:43):
You've been around a lot of bitches lately.

Speaker 1 (13:47):
There was a huge feud between Alfalfa and Spanky, the
actors that played both of them.
What?

Speaker 3 (13:52):
Okay, I mean, it's a dorm, that's the thing.
Alfalfa and Spanky fightingjust sounds awesome.

Speaker 1 (13:58):
They were fighting over who was the most popular
rascal, but that was not startedby them, it was started by each
other's fathers.
Was the most popular rascal,but that was not started by them
, it was started by each other'sfathers.
So the fathers hated each otherand they would be on set being,
like my kid's, more popularthan your kid it's a different
style of humor, alfalfa.

Speaker 3 (14:11):
He's bringing some sharp wit.
He's more like a freddy kruegerand then yeah, well, you know,
kind of sharp-witted, yeah, andthen spanky.
He's your chris farley type.
He's like you know, he's goofy,a little chubby.
Different types.

Speaker 4 (14:24):
I would say Spanky was the most popular, though.

Speaker 3 (14:27):
Well, when I think of it, I think Spanky, but also
Alfalfa, I mean the hair.
You've been hearing aboutAlfalfa.
They are really the two starsRight.

Speaker 1 (14:35):
One day, during a break on set, Spanky's dad was
walking through to a trailer andAlfalfa lit a firecracker and
threw it at Spanky's dad and itexploded on the back of his neck
.

Speaker 3 (14:44):
I love it.
Oh boy, these are the littlerascals both on and off screen.

Speaker 4 (14:49):
Yeah, this sounds very entertaining.
I love it Behind the scenes.

Speaker 1 (14:53):
There were cameramen who would get mad at the kids
for flubbing lines and makingthem work longer, making them
miss lunch or just make themhave them be late going home.
Hey, spanky, your mark's overthere.

Speaker 3 (15:09):
So yeah, they would be like, hey, can you guys get
it together and fucking get yourlines right.

Speaker 4 (15:11):
They're like what?
Eight years old, if that.
Yeah, they were pretty small inthe original shorts.

Speaker 1 (15:16):
Alfalfa Carl Switzer, who played him, would stick gum
in the cameras of cameramen whowere jerks to the kids.

Speaker 3 (15:22):
I love alfalfa.

Speaker 1 (15:23):
And he would piss on lights to make it smell bad, to
fuck with the crew if they weremean to them.

Speaker 4 (15:29):
Piss on lights to piss off the crew.
Yes, that is my boy.

Speaker 1 (15:33):
So it would just stink.
Every time they turn the lightson, the piss would just start
crackling.
Oh, I can smell it already.

Speaker 3 (15:40):
Smells like old Hollywood, is that?

Speaker 1 (15:43):
kid's piss.
Oh boy is that kid's piss, ohboy.
So, like I said before, what?
Some white parents andgrandparents didn't want the
kids to be near the black kidsduring breaks and filming.
In 1930, the animals used forroach's films were all housed at
the arnez ranch, which wasowned by hal but run by this
italian immigrant, tonycampanero.

(16:05):
All the animals that werehoused there were used for
roach's films, except for one.
There was this uh puppy calledpete the pup.
He's the one that had the ringaround his eye.

Speaker 4 (16:15):
No kidding yeah, I mean they treated him okay on
set.

Speaker 1 (16:19):
He was treated so well.
He's a beautiful dog with thering around his eye, owned by a
man named harry lucine.
But we go back to tony and tTony is running that ranch.
It's all his animals that areon the ranch.
Okay, you know all pissed offthat Pete the pup is getting all
the attention.
He's like hey, I got some mulesover here.

Speaker 3 (16:36):
So he's jealous.
He's so jealous.
Well, don't give the guy mules,he's going to skin him.

Speaker 4 (16:41):
And Pete.
He was really one of the stars,right next to Spanky and
Alfalfa.

Speaker 3 (16:46):
Yes, absolutely I could see the jealousy.
Yeah Well, didn't Target theold superstore, they used that
version of Pete.

Speaker 1 (16:53):
They definitely ripped that off.

Speaker 4 (16:55):
And so many things after that, like Frasier and the
mask Absolutely.

Speaker 1 (17:03):
So it's been said that Tony was so jealous of
Roach's use of the dog overTony's animals that he poisoned
Pete the pup and killed him in1930.

Speaker 3 (17:11):
Well, tony buddy, because of that we have Doug the
pug.
Yeah, he would have hatedmodern era.

Speaker 1 (17:17):
Oh, big time yeah.

Speaker 3 (17:18):
Wow.

Speaker 1 (17:19):
To this day, no one was ever charged or convicted,
but everyone in the businessknew it was Tony.
Wow, what an asshole.

Speaker 3 (17:25):
What a scumbag.

Speaker 1 (17:26):
So the dog died of poisoning that was the first
official little rascal's deathoh my god, in 1930 yes that long
ago, wow just awful.

Speaker 3 (17:37):
That's the worst thing we're gonna talk about
today that poor dog had to missworld war ii.
Yeah, he would have been.
Well, he probably would havebeen dead anyway, who knows
Would have sided with the Nazis.
Yeah, hitler kills him.
Get that thug?
Yeah, he's called up becausehe's a communist.
Gotta go talk in front of theSenate.

(17:58):
Bark bark, bark bark.
You heard him, folks.
He wants to spread the wealtharound, bark bark.

Speaker 1 (18:05):
In 1931, norman Chubby Chaney.
He was the chubby one, if youdidn't know, okay got it and
they weren't very subtle withthe nicknames, were they?
They were real men back thenthey, he was given the boot for
getting too old, which is thisis something we see in
children's acting all the timeyes, and that is why they tend
to uh age.

Speaker 3 (18:24):
So, yeah, no, they do .
Child actors age strangely,because in order to be a child
actor and look young for a longtime.
It's kind of a character traitthat's a little odd.

Speaker 4 (18:36):
Yeah, I'm thinking of Gary Coleman.

Speaker 3 (18:39):
Well, that, and then look at JT Home Improvement Tool
Time.

Speaker 1 (18:43):
Jonathan Taylor Thomas.

Speaker 3 (18:44):
Jonathan Taylor Thomas.
I mean, I'm not gonna, he'sjust a dude.

Speaker 4 (18:47):
I haven't seen him recently.
Have you, I'll show you.
Oh boy, I'm afraid.
No, don't be Boy that poor.
The kids on that show aren'tdoing too well.

Speaker 1 (18:56):
No, Zachary Ty Bryan is getting arrested for DUIs all
the time.
All the time, all the time he'sgot arrested again, like three
times in the last six months, Ithink.

Speaker 4 (19:05):
Yeah, he's been on the cop dash cam shows more than
the cops have?
Yeah, exactly, can I put thison my IMDb?
And real quickly, homeImprovement came on Netflix the
other week and I was with Kyleand Kyle told me that as a kid
he thought it was funnier thanSeinfeld.

Speaker 1 (19:21):
Yeah, Seinfeld wasn't funny to me when I was a kid.
Just wanted to say that it wasadult situations.

Speaker 3 (19:25):
And I have said this to Kyle.
You guys are both wrong.
The show that is the funniestis Tool Time, the show within
Home Improvement, the showwithin the show.

Speaker 4 (19:34):
Yeah.
I would rather watch Tool Time.

Speaker 1 (19:36):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (19:36):
Although I did like the wife.

Speaker 1 (19:38):
You could have seen Tool Time if you watched Home
Improvement.

Speaker 4 (19:41):
Oh my God, Okay, ben, picture of JTT now.

Speaker 3 (19:45):
This boy used to be on every girl's wall Again he's
just a dude.

Speaker 4 (19:50):
They age, are you?

Speaker 1 (19:51):
sure about that.
It's not the heartthrob he oncewas Based on that photo.

Speaker 4 (19:55):
That's all Doesn't even look human, jeez.

Speaker 3 (19:57):
Back to the wrestles.
Okay, okay.

Speaker 1 (19:59):
So Chubby Chaney he was originally hired because
they essentially just wanted tocast a fat kid.

Speaker 4 (20:04):
No relation to Dick.

Speaker 1 (20:06):
No, chubby Dick.
Well, they're both fat.

Speaker 3 (20:10):
Fat fucking assholes.
Well, maybe Chubby's a good kid.

Speaker 1 (20:12):
Poor kid.
He was 3'11 and 115 pounds.
He was a big boy.
Over the course of the show,his years on it, he grew from
3'11 to 4'7.

Speaker 4 (20:25):
When he was 4'7, he weighed over 300 pounds.
Oh, I thought you were going tosay he got lean with his height
?

