Playin' Hookey

Mrs. Pennington Van Renssalaer, a publicity-minded society matron, sponsors a children's outing, much to her and her chauffeur's eventual regret.

The gang forms a fire department; they end up thwarting a bootlegger, but not before their pet animals get drunk on his moonshine.

An unethical merchant moves into town and steals customers from the widowed owner of an established store; the gang steps in to help.

The Mystic J.J.J.'s challenge Ernie's bravery; he spins a tale of saving a rich young girl from kidnappers and of creating a utopia called Freetown.

The Rascals, feeling unloved at home, decide to become pirates. Meanwhile, a mother, an aunt and a valet join the cops in searching for the runaways.

The gang mistakenly believes a police patrol is after them for beating up a cop's boy; they wind up encountering the police's real quarry: Red Mike.

Mickey and Jackie feud over Mary, so Sammy schedules a championship bout between the two rivals.

A cobbler receives his back pension and invites the gang to celebrate with a picnic, but his car stalls along the way.

The gang creates its own makeshift county fair, highlighted by a "movie," which is really a clever stage performance.

Ernie and Farina anger the police force with their shoeshine scheme. Later, the gang switches places with some runaways about to board a train.

A kindly old schoolteacher helps the gang escape from a cruel boarding school, but they wind up in a bootlegger's booby-trapped house.

The gang, after a premature end to their baseball game, find themselves quarantined in an elegant home, which they proceed to destroy.

The gang operates a donkey-propelled tour bus. Later, a cut-rate vaudeville producer hires them to help out with his show, which they wreck.

The gang wages war using old vegetables as munitions. Later, they ruin a movie in progress when they double-expose the film.

This one has to be seen to be believed. Apparently the gang has witnessed a Ku Klux Klan meeting. They decide to form their own lodge. They call themselves the Cluck Cluck Clams. There is nothing racist about their lodge, which includes member Sunshine Sammy Morrison. The film ends with a chase. The gang gets tangled up with bank robbers. Sunshine Sammy gets his uncle and his pals to chase the bank robbers with the gang riding along.

The gang is trying just about anything to pass the time during their summer vacation. As usual, Mickey and Jack are trying to win the affections of Mary. In the interim, the village blacksmith, "Dad" Anderson, receives a lucrative contract to produce a creation of his: a sail-propelled scooter. The gang is lucky enough to get a hold of a few of these scooters, and happily sail down the city streets.

Entertaining Our Gang comedy has poor Mickey in the hospital being fed castor oil when his friends stop by to pay him a visit. As you'd expect, the kids start making all sorts of noise so the doctors decide to teach them a lesson by scaring them.

Author Fawn Ochletree stages a charity performance of her latest play, a Romanesque epic. The gang and other neighborhood kids are forced into starring in the play, much to the chagrin of the gang. They are completely unable to remember their lines, and struggle with maintaing their composure during the more serious moments of the melodrama. Finally, Jackie sets off a slew of firecrackers as the finale, scaring all involved.

After the gang goes to the horse races, they decide to have a derby of their own.

The kids gets taken on a Sunday picnic in this early three-reeler and after the first ten minutes, manage to elude the adults in this typically charming effort from Our Gang.

This Hal Roach comedy short, Tire Trouble, is the twenty-second entry in the "Our Gang/Little Rascals" series. In this one, Mickey drives his own makeshift car with Mary, Joe, and Jackie in tow. Among the unusual gadgets: a boxing glove attached to the outside front that knocks out any passersby! When they stop where Sunshine Sammy and Farina are standing, Sammy gets punched by that glove twice and also gets hit by the front grille that moves! He's making a delivery to a rich man named J. William McAllister. This man believes he's very sick because of what his doctor and wife says but after the gang come in uninvited, they look at him and think otherwise.

In this short the kids are managing their own barber shop, with harrowing results. No one gets hurt, but most of the customers wind up bald or close to it: one kid even gets a prematurely fashionable Mohawk! Scenes involving close calls with sharp scissors might make some viewers wince, while the manicurist uses a device that looks like a wire-cutter.

This Our Gang short has the group playing pirates and building a ship to sail in. Once the ship hits water it sinks but they end up on another boat when the dog unties the rope and the kids head off to sea where they must be rescued by the Navy.