Speaker 1 (20:28):
No, no, unfortunately not.

Speaker 3 (20:30):
Four foot seven 300 pounds.

Speaker 1 (20:32):
Yeah, he had a glandular disease that caused
his condition, so it really waslike a medically.

Speaker 4 (20:38):
He wasn't eating donuts.

Speaker 1 (20:39):
It was a medical condition.
Okay, oh, my lordy.
That's sad.
And just a few years after thathe succumbed to an enlarged
heart and died at the age of 18.

Speaker 4 (20:48):
Oh my god.

Speaker 3 (20:50):
At least he got to be in the pictures.
That's true.
That sucks though.
4'11 and 300 pounds.
He couldn't walk.
I don't think he could walk.

Speaker 4 (21:02):
Probably had to roll him into the doctor's office.

Speaker 3 (21:04):
Yes, Willy Wonky, he ate the wrong food.

Speaker 1 (21:06):
Bring this kid to the juicer.

Speaker 3 (21:08):
Yes.

Speaker 4 (21:11):
Between him and JTT.
I'm getting depressed.

Speaker 3 (21:14):
Yeah, you never want to go to the producer that's
known as the juicer.

Speaker 2 (21:20):
Go see the juicer?

Speaker 3 (21:21):
No.
Do you want a career or not?
Time to get juiced.

Speaker 1 (21:27):
Yuck, oh boy, we had Billy Froggy, laughlin Froggy.
He's got the yeah.

Speaker 4 (21:34):
That was a thing later on too, in the 60s.
A singer like Clarence FrogmanFrogman.

Speaker 3 (21:40):
Jones yeah, and it's interesting They've all come out
against vaccines.
Something about that voice.

Speaker 1 (21:47):
This poor kid, like I said, one with the raspy voice.
He actually based his voice offof a Popeye impression he would
do for kids at school.

Speaker 3 (21:54):
So that was him stretching his vocal cords, a
olive oil.
That wasn't his real voice.

Speaker 1 (21:59):
No, that wasn't his voice, See that's talent, that
is talent.

Speaker 4 (22:01):
A kid to be able to change the voice like that,
because JTT in the Lion KingHome Improvement sounds like the
same kid Right, and I'mshitting on JTT.
I'm sorry, but this Frog, he'sgot talent, froggy's got it,
he's got talent.

Speaker 1 (22:16):
Four years after he leaves the Rascals.
He's 16 years old and he'sdelivering newspapers, just like
Hal Roach used to do.
He's delivering them with hisbuddy and Froggy's on the back
of the scooter and his friendjohn is driving the scooter it
sounds like so.

Speaker 3 (22:28):
I guess the word romanticizing is what I'm doing,
although they're children andI'm not doing it in a sexual way
, but it sounds so like everytime, everyday usa, like yeah,
here's your paper, mrs robinsonabsolutely I don't like where
this ride is going froggy hadjust gotten this scooter two
weeks before for his birthday.

Speaker 1 (22:45):
And so they're going down the street, they're
throwing the newspapers like thekids do and they realize, oh
shit, we just missed a house.
So he's like, hey, banging, youturn real quick.
So they turned immediately andthey didn't realize there was a
truck speeding right there,yikes, and the truck crushed
both of them oh, both of themyeah, they were both on the same
scooter yeah, was the gamefrogger based on this?

Speaker 3 (23:07):
it possibly could have oh boy yeah, you want to
avoid the truck yeah I mean thatone guy would have been like
guys, I don't need the papertoday anyway yeah, don't worry
about it off the I don't careabout anything.
Pearl harbor's, not for asecond.

Speaker 4 (23:22):
Yeah wow, like what a difference.

Speaker 1 (23:25):
Who roach got to deliver to an american icon and
frogger gets smushed by a semiyeah uh, billy froggy laughlin
died instantly, yet somehow hisfriend john survived with only
minor injuries so he must havelike gone under and not been hit
by a tire or something right,yeah, yeah the only side effect

(23:45):
is he's shaped like a pancake.
So next up we got Bobby WeezerHitchens.

Speaker 3 (23:53):
Okay, we got the Weez .

Speaker 1 (23:54):
We got the Weez.
They called him Weezer from hisfirst day on set.
He was running around.
He started to wheeze.

Speaker 3 (23:59):
So he's asthmatic man .
I love it.
Back in the day Now they'd belike oh wow, we need a doctor.
And they're like he's wheezing.

Speaker 4 (24:07):
We're going to call him Wheezy, and now that would
be offensive to people who cough.

Speaker 3 (24:13):
That's my biggest pet peeve.
Couldn't make that anymore.
Couldn't make that anymore.
I know.

Speaker 4 (24:17):
I don't know, everything is still being made,
it's just not what it used to be.
I'm going to make it.
Yeah, why not?
I'm going to make it.

Speaker 1 (24:26):
Well, weezer is a band, it's true, yeah, one of
the wives of him just got killed.

Speaker 3 (24:31):
Really.

Speaker 1 (24:31):
By an officer.

Speaker 3 (24:32):
Anyway, that's old.
We're talking about an okay bud.
That's old.

Speaker 4 (24:35):
Oh, okay, Okay bud Sorry.

Speaker 1 (24:38):
He ended up being able to catch his breath, and
finally, with the Rascals.
That's ironic, yeah, exactly.

Speaker 3 (24:51):
I want to go to the military branch that has the
thing I don't Air.

Speaker 4 (24:53):
Yeah, like if Froggy joined the Frog Brigade, the.

Speaker 3 (24:58):
Frogmen, I think there is.

Speaker 4 (25:01):
You fixed my joke.
There you go.

Speaker 1 (25:04):
The week he was due to graduate flight school and
become an actual pilot.
He was flying during a routineexercise and collided with
another plane.

Speaker 3 (25:12):
Oh, my God.

Speaker 1 (25:13):
Killing him three days shy of his 20th birthday.

Speaker 3 (25:17):
I mean, these guys are just little rascals.

Speaker 4 (25:21):
Somehow I've survived all these years without jumping
in front of a truck or flyinginto a plane.

Speaker 2 (25:27):
Well, yeah, you don't do anything.

Speaker 3 (25:30):
You just sit and watch Netflix, which is great.

Speaker 1 (25:32):
Well, you know what's crazy about this story.
The other pilot survived thecrash.

Speaker 4 (25:38):
Just like the one right before.

Speaker 3 (25:40):
Yes, this is Final Destination level dude.
It's insane.
How does the pilot survive amid-air collision?

Speaker 4 (25:49):
How did he?
Did he out like with aparachute?

Speaker 1 (25:50):
they said he was, his plane wasn't as destroyed as
the other one.

Speaker 4 (25:54):
Somehow I don't know able to land.
So he was able to land.

Speaker 1 (25:56):
Okay, it wasn't like a head-on collision yeah, I
think the wings clipped eachother, oh my god, yeah, well I.

Speaker 3 (26:04):
I guess he wasn't ready for war.

Speaker 1 (26:06):
Well, he went to World War II.
He did serve.

Speaker 3 (26:09):
He survived World War .

Speaker 1 (26:09):
II.
He survived World War II to diein 1945.

Speaker 3 (26:13):
Oh, the guy that didn't die in the thing.

Speaker 1 (26:15):
No, both of them.

Speaker 3 (26:16):
No, he went to World War II.
Oh, Weezy did survive.

Speaker 1 (26:18):
Yeah, no, no, no, he died in 1945,.

Speaker 4 (26:25):
Weezer survived World War II, only to die in another
plane crash.
Gotcha, that's like thosepeople that survived 9-11 and
then went to see Great White atthe station, or something.

Speaker 1 (26:34):
Yeah, seriously.

Speaker 3 (26:36):
Just my luck, this place is on fire too.

Speaker 4 (26:39):
I'm finally ready to come out for a good rock and
roll time.
You know what?
Maybe it was my time.

Speaker 1 (26:46):
That's Final Destination, shit though For
real it is.
So.
That brings us to Carl AlfalfaSwitzer.

Speaker 4 (26:54):
This is the main chorus right.

Speaker 1 (26:56):
This is a decent chunk of the episode here.

Speaker 4 (26:58):
Because I know a little bit about this.
But, man, because you alwaysthink Alfalfa, that was the
goofy character.
Yeah, and in real life, likethis guy was.

Speaker 1 (27:08):
He was throwing firebombs at people and pissing
on the lights, like he was a badseed.

Speaker 3 (27:12):
But he was doing it for a good reason.
Okay, he was a goofy character,but technically all the
goofiness was serious crimes.

Speaker 2 (27:20):
Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 1 (27:23):
So Carl was born in Paris, illinois, please, which
sounds pretty nice, so close tobeing somewhere, good yeah.

Speaker 4 (27:32):
If Chicago doesn't come before the word Illinois,
it sucks yeah.

Speaker 3 (27:36):
I lived in Wheaton, illinois, for a little while.
Nice little suburb.
No, I think you're mostlycorrect, yeah.

Speaker 1 (27:42):
He was born on August 8th 1927.
When he was visiting LosAngeles, his family thought that
they would try their luckbringing he and his brother over
to the Hal Roach Studios toaudition for the Little Rascals
Put these kids to work.
And they didn't realize that youneeded to have an actual
parking pass and show up for anactual audition.
They were just like let's justgo to the studio and see what

(28:03):
happens.
I love it.
I had family members being likeI used to email uh, ellen,
degenerate show to see if theycould get you on.
I was like that's not how thatworks, but thank you I love it.

Speaker 4 (28:14):
Yeah, well, I think they sort of did it like that
back in the day like you couldyou know, like um the
poltergeist girl heathero'rourke yeah she was just
having lunch and gets discoveredyeah, you never know, right,
never know so undred.

Speaker 1 (28:29):
they still were like oh, you can buy a pass and go
walk around the studios on atour, and they did this
underterred.
Undeterred.

Speaker 3 (28:36):
Yeah, so they were just kind of living under a
bunch of shit.
Yes, underturred, I like it.
I am a child.
It took me a second.
I'm a little rascal.
I caught up, you, little rascal.
I'm a big fucking rascal.

Speaker 4 (28:46):
And I like how they say you don't need a headshot
resume, you need a parking pass.

Speaker 1 (28:52):
Yes, so they paid for the studio tour.
And by the time they get shownthe cafeteria, that's when Carl
and his brother realizes theyhave the spotlight.
I love it.
And they run into the cafeteriaand just start singing and
dancing.

Speaker 4 (29:05):
That's what I'm saying.
It all happens in the cafeteria.

Speaker 1 (29:09):
You know who just happens to be there having lunch
at the time?
Hal Roach Love it and he signsthem there on the spot.

Speaker 3 (29:15):
Also, that is a perfect time because he's eating
, he's happy.
Yeah, they say if you auditionjust before lunch you have a
much worse chance of gettingcast versus post-lunch.

Speaker 1 (29:29):
That's true.

Speaker 3 (29:30):
Because everyone's full.

Speaker 1 (29:31):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (29:32):
I tried that once at Paramount and they just kicked
me out, I'll just start singingaround any food court, no
business like show business.

Speaker 4 (29:41):
You'll be swell All right.

Speaker 3 (29:43):
Welcome to One Potato , two Potato.

Speaker 4 (29:45):
Would you shut up?
We're trying to finish our rap.

Speaker 1 (29:49):
So Alfalfa joins the show instantly becomes a hit,
one of the top two characters.
Like we said, spanky andAlfalfa.

Speaker 4 (29:55):
Did they replace Petey?
Yes, because I was noticing ifhe died in 1930 and Alfalfa was
born in 1927, they didn'toverlap then.

Speaker 1 (30:05):
No, no, it's a different Petey, then Petey the
dog.

Speaker 3 (30:08):
There was a bunch of.

Speaker 1 (30:09):
Petey's.
There's a bunch of Air Buds too.
You don't really think about it, but then you find out.

Speaker 4 (30:13):
It's like 27 different dogs Shut up.
Oh yeah, they've killed.
You mean it was Air Bud.
Golden Receiver was not thesame one.

Speaker 3 (30:20):
No, no no.

Speaker 4 (30:21):
From the.

Speaker 3 (30:22):
You don't want to know what happens to the earbuds
when they're no longer needed.

Speaker 4 (30:26):
They just get thrown into this cage.

Speaker 1 (30:29):
Oh it's horrible, they get shot out of a cannon
yeah.

Speaker 3 (30:32):
We'll uncover an Air Bud tomb one day, and it's going
to be devastating.

Speaker 4 (30:37):
But it was worth it.
Yeah, for all the good times,great movies.

Speaker 1 (30:41):
For all the great to VHS, straight to VHS.

Speaker 4 (30:44):
All the great puns with the titles.

Speaker 1 (30:46):
He appeared in 61 of the film's series.

Speaker 4 (30:50):
Wow, is that the most ?

Speaker 1 (30:52):
It's up there.
Yeah, we've talked about thisin episodes for Bobby Driscoll
and other child stars.
At a time where there wereabsolutely no residuals, it was
extremely difficult to make aliving after that amount of fame
washes away.

Speaker 4 (31:05):
Yeah, and you know you grow up, yeah, right.

Speaker 1 (31:08):
So after he's done, pissing on all the lights and
sticking gum in cameras.

Speaker 3 (31:11):
Being a cool kid yeah .

Speaker 1 (31:13):
He's throwing firecrackers at people.

Speaker 3 (31:16):
He's my friend, like literally, me and my friend used
to do this, basically the exactsame stuff.

Speaker 1 (31:20):
Yeah, you know, time's up on set.
You're too old now and they'relike we gotta move on, so he
ended up getting a few bit parts, one being in it's a wonderful
life with jimmy stewart anddonna reed, which was not a hit
originally.

Speaker 4 (31:34):
It wasn't, no, I didn't realize that it went.
It came and went without muchfanfare and then, many years
later, it started to get playedon tv on christmas, and that's
when it had high viewershipInteresting.

Speaker 1 (31:49):
And that's where it became a classic.
No kidding.

Speaker 4 (31:51):
So Alfalfa didn't even see any of that.
Wow, sort of like the.

Speaker 3 (31:53):
Big Lebowski Exactly Not a hit, but now a massive one
, right.

Speaker 1 (31:58):
And it's weird because he's a good-looking guy.
As he got older he wasn'tpimply and weird and awkward
like the other kids were, butnobody would put him in an
actual role, even though he hadall this experience.

Speaker 3 (32:09):
He's a child actor.

Speaker 1 (32:10):
Yes, but also the studios whispered saying they
would have hired him, but he hada reputation that preceded him
of being a troublemaker andalways wanted to get back at
people for perceived slights.

Speaker 4 (32:23):
We can still smell those lights.
Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 1 (32:27):
I mean he's method, yeah, method yeah that, but that
was before method was actuallyrespected, I guess oh yeah, he
was a good looking guy.
Yeah, he was a very goodlooking guy, he could have been
a leading man, but it was justlet me see the risk that the
studios didn't want to take ofhim going off the deep end kind
of looks like a kennedy.

Speaker 4 (32:44):
Yeah, he looks like a crooner, he does, he's got that
dean martin hair.
Yeah, he Kind of looks like aKennedy.
Yeah, he looks like a crooner,he does, he's got that Dean
Martin hair.

Speaker 2 (32:49):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (32:50):
He also kind of looks like he could kill.
He kind of looks like a sniper.

Speaker 1 (32:57):
So, like all good child actors, he took to the
bottle and became increasinglyfrustrated.
Where he was at in life, hetook whatever tiny roles he
could muster up and thenbartended around the city as
well, as he became a dog trainerand hunting guide on trips up
in Northern California.

Speaker 3 (33:12):
Okay, wow Interesting .

Speaker 1 (33:14):
He would bring guys like Roy Rogers, dale Evans,
jimmy Stewart and Henry Fonda upto Northern California and give
them guided hunting expeditions.

Speaker 4 (33:22):
Shut up, Like he took the rich and famous up there.

Speaker 1 (33:25):
And none of them were like dying to get him in movies
either.
Just like thanks for the goodtime, see you later, I mean he
was working.
Yeah, he was barely making endsmeet with it, though it was
kind of cool.
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (33:37):
Boy.
Yeah, the dog days.

Speaker 1 (33:41):
In early 1954, switzer went on a blind date
with Diantha Collingwood,diantha, diantha Collingwood,
diantha Diantha.

Speaker 4 (33:48):
Oh my, how many times do you think she had to repeat
her first?

Speaker 1 (33:51):
name it's.

Speaker 4 (33:51):
Diantha.

Speaker 3 (33:52):
Diantha.
My dad had a list.
It was supposed to be Diana,but it's Diantha.

Speaker 1 (33:59):
She was the daughter of Lilo and Faye Collingwood and
an heiress to the grainelevator empire Collingwood
Grain.
All right, so like those bigcorn silos they created.

Speaker 3 (34:10):
That that's them, that's them Hell yeah, that's
some money right there.