At the start we learn that Farina is suffering nightmares each time he eats meat. His mom tells him to stay away from the stuff but he loves it so much he sneaks out of the house and ends up eating several chickens. That night she puts him to bed and sure enough he begins to have nightmares that the other kids are chasing him. Basing a kids comedy around one kid having nightmares and being stalked by other kids might seem rather bizarre but this was 1924 we're talking about.

Centering around the closing days of the school year, this is a view into the life of a one-room schoolhouse. This type of learning institution has long vanished from the landscape being continued in Amish communities and such. We get kid-centric amusement as various skills of music are performed by youngsters who were probably coaxed by parents to take up the instruments used.

The boys cannot go fishing because they have to take care of their baby brothers and sisters. After trying unsuccessfully to sell their babies to some traveling gypsies, Mary shows up and tells them that her little sister just won a prize at the baby show.

A young boy, determined to make money enough to buy his mother a birthday present, finds a variety of odd jobs and finally starts up a makeshift circus.

The kids pretend to be hunting a variety of animals when they're invited to a farm where they try to capture real game. This gets boring after a while so they decide to try and track a bear. Soon the bear is stalking them!

Mickey is a poor boy who lives with his Uncle Pat. While they're broke, they're also very happy. Since Pat hasn't legally adopted Mickey, Aunt Kate gains custody and takes him to her mansion.

The gang creates their own railroad after being chased from a local railyard, and competes with Toughie.

This Our Gang short has the group running an athletic club where Joe is put through a couple fights. They also appear to be running a wireless shoe-shining gig where they get customers by splashing paint on their shoes.

Fast Company is the sixteenth short in the "Our Gang/Little Rascals" series created by Hal Roach. Many of the boys here want to go swimming but Mickey has to make a delivery. On the way, he encounters a rich boy waiting at a station for his mom and as they get to talking they trade places since Mickey has never seen the inside of a hotel and the rich kid just wants to play. When the rich kid returns to the gang with the goat-pulling wagon, however, they resolve to go where Mickey is which is where the fun really begins...

Mickey Daniels doing an impersonation of Sherlock Holmes and Joe Cobb being Watson as the two try to discover the whereabouts of a young rich kids who has gone missing. While trying to find the kid the gang must also try and avoid a dumb detective also working the case.

The gang play inside a railroad box car which suddenly closes, trapping them inside. The next morning they find themselves in New York City. After seeing some of the sites on foot, they steal a 5th Avenue Bus, and are caught by the police.

The circus is in town and for one day only. By pretending to be sick some of the gang members were able to play hooky from school so as to attend the festivities.

The boys are showing off their dogs to each other when little rich girl Mary Kornman rides by in her pony-drawn cart. When the pony shies and runs away, Mickey comes to the rescue with his dog. In gratitude, Mary invites all the boys and their dogs to her party, much to the chagrin of her wealthy mother.

Farina, Joe and Mickey are all struck by the love bug. After several problems, they go to the beauty salon, where Pineapple works and proceed to make shambles of it. The police arrive and arrest them, but Grandma comes to their rescue.

Many of the "Our Gang" kids are in their secret clubhouse - so secret that some wannabe members have troubles trying to find the tunnel entrance - planning their next game, which will be a Wild West shootout. They run into some obstacles in playing the game, including objections from parents, and as such they decide to postpone it until the wee hours of the next morning and play it in the streets of the neighborhood. As it begins to rain during the middle of their shootout that morning, they decide to take refuge in a neighborhood house. What they are unaware of is that the house belongs to inventor W.R. Jones, who rigged it to be a "magnetic house", a demonstration for a possible amusement park attraction. Not knowing about the house's rigged contraptions leads to a lot of misadventures for the gang not related to shooting Indians as they try to figure out what's happening around them.

Mickey's mother makes him dance and won't let him fight. Only his grandma understands what it's like to be a boy. When Mickey gets into a fight, his grandma must cover for him.

The kids in the tenements have no place to play except in streets where traffic is a hazard. Mickey gets the idea of building barricades to give our gang space to play at an intersection, but a beat cop, the nasty "Hard-Boiled" McManus, puts a quick end to that. A sympathetic constable and a detective who has kids of his own give our gang a chance to help law enforcement. The little rascals wear uniforms and keep an eye on things: Joe, for instance, eyes the bananas at Tony's fruit stand. When the now-fired McManus returns and seeks revenge, the junior police force and their adult colleagues are put to the test.