Speaker 1 (34:14):
Yeah, collingwood had moved with her mother and
sister to California in 1953because her sister wanted to
become an actress and Switzerand Collingwood got along very
well and within three monthstook a drive over to Las Vegas
and got married.

Speaker 4 (34:27):
Oh, I love that, and the little rascals, as they are
called now, is probably playingon TV all the time.

Speaker 1 (34:36):
Oh wow, it's just starting to.

Speaker 3 (34:37):
Yeah, oh, that's interesting, it's almost Black
Mirror-esque.
So he's struggling financiallyand he's watching himself as a
child on TV not getting anyresiduals.
That must be a little difficultto handle.

Speaker 1 (34:51):
Yeah, he started getting desperate.
He was running out of money.
But his mother-in-law was justlike hey, if you guys leave Los
Angeles, you can take our farmin Pretty Prairie, kansas.

Speaker 3 (35:01):
Go do it, baby.
Pretty Prairie Kansas Soundsgreat, it's flat.
Yeah, but they have a fortuneYou're taken care of.

Speaker 4 (35:12):
And if he waits a little longer he'll be able to
do conventions, He'll be able togo to Comic-Con.

Speaker 3 (35:18):
I mean he's got to wait 60 more years, but yeah.

Speaker 1 (35:22):
Their son, Justin, was born that year.
They divorced in 1957, andDiantha left him to marry this
guy, Richard Roswell Eldridge,who adopted and raised Justin as
his own.

Speaker 3 (35:36):
Who would have thought a Las Vegas marriage
wouldn't last.
That is how I'm going to getmarried, though, in Las Vegas.
Whoever is the lucky lady outthere, get ready for a Vegas
wedding.

Speaker 1 (35:45):
Just don't go there with Andy Dick.

Speaker 3 (35:47):
I'm not going to go anywhere with Andy Dick and do
not marry.

Speaker 4 (35:50):
Andy, dick, no, I'm good.
So they took the kid away too.
Yes, he's all alone.

Speaker 1 (35:56):
So, Diantha and Richard?
Neither of them ever told theirson who his real father was.

Speaker 4 (36:01):
Okay, diantha is diabolical, diabolical.

Speaker 3 (36:07):
Yeah Diabolical, yeah Diabolical.
That's too bad, super sad yeah.

Speaker 1 (36:13):
So he's depressed, he's getting drunk, he's getting
into fights.
He's obviously miserable.

Speaker 4 (36:17):
Is he in Kansas during this?

Speaker 1 (36:19):
No, he's not in Kansas anymore.

Speaker 4 (36:20):
He went back to LA.

Speaker 1 (36:22):
He comes back to Studio City.

Speaker 4 (36:24):
Okay, yeah, nothing bad could happen there.

Speaker 1 (36:27):
No.
On January 26, 1958, he wasgetting into his car in front of
a bar in Studio City when abullet went through the
windshield and struck him in thearm.
He survived.
However, the gunman was neveridentified or caught.

Speaker 3 (36:40):
Now, was this an intentional shooting towards him
or just crossfire?

Speaker 1 (36:45):
It was probably intentional towards him.

Speaker 4 (36:46):
He was getting in a lot of fights and getting really
mouthy gotcha okay, so yeah, soit wasn't a surprise that he
had people wanting to after him,hurt him yeah, okay that
december of 1958 switzer wasarrested in the sequoia national
forest for cutting down 15 pinetrees he was going to sell
illegally as Christmas trees.

Speaker 3 (37:07):
I mean it's a little rascal crime that is such a
rascal crime.
Look at the forest boys, we'rerich.

Speaker 4 (37:15):
And he had his friend Fatty with him.

Speaker 3 (37:17):
Yeah, oh, come on man .

Speaker 4 (37:21):
And he's an entrepreneur.
That's the really tough part.

Speaker 1 (37:25):
Well, he forgot to get his business license Right.
Yeah, he's not really toughpart.
Well, he forgot to get hisbusiness license Right.
Yeah, he's not really anentrepreneur.

Speaker 4 (37:28):
But he's a go-getter.
He's taking Laurence Olivier upto the mountains with the dog
and cutting down trees to sell.
He's not just sitting on hisass, go-getter is one way to
Desperate, I think desperateyeah.
Yes, but there's desperate witha plan or there's just
desperate.

Speaker 1 (37:48):
Right.

Speaker 4 (37:50):
I don't know if he had a plan.

Speaker 3 (37:52):
If you cut down 15 trees.
He had an ax.
I think it was impromptubecause, again, he didn't get
any of the licenses or anything.

Speaker 4 (37:58):
He may have had an ax to grind, but he did.

Speaker 1 (38:01):
He was sentenced to one year probation and he was
ordered to pay a $225 fine,which is more than $2,500 today.

Speaker 4 (38:07):
He was ordered to pay a $225 fine, which is more than
$2,500 today.
He was ordered to be SantaClaus at the mall.
Yeah, the mean one.
He would have loved the job.
I know that sounds like a moviepremise right there.

Speaker 1 (38:15):
Yeah.
Absolutely In 1959, Switzeragreed to train a hunting dog
for this guy, Moses Samuel BuddStiltz.
We'll just call him Stiltz.

Speaker 3 (38:25):
Yeah, I love it, stiltz.
We'll just call him Stiltz.
Yeah, I love it, stiltz, greatLove it.

Speaker 1 (38:28):
Stiltz was Switzer's longtime friend and on-again,
off-again business partner.
I don't know if they werecutting trees down together or
what.

Speaker 3 (38:35):
Well, I mean, if you're going to cut down trees
with anybody, you want to do itwith Stiltz?
Yeah, get up there.

Speaker 4 (38:41):
Absolutely.

Speaker 1 (38:47):
Switzer and Stiltz.
Oh, I love that band.
They met while working togetheron productions with Roy Rogers.

Speaker 3 (38:52):
Roy is all over this story.
Yeah, I don't get it.

Speaker 4 (38:54):
Why isn't Roy Rogers helping them?

Speaker 3 (38:56):
He doesn't know, you can't just help when you get
picked up by an Uber driver.
They're actors.
You can't just go around and belike oh, you need the job,
here's your job, Right.

Speaker 4 (39:08):
No, but come on, it's so different.
Roy Rogers is doing the dogstuff with him and then also
doing stuff on set.
The expeditions.

Speaker 3 (39:17):
Yeah, I don't, but I think again, his reputation was
probably all bad.
I think people wanted him wherehe was.

Speaker 4 (39:23):
Yeah well, his punishment was being in that
Snow White Oscars number.
Roy Rogers was one of theelders in it?

Speaker 3 (39:32):
Was he really Check out that episode, by the way?

Speaker 1 (39:34):
Fantastic.
So the dog, while Switzer tookhim out into the woods, ran away
to chase a beer, a beer.

Speaker 4 (39:42):
A beer.

Speaker 3 (39:43):
A Budweiser.
What you got on your mind?
A bear, a bear, a drunk bearthat drank beer.

Speaker 1 (39:51):
Yes, let's have a bear.

Speaker 3 (39:55):
And just took off and disappeared oh my god, dumb dog
, dumb dog and stilts was likehey, I see that you're back from
the expedition.

Speaker 1 (40:02):
Where's my fucking dog?
And he was like, oh I got lost.

Speaker 3 (40:05):
He's getting hammered in the woods with this bear.

Speaker 1 (40:08):
You don't want to see him and he was pissed because
he thought the bear ate his dog.
So he's like all right, you'regonna pay me for my dog, which
is 50 bucks, okay, and that's alot of money back then it is.

Speaker 3 (40:19):
It's a lot of money now.
So yeah, 250 was 2500, you were.
What are you looking at?
I mean, I can't do math, but athousand bucks yeah.

Speaker 1 (40:26):
Switzer was working as a bartender at that point and
he was unable to make with thecash.
So he took out ads in thenewspaper, which I think would
be expensive too Right, but itmust have been cheap enough for
him to put out the ads in thenewspapers, put up flyers, and
he also offered a reward for thesafe return of the dog.

Speaker 4 (40:48):
This is an episode again.
It's of the little rascals.
Yeah, I think missing dog.
Right next he's gonna selllemonade, that's not lemonade
yeah, it's piss the thing is, Ithink ads were affordable back
then because everyone was doingit.
It's how you in a sensecommunicated right sure for the
internet.

Speaker 1 (41:08):
Yeah, bulletin, bulletin board stuff eventually
the dog was found and it wasbrought to the bar where carl
switzer alfalfa was workingthere you go, the dog, the dog
that chased the bear.

Speaker 4 (41:19):
Yes, showed back up, yeah and it wanted another beer.

Speaker 3 (41:21):
So it went to the bar yeah, exactly it.

Speaker 4 (41:23):
Like you should see the bear.

Speaker 3 (41:26):
Hello, fully milked and tired, I haven't come that
hard in years.
Thanks, dog.

Speaker 1 (41:35):
So Switzer rewarded the rescuer with $35 in cash and
$15 in a bar tab.

Speaker 4 (41:41):
So that's his 50 bucks that he paid the guy.
Now he gets it back.

Speaker 1 (41:45):
That's equivalent to $540.
Okay $540.

Speaker 4 (41:48):
Great Wait, did Stiltz give him the cash back?
No, what Don't you think thatthat's a you know?

Speaker 1 (41:58):
Yeah.
So Switzer was annoyed byhaving to pay out the reward,
because that's what they came to.
He didn't actually pay him the$50.
He paid the guy the rescuer.

Speaker 3 (42:08):
I mean, none of this seems like that serious, but I
guess it is serious.

Speaker 1 (42:12):
Well, I mean 540 bucks.
That's enough to piss somebodyoff.

Speaker 3 (42:15):
I would guess that's true, that's true.

Speaker 1 (42:17):
A few days later and he had a very emotional
conversation with this friend,this guy Jack Piot, and he was a
37-year-old still photographerand and he was a 37-year-old
still photographer, and the twojust like riled each other up
and he's like yeah, man, youshould get that fucking money
back from Stiltz.
He should be the one to pay forthat.
He should be, I agree.
So their argument was that theywere going to go show up to

(42:39):
this guy's house and say, hey,you pay him back now or there's
going to be trouble.

Speaker 4 (42:42):
Uh-oh yeah.

Speaker 1 (42:52):
The yeah, yeah, the oj method, that's give me my
stuff back.
So this guy, uh, jack and carlswitzer, they both went to
stiltz's home in mission hillsand they demanded the money.
They went on a mission, yes inthe hills yeah, they were.
There are differing accounts ofthe events, but pretty much
they all agree that silts wasstruck over the side of his head
with one of his glass clocks.

Speaker 3 (43:13):
Wait, what glass clock?
Why is this a cartoon?

Speaker 2 (43:17):
What is?

Speaker 3 (43:17):
happening.

Speaker 4 (43:18):
I've never heard of a glass clock before it's another
episode of Little.

Speaker 2 (43:23):
Mask.

Speaker 1 (43:23):
You just clocked me with my clock.
All right With a glass cock, no, a glass clock.

Speaker 3 (43:30):
Clock by Diane Falk.
Oh, my lord.

Speaker 1 (43:35):
So this guy.

Speaker 4 (43:35):
Stiltz, and that was all over the paper too.
It said Stiltz got clocked.
Yeah, he got clocked.

Speaker 1 (43:42):
So they cave one of his eyes in oh my Jesus, and he
runs to his room to grab his 38and Switzer tries to wrestle the
gun away from him.
His account was that the gungoes off.
It missed both of them, but itwent right next to stiltz's
stepson, 14 years old.
He was there.

Speaker 3 (43:59):
yes, the whole family's there oh my god, the
whole stiltz family so likewe're just trying to eat our tv
dinners here in peace.

Speaker 1 (44:07):
Uh, furious stiltz was able to kick switzer off and
then shoots him he uses thestepson as a shield.

Speaker 4 (44:13):
Yeah, I'm sorry.
What was what you said?
Something serious.
Yes, switzer got shot.
Oh yeah, wow, yeah.
So he's like.
You almost killed my fuckingkid.

Speaker 1 (44:17):
I'm gonna kill you okay, so this is the second you
said something serious.
Yes, Switzer got shot.
Oh yeah, Wow yeah.
So he's like.
You almost killed my fuckingkid.
I'm going to kill you.

Speaker 3 (44:24):
Okay, so this is the second time he's been shot.

Speaker 1 (44:26):
Shot him in the dick.

Speaker 3 (44:28):
He shot him in the dick.
Yeah, what Ouch.
Okay, how is he doing?

Speaker 4 (44:35):
Well, how would you like to be shot in the dick?
How?

Speaker 3 (44:39):
small is your gun.

Speaker 1 (44:40):
I need that like I need another hole in my dick.
I don't have one of those.

Speaker 3 (44:44):
You don't have a hole in your dick.
No, it's on the side.

Speaker 1 (44:49):
It whistles when a A real bell kilmer.

Speaker 4 (44:53):
Yeah, you thought those were the birds chirping.

Speaker 1 (44:57):
So Stiltz's account of the event was one of
self-defense.
He testified that Switzer hadbanged on his door yelling let
me in or I'll kick the door in.

Speaker 4 (45:04):
To be fair, that is his home and his family's there
that checks out.

Speaker 1 (45:07):
Got to protect your family.

Speaker 3 (45:09):
Absolutely.
Stiltz is not in the wrong here.

Speaker 1 (45:11):
No, the threat was followed by a struggle that
began with one of the men,either Switzer or Piot he
doesn't remember striking him inthe face with the clock.
This prompted him to retrievehis firearm and, according to
stiltz, switzer threatened himwith a knife and yelled I'm
going to kill you.
And stiltz says he fired theshot into switcher's groin,
which damaged an artery thatcaused massive internal bleeding

(45:32):
and it did it damage anythingelse uh his life yeah switzer,
was pronounced dead on arrivalat 7 27 pm at the hospital at
the age of 31.

Speaker 3 (45:42):
Yeah, there's a massive artery that goes in that
part of the body.
Yeah, wow, jeez, shot in thecock and died.

Speaker 2 (45:51):
He got clocked.

Speaker 1 (45:52):
He got cocked.

Speaker 3 (45:52):
He got cocked, clocked and put in a grave.

Speaker 4 (45:56):
Put that on your tombstone.
Shot in the cock and diedUsually cum.
Put that on your tombstone Shotin the cock and died Usually.
Cum shot means something elsein Hollywood.
Yes indeed.

Speaker 3 (46:03):
A gunshot is worse than a cum shot.

Speaker 4 (46:07):
Yeah, poor guy, although he was asking for it.

Speaker 1 (46:10):
Was he In a sense?
What do you mean?

Speaker 4 (46:14):
Did you show?

Speaker 1 (46:14):
up somewhere with guns.
Well, there's a differingaccount from a witness.

Speaker 4 (46:16):
Okay, let's hear the other side.

Speaker 1 (46:21):
So Stiltz's own stepson, tom cordigan, the 14
year old that almost got hishead blasted off, a traumatic
event.
He must remember it too, becauseit was so scary yes, he has an
account that differssignificantly from that of his
stepfathers.
Okay, he told investigatorsthat stiltz shot switzer as him
and piot were leaving.
After the gun's accidentaldischarge that almost hit him,
switzer turned to piot and saidthey needed to leave, so he was

(46:44):
so freaked out by that.
Alfalfa was like we need to getthe hell out of here.
That was so scary, got you?
Uh, the two were headed for thedoor.
When stiltz then fired the fatalshot, he said that switzer
never drew a knife, as hisstepfather stiltz claimed he had
okay, this is just thedefinition of fucking around and
finding out, I guess yeah wowcorrigan all because of a dog

(47:05):
yeah, corrigan was never calledto testify at the coroner's
inquest and stiltz testified inhis own behalf, so he's like you
know I'm the best right histest, his testimony was taken to
be truthful, despite thephysical evidence that
contradicted his account,because it did appear that he
was shot from behind and it didhit him through the back of the
leg, oh my God.

(47:26):
Yeah, the shooting was judgedto be self-defense.

Speaker 3 (47:31):
Did it take place in his house still.

Speaker 1 (47:33):
The shooting Right in the doorway.

Speaker 3 (47:35):
Yeah, so, oh, my goodness.

Speaker 1 (47:37):
Yeah, so during the inquest regarding the death, it
was revealed that he actuallydid have a penknife that was
found underneath him.

Speaker 3 (47:45):
Okay.

Speaker 1 (47:46):
So a tiny little.

Speaker 3 (47:47):
I mean they still went to this guy's house.
They hit him in the face with aclock.
I mean things are going tohappen, yeah 42 years later, in
January 2001,.

Speaker 1 (47:55):
Tom Corrigan had told reporters it was more like
murder.

Speaker 4 (48:00):
It was more like murder, so he didn't like his
stepdad.

Speaker 1 (48:03):
I guess not.
It doesn't sound like they gotalong very well.

Speaker 3 (48:05):
Yeah, he really snitched him out, didn't he?
I mean, that's putting itlightly.
He very well could have beenshot and killed by this bullet.
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (48:15):
I know, and yet he's defending the guys that came
over.
Yeah, maybe he's a big fan,that's true.

Speaker 1 (48:23):
He said he heard a knock on the front door and he
was there in the living room andhe heard Carl Switzer say
Western Union for Bud Stiltz,and that's why his mother opened
the door and there were twodrunk guys complaining about the
month-old debt and demandingrepayment.

Speaker 3 (48:39):
Hey honey, alfalfa's at the door.
He says he's got a package foryou.
It's all so stupid.

Speaker 4 (48:47):
Western Union Flower delivery yes.

Speaker 1 (48:51):
He said that Stiltz claimed he was going to beat up
his stepdad, but that Stiltzconfronted Switzer with a .38
caliber revolver already in hishand, and that's when Piot broke
a glass clock over his head.

Speaker 2 (49:04):
Okay.

Speaker 1 (49:05):
Causing his eye to swell shut.

Speaker 3 (49:08):
Man, I feel bad for that clock.
I don't think I've ever seen aglass clock since.
No, did it shatter?
I guess it did, yes.
Well, that's why his eye wasall fucked up.
You know just asking.

Speaker 1 (49:20):
Oh yeah.
So Corrigan said he stepped outthe front door when he heard
but did not witness the secondshot behind him.
He said he turned and sawSwitzer sliding down the wall
with a surprised look on hisface like you shot me.

Speaker 4 (49:29):
Oh my God, but what did he expect I?

Speaker 3 (49:34):
mean, if he was leaving, I think he wanted it to
all just be done.
Yeah, wanted it to all just bedone.
Yeah, All of this for 50 bucksAin't worth it, mm-hmm.

Speaker 1 (49:43):
No, Piot was.
Then he was being held upagainst the kitchen counter by
stilts, being like I'll fuckingkill you too.
And then they heard theemergency siren.
So the father got freaked outand let him go Okay.
So that's the only reason thatPiot didn't get killed as well.
Gotcha Wow didn't get killed aswell.

Speaker 3 (50:02):
gotcha wow, yeah and but he claims to his dying day
that his stepfather lied in hisaccount of the event.

Speaker 4 (50:07):
All right, oh, you know.
Yeah, it's.
Uh, there's a lot of gray areahere.

Speaker 3 (50:10):
Yeah black and white.
Indeed, it is not not much likethe early version of yeah you
get it, he was never.

Speaker 1 (50:21):
Or the newspaper that wrote sir, very good twain,
yeah, good point he was nevercharged or arrested or anything,
and stiltz died in 1983 at theage of 62, so he got away with
it all right if it was a but hedied young yeah 62 ish yeah I
guess in those days that wasmore like 102 carl switzer was

(50:42):
interred at the hollywoodforever cemetery, where a lot of
our you know artists are yeahon january 27th 1959, but this
is also a episode that wecovered last year.
Uh, farrah fawcett died, andright after that michael jackson
died right, and so she got sameday buried before, yeah, same
day, just hours later, uh, soher news got buried right before

(51:05):
she got buried.
This is exactly what happenedto him right after he died.

Speaker 3 (51:09):
Cecil B Demille died uh well, you're gonna lose it.
I mean, it is what it is.
There's an award for this,cecil guy there is.

Speaker 1 (51:15):
There's no alfalfa prize.

Speaker 4 (51:17):
No, they don't even know he's dead yet it's all,
cecil, they don't say I'm readyfor my close-up alfalfa yeah,
they don't.

Speaker 1 (51:27):
Switzer had appeared as a slave, uncredited, in one
of the last films for whichDeMille was credited as a
producer the Ten Commandmentsreally yeah interesting so RIP
to Carl Switzer yeah, not agreat way to go yeah, but
remember his brother harold,that sang with him in the
cafeteria.
That also got signed, yeah, sure, while he never got the same

(51:48):
amount of fame he was prettymuch like an extra in the little
rascals, uh but he was hired toappear in some of the films.
Well, eight years after thedeath of his brother he was
operating an appliance sales andrepair company.
So he would sell you a washerand dryer and do the maintenance
on it if they need yeah he endsup getting into this major
argument over a payment disputewith a customer and in a blind

(52:09):
rage he killed his customer what?

Speaker 4 (52:11):
there you go.
And it was 50, yeah it couldhave been um.

Speaker 1 (52:16):
He was so freaked out after he kills this dude I
would hope so he drives to aremote area in Glendale,
California, and kills himself inhis own car.

Speaker 4 (52:26):
Yikes, I mean he couldn't have been happy at his
job.

Speaker 1 (52:29):
Yeah, he left behind a wife and five kids at 42 years
old.

Speaker 4 (52:34):
And a bunch of appliances.

Speaker 1 (52:36):
Yeah, so I'll just run through pretty quickly the
lesser known rascals that alsodied crazy deaths.
Okay, wow, scotty Beckett.
Scotty couldn't get any workafter the rascals and pretty
much took it out on everyone.
He would get into bar fightsand brawls all the time.
He had a criminal record forfighting and several drinking

(52:56):
and drug-related offenses.
In early 1957, he was arrestedfor possession of 250 tablets of
Speed.
Oh yeah, living life in the fastlane.
Yeah, he was.
Four days after the arrest, hesmashes his car into a tree with
permanently crippling effects.
He was unable to work in filmsany longer.

Speaker 3 (53:15):
Yeah, dang.

Speaker 1 (53:16):
This was too much for his wife, who divorced him that
year, and right after that hewas arrested again for drunk
driving.

Speaker 4 (53:23):
Okay, well, good for him.
Sounds like a menace.

Speaker 3 (53:26):
Sounds like a depressed former child actor.
Yeah, right, after that Ararity.

Speaker 1 (53:32):
Yeah, beckett marries a woman named Margaret.
The following year, in thedepths of his drinking, he
attempts to kill himself.
In 1968, he got into a badfight and was savagely beaten by
people like destroyed uh.
He checked himself into amedical facility and had only
been there two days when heactually did take his own life
with an od of barbiturates at 38years old what about

(53:55):
barbiturates?
Yeah, they're a real bitch.

Speaker 3 (53:58):
Yes, yes indeed.

Speaker 1 (53:59):
Ricky Mickey Daniels.
Long estranged from his wifeand children, he died alone in a
San Diego hotel room in 1970.
Cause of death the cirrhosis ofthe liver, and years had passed
before his remains were claimedand identified by his family,
so they didn't even know wherehe was.
Wow.

Speaker 3 (54:17):
Like Bobby Driscoll.

Speaker 1 (54:19):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (54:19):
I wonder if they started drinking real young.

Speaker 1 (54:22):
Yeah, I think they did On the set of the Little
Rascals.
Yes, Daniels was 55 when hedied and he is currently buried
in an unmarked grave.

Speaker 4 (54:31):
Do we know if the kids were all into drugs and
alcohol?

Speaker 1 (54:34):
They did get into it early.
Yeah, wow, there was somedrinking and stuff.

Speaker 4 (54:37):
So there was more than one roach on that set.

Speaker 1 (54:39):
Wow, yeah there was some drinking and stuff, so
there was more than one roach onthat set as that got older,
because they started realizing,oh my God, we're aging out of
this and a lot of kids weregetting replaced.
And so when they started seeingthat turnover, they were like
they could see it coming.

Speaker 4 (54:50):
Right, they're like we got the new Darla and Petey
coming in today.
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (54:55):
Yeah, just swilling back whiskey at 11 years old, a
haggard 64-year-old longshoreman.

Speaker 1 (55:03):
Yeah, speaking of Darla, darla contracted
hepatitis that was her real name.
What she had a burst appendixand needed to get an emergency
appendectomy contracts hepatitiswhile getting blood for it and
dies at the age of 47.
Oh my God.

(55:23):
One year later after that,william buckwheat thomas, a
neighbor who hadn't seen him inseveral days, entered his home
and found him dead in bed oh,how'd buckwheat die heart attack
that's the best one, yet that'sthe in his sleep.
Yeah, you'd hope he's asleep howold, was he 49 oh, so that's,
oh, that's young still yeah, aweird thing of note that there
was a major reporting error 10years after his death.

(55:44):
This is so goddamn funny.
This there's.
This wacko who worked as agrocery store bagger in arizona
said he was the guy who playedbuckwheat on abc's 2020.
They did an entire story onthis guy, bill english, who just
completely lied, oh my god.
And they they put it on airgood for him.

(56:04):
Wow, keep buckwheat alive yeah,so the la time says 2020.
Producer resigns over buckwheatinterview.
He takes responsibility for thebogus story.
William thomas, who portrayedthe our gang character, died 10
years ago, in 1980.

Speaker 3 (56:21):
Oh, my God.

Speaker 1 (56:22):
Yeah.
So they said what are they?

Speaker 4 (56:25):
supposed to vet people that come on their shows?
Yeah, something like that.

Speaker 1 (56:29):
Guy had the best excuse.
He said that the reason hechanged his name and didn't sign
any autographs was because hedidn't want it to interfere with
the store's operations.
The supermarket.

Speaker 3 (56:40):
Yes, all right, you don't want it to interfere with
the store's operations.
The supermarket yes, all right,you don't want to mess that up.

Speaker 1 (56:44):
Yeah, so let's see this clip here.

Speaker 3 (56:46):
If I came out as Buckwheat, the deli would be
slammed.

Speaker 4 (56:49):
So this is the original piece from 2020, and
then at the end of the clip is acurrent affair.
Talking to Spanky, actually,who outed the fake Buckwheat yes
, we found him at Smitty'ssupermarket where he's the most
popular bagger for miles around.
Hello there, how y'all doing.

Speaker 2 (57:08):
Ah, bump on me.

Speaker 4 (57:09):
hey, hey everybody.

Speaker 2 (57:11):
He won't sign autographs because he says if he
did he'd never get any workdone.
All he needs is to feel useful.
You serve your public in someway I don't know how you put it
but you just don't sit down andthink about yourself.
Good guy, nice lad, good guy.
Abc realized they had beenhoaxed after Spanky himself

(57:36):
called 20-20 and told themBuckwheat Billy thomas had been
dead for ten years.
With us now is george mcfarland, who played spanky and also
joining us that the billing, butprobably a lot of george.
What was your reaction when yousaw bill english say he was
buckwheat on television?
Well, my, my first reaction wasuh, uh, what, mr english?

(58:04):
Why did you do this?
Come forward and say thatyou're buckwheat.
Give me what I do there.
I know I'm buckwheat oh, god,my first reaction was what, what
?

Speaker 4 (58:14):
oh my god, he sounds like old spanky oh my so spanky
lived yeah, he didn't live toomuch longer after that, though
yeah, but it wasn't miserablethe way he died no so spanky had
a pretty good final uh coupleof years he did all right, it's
good, and I love how that was abig time for barbara walters.
She was getting to the bottomof the gerbil story yeah and

(58:37):
getting to the bottom ofbuckwheat Right so funny.

Speaker 1 (58:41):
So buckwheat wasn't the only black kid that was on
it, there was also Stimey.
He was the one that had thederby hat the circular hat, of
course.
He ended up being a high schooldropout and he fought a heroin
addiction for more than 20 years, Was frequently in and out of
prison because he was trying tocommit crimes to pay for the
drugs.
It's an awful cycle.

(59:02):
Yes, indeed, rascally rascal,and he beat the habit in the
1970s but passed away in 1981from pneumonia, following a
stroke where he fell down andsmashed his head and never
regained consciousness.

Speaker 4 (59:09):
For 81, that's very old for a rascal that was 1981.

Speaker 1 (59:13):
He was 56.
Oh.
Still old for a rascal.
Yeah, that was the year I wasborn.
Welcome back, Stymie here inthe reincarnation of stymie I'm
him 2020 should go get you Iknow robert bone dust young fell
asleep while smoking in bed in1951 and then he turned to bone
dust.

(59:33):
He died in the ensuing fire atage 33 that's dude.
That is like what do you thinkI was gonna say?
The fire put itself out.
I'm sorry, have you been herefor the last hour?
Oh?

Speaker 3 (59:43):
no Dude, people used to just die smoking all the time
.

Speaker 1 (59:46):
All the time.

Speaker 3 (59:47):
Jeez, my friend's mom used to smoke on the couch
constantly and he used to saveher life all the time.

Speaker 1 (59:53):
Jesus.

Speaker 4 (59:54):
Yeah, how many kids' houses did you back in the day
that had cigarette burns allover the couches?

Speaker 1 (59:59):
Oh, that was my house , yeah, oh that was your house.
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (01:00:02):
Oh, very nice, that was your bed.

Speaker 1 (01:00:04):
Yeah, my parents fucking smoked like four packs a
day.
It was insane.

Speaker 3 (01:00:07):
Different time.
Different time 2004.
Yeah, I mean, you know, it wasa different time, 9-11.
People were stressed out.

Speaker 1 (01:00:22):
Stressful you you know the war going on.

Speaker 4 (01:00:23):
Uh, jay pinky smith, he was stabbed to death in 2002
by a homeless man he'dbefriended who was living behind
his house.
Oh, 2002, so this?

Speaker 1 (01:00:26):
is much later.
He was 87 years old, the guy.
The guy stole his car, dumpedhis body, uh, in the desert
outside of las vegas like he wasa friggin mob hit.

Speaker 4 (01:00:35):
Oh my god like 87, so this guy is in his 80s.
Yes, not the year 87.
It's 2002.
Yes, so he survives all thattime.
He's like man, I'm the oldestliving rascal.
Then he gets fucking stabbed.

Speaker 1 (01:00:48):
He felt bad for the homeless guy that was living
behind his house and he was likehey, man, come live with me,
Get your life together.

Speaker 3 (01:00:53):
Yeah, it was pretty nice and the guy went crazy and
killed him.
Yeah, we cover some storieslike that on OK Bud 2.
You just never, you can't.
The elderly are oftentimesvictimized.

Speaker 1 (01:01:03):
Yeah, this person was victimized Dorothy Dandridge.
She committed suicide in 1965after losing all of her money in
a phony investment scheme.
Oh no, Dorothy Dandridge.

Speaker 4 (01:01:14):
The Dorothy Dandridge .

Speaker 1 (01:01:15):
Dorothy Dandridge.
She was 41.

Speaker 4 (01:01:19):
What did she?

Speaker 1 (01:01:20):
have to do with the rascals.
She was one of the lesser knownRascals.

Speaker 4 (01:01:22):
But you know, there's the Dorothy Dandridge, where
Halle Berry played her in amovie the singer and actress.
She's a legend.

Speaker 1 (01:01:30):
Dorothy Dandridge.

Speaker 4 (01:01:32):
I didn't know that she may have been involved With
the Little Rascals or appearedin it.
Wow, there's a whole movieabout her with Halle Berry.
We'll have to watch that yeahwe'll have to find out.
No, wow, there's a whole movieabout her with Halle Berry.

Speaker 1 (01:01:43):
We'll have to watch that.
Yeah, we'll have to find out ifthat was the same one, but
that's the one I got here.

Speaker 4 (01:01:47):
Or maybe it's like the buckwheat thing, where
there's a fake one.
Yeah, could be.

Speaker 1 (01:01:52):
Then we have Kendall Breezy, brisbane McComas.
He committed suicide in 1981,two weeks before being forced
into retirement as an electricalengineer.

Speaker 3 (01:02:01):
Welcome back.

Speaker 1 (01:02:02):
Breezy, he was 64.

Speaker 4 (01:02:04):
Wow, oh man.
And then he didn't want toretire.

Speaker 1 (01:02:07):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (01:02:08):
Well, I guess he did want to retire, in a sense.

Speaker 1 (01:02:11):
He was going to feel useless.
Mm-hmm, oh, darwood, waldo, kay.
Waldo was the rich kid with theglasses who Right the kid in
the movie.
His donald trump is his dad yes,yes he competed with spanky and
alfalfa for dollars affection.
Right in 2002 he was struck andkilled by a hit and run driver
while walking on the sidewalk,coming home from church because

(01:02:33):
he became a seventh dayadventist pastor.
And uh yeah, some guy justfucking drove up on the sidewalk
and got away with it.
They never, never found him.
All right, he was 72.

Speaker 4 (01:02:42):
Did they find some ancient artifact on the set of
our gang that everybody?

Speaker 1 (01:02:48):
rubbed Serious the piss lamps.

Speaker 4 (01:02:50):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (01:02:51):
This is insane.
It's the revenge of the pisslights.

Speaker 1 (01:02:54):
Yeah, and this is a big fact None, not one.
There was 176 kids that playedthe Little Rascals over the
entire 22-year run.
Not one of them ever received aresidual or a royalty from
reruns or licensed products withtheir likenesses.

Speaker 3 (01:03:10):
Wow, that's horrible, there was even one kid.

Speaker 1 (01:03:13):
Who?
And Hal Roach?
This is why not everybody'stotally good.
He would get money fromParamount Studios or MGM for
$25,000 per kid, and then hewould get money from like
paramount studios or mgm forlike 25 000 per kid, and then he
would give them 50 a week oh myso it's like why are you paying
the producer?
Who's paying them?

Speaker 4 (01:03:29):
so he wasn't a good guy.
Yeah, it's you know.

Speaker 1 (01:03:31):
I bet he died happy and rich I will leave everybody
with this hal roach, whooutlived many of his child stars
and died in 1992 at the age of100.
And he also got an AcademyAward at 92.
Ooh, mama For what it was likean honorary.
Oh, okay, yeah, he neverbelieved the kids were cursed.
He said quote naturally somegot into trouble or had bad luck

(01:03:55):
.

Speaker 4 (01:03:55):
He's like that's how people die.

Speaker 1 (01:03:57):
They're the ones who made the headlines.
But if you took 176 other kidsand followed them through their
lives, I believe you would findthe same percentage of them
having trouble later in life.
Let us take that to.

Speaker 3 (01:04:12):
Final Thoughts Hollywood chews you up, spits
you out.
You can't base your self-worthon that industry and it's
unfortunate because in this timeframe, as Alejandro alluded to,
you can have a career forever.
Now you know when you're achild star, you can do the cons,
you can have your own Instapage and all that stuff.
There was no avenue for them,yeah.

(01:04:34):
So I'm sure that was prettydevastating.
And again, to see yourself onTV constantly and be dead broke
must be a mindfuck.
That's what it is.
And again, to see yourself onTV constantly and be dead broke
must be a mindfuck.

Speaker 1 (01:04:41):
That's what it is.
I think a lot of these troubleswould have been avoided had
they been afforded the luxury ofgetting some royalties on the
dolls that look exactly likethem the lunchboxes.

Speaker 3 (01:04:52):
The DVDs, the VHSs everything.

Speaker 1 (01:04:54):
That's a billion-dollar franchise that
they could have easily paid outon and the Comic-Cons now that
too.

Speaker 4 (01:05:02):
The cameos of it all.
Yeah, they would have been verypopular absolutely so.

Speaker 1 (01:05:05):
It's very sad, and uh rip to everybody who was lost
by the curse and, I guess, thealfalfa in the 94 version.

Speaker 4 (01:05:13):
This guy named bug hall yeah, he's a religious loon
now, oh, and he got kicked offof twitter a few years ago and
he believes in like corporalpunishment for his kids.
Oh god that the wife shouldjust bow down to him.
He has a big duck dynasty beard.
Yeah, that's about the worstcurse I could find for the new

(01:05:33):
one, wow oh my gosh besides that, it doesn't seem like any of
them really acted again asadults.

Speaker 1 (01:05:40):
No, no, it doesn't seem that way.

Speaker 4 (01:05:42):
Nope, definitely not.
Well, you know what Our gang?
They were funny.

Speaker 3 (01:05:47):
They were funny and they all died like gangs.

Speaker 4 (01:05:49):
They died like gang members.

Speaker 3 (01:05:51):
They were all shot and killed or died of drug
overdoses or alcohol House fires, house fires, smoking, I mean
they're little rascals.
I mean, they died the way theircharacters, much like Tony
Soprano and James Gandolfini,died, just like him.
They died as if theircharacters were real.

Speaker 4 (01:06:07):
Yeah, and I hate to say it, but if you took the
sound out of all their deathsand added sound effects and made
it black and white and sped itup a little, it'd be kind of
funny.

Speaker 3 (01:06:23):
It's funny, the clock .
Yeah, exactly, the glass clock.
What time is it?

Speaker 4 (01:06:30):
And then you got the fake buckwheat.

Speaker 3 (01:06:31):
I mean, this is sort of that fake buckwheat's pretty
fantastic.

Speaker 1 (01:06:35):
Yeah, sort of humorous.
That guy would not back down hesounded very educated.

Speaker 3 (01:06:40):
It's full of fake buckwheat.
He's like yes, yes, I don'twant to interfere with the
supermarket, I don't want to letanyone know I'm actually
buckwheat and also well-trainedin sticking to the story.

Speaker 4 (01:06:50):
Yeah, never deny it.

Speaker 1 (01:06:52):
Borderline sociopathic.

Speaker 3 (01:06:53):
Sure, but they loved him at that Smitty's grocery
store, and I am just upset thatthey, back in the day, they used
to have grocers who wouldactually put your groceries in a
bag.
Now you're going to do ityourself.

Speaker 4 (01:07:05):
These days you go to Ralph's the self-checkout.
They don't even want to giveyou a bag.

Speaker 1 (01:07:09):
Yeah, they don't even say oh tay, Nothing Very good.

Speaker 4 (01:07:13):
Yes, RIP little r everybody?
You've got mail, yay, oh mygoodness, and it's not being
delivered by hell roach, no.

Speaker 3 (01:07:27):
Or froggy, thank god, poor froggy yeah, that's pretty
yeah, you know, he died doingwhat he had to, not what he
loved yes, on our latest episode, hollywood urban legends,
volume three uh doug runkle ohrunkle oh good, old runkle.

Speaker 1 (01:07:42):
He said another great show found you guys because of
ben.
Now I'm working my way throughyour whole library.
You guys rock rock and roll uh,we also have been corrected
numerous times.
Uh, the heaven's gate comet washail bop, not haley's comet,
like we said on the showwhatever it's the same shit
figure it the fuck out.

Speaker 4 (01:07:58):
Mark twain was born and died during hayley's comet
yes and we thought it was thesame one where the yeah, exactly
, might as well be.

Speaker 1 (01:08:07):
It's a comet yes, the hayley joel osment comet oh,
it's a very anti-semitic well,he was drunk.

Speaker 3 (01:08:14):
Wait, who hayley joel ?

Speaker 4 (01:08:15):
he's anti-semitic he got arrested.
I don't know the latest stuff,you can't just bring that up.
Oh, fill you in.

Speaker 1 (01:08:24):
Oh, him says fucking great episode.
Love you guys.
Y'all get me through my day.

Speaker 3 (01:08:28):
Nice.

Speaker 1 (01:08:28):
And where's the bear said.
Nice change of pace, guys.
There used to be a websitecalled paulisdeadcom.
It went into things likedifference in height, facial
structure, eyes, eyes andearlobes not being the same, etc
.
Even compared voice patterns.
All of it would make you abeliever in the fact that Paul
McCartney was replaced.

Speaker 4 (01:08:45):
All right, sure, why not?
All right?
We're going to check that outthen, because I'm 50-50.

Speaker 1 (01:08:51):
It's got to be on the Wayback Machine.
We can see some of those Figureit out.

Speaker 4 (01:08:54):
Remember that song Paul McCartney did speaking in
9-11?
Freedom.
Probably McCartney did speakingof 9-11,.
The freedom, oh I do rememberthat that's not Paul McCartney.

Speaker 1 (01:09:04):
I hope not.
That's Billy Shears.
Okay, I hope not.
So he was in the towers.
Yeah, they replaced thereplacement.

Speaker 4 (01:09:11):
Oh, I see what you're saying Double replacement.
Because, that's even worse thanthe other solo music from the
80s.
Wow, so they keep having toreplace the replacement.

Speaker 3 (01:09:21):
Jeez, vietnam gave us really great music.

Speaker 4 (01:09:24):
Yes.

Speaker 3 (01:09:24):
Sure, that was the only good thing about that war.

Speaker 4 (01:09:27):
Those were the days.
Yeah, and Oliver Stone moviesyeah, that's true.

Speaker 3 (01:09:31):
All right everyone.
Thank you so much for listeningAgain.
Check out OK Bud as well.
And Patreon patreoncom slashdiebud.

Speaker 2 (01:09:38):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (01:09:38):
OK, so Patreon, patreoncom slash diebutt.
Yeah, okay.
Thank you all so much for yoursupport.
I hope you enjoyed the episode,made you laugh and think a
little bit.
Hail yourself.

Speaker 4 (01:09:43):
And until next week, don't go dying on us.

Speaker 2 (01:09:45):
Bye, bye-bye you have just heard.

Speaker 1 (01:09:49):
A true Hollywood murder mystery.
I have never seen anything likethis before.

Speaker 2 (01:09:55):
The movies, Broadway, music, television, all of it.

Speaker 1 (01:09:58):
A place that manufactures nightmares.

Speaker 3 (01:10:01):
Okay everybody.

Speaker 2 (01:10:02):
That's a wrap.

Speaker 3 (01:10:03):
Good night.
Please drive home carefully andcome back again soon.

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From Cute to Cursed: How the Little Rascals Met Their Untimely Demise (Episode 162)

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