Adults have the Pike and Coney Island amusement parks, so the rascals put up their own rides in a large vacant lot. Mickey's got big plans for expansion when surveyors show up to begin work on a factory. The gang travels by donkey cart to the office of Henry Mills, President of Pan American Export Company, to protest. Henry, in his 60s, is still a boy at heart: he has his chauffeur stop the car so he can join a sandlot game. He bails on a meeting with his board of directors, going with the kids to the factory site where he stops the workers and helps our gang add more rides. The directors follow him, and they get put to work. Will they ever have their meeting?

A couple makes dolls modeled on neighborhood kids. A gardener at a mansion buys four of them for Mary, the girl of the house. He's her only friend: her parents neglect her for work and card games and her governess is humorless. Mary loves the dolls and dreams of them during her nap. While Mary sleeps, the governess throws the dolls in the dust bin. Mary wakes and goes searching - outside she runs into the very same four kids who were the dolls' models, and she thinks she's still dreaming...

Your Own Back Yard is a 1925 American short silent comedy film directed by Robert F. McGowan. It was the 43rd Our Gang short subject released. Farina is having a very bad day, especially by his friends-very cruel playing nasty tricks, etc. Heeding his mother's advice to stay "in your own back yard," he does just that, feeding jumping beans to his chickens.

The gang decided to go into the movie-making business, using all kinds of sets and props. There were problems as those not involved are trying to ruin their business by playing pranks and even insisting the police to close them down.

The gang has a taxi, consisting of an old Model T with no engine, pushed by a horse. When the owner takes his horse back, they must rely on motorists to tow them to the top of the hill so they can coast down. Little Farina borrows the car and it runs out of control all over town, causing mayhem everywhere it goes.

On Christmas Eve, the Gang copes with hardships, helps capture a gang of thieves, and learns that Santa Claus really exists for those who wish fervently enough.

The Rascals take their homemade boat on a search for treasure and crash a movie set.

An abused chimpanzee escapes from a zoo. On the run, he meets Farina, running away from home and his battling parents. The two become friends and inspire the rest of the gang to put on a show to make money from neighborhood kids. But the chimp has his own idea and runs off creating havoc all over town until chased down by the local cops.

Mr. and Mrs. Weedle are desperate to find two babies, for their rich uncle has sent them money for years thinking they have children. Now that he’s coming into town, the couple must find a pair of babies as soon as possible. The Our Gang kids are ready for the job, but a 27-year old midget is also in the running for the job and he doesn’t play fairly.

The Gang stages their own revisionist version of "Uncle Tom's Cabin" in Mickey's barn. But Joe's mother thinks the back yard needs cleaning, and there are several interruptions when they lose a leading character. Mickey plays Simon Legree; Mary as Eva; Joe as Uncle Tom; and Farina essays the role of Topsy.

The kids from Our Gang have to attend a wedding, and they bring along their flea collection--which gets loose.

The kids are playing baseball when a man dressed in Middle-Eastern clothing comes out and tells them to be quiet. They join Mary, Farina, and Scooter in the gang's hide-out while Mary is reading ghost stories. While on the other side of the wall, the Arab-looking man is cheating people out of their money by staging a fake séance using state-of-the-art special effects. The cave entrance for the gang's hide-out collapses, so they light candles and dig into the wall, entering into the house. The "suckers" find out they are being cheated and run to get the cops to book the guys. The guys find out that the kids are in the house, and one dresses up in a ghost costume and chases the kids throughout the house.

The rascals once again, now as a plumbers.

While on a cross-country train trip, the Our Gang kids drive the rest of the passengers crazy with a never-ending game of cowboys and Indians. During a stopover in the sleepy town of Red Dog, the kids disembark in hopes of savoring a taste of genuine Western life. They get more than they bargained for when a trio of bandits rides into town for a showdown with the local sherff.

Farina and Joe fib to the gang that they've beaten up the neighborhood bully. Later, they hear he's been murdered and think they'll get the blame.

Habitually mistreated at the deceptively named Happyland Home Orphanage, the Our Gang kids find a loyal and kindhearted friend in the form of a black grownup named Uncle Tom. Alas, Tom's own children -- including real-life siblings Allen "Farina" Hoskins and Jannie "Mango" Hoskins -- are carted off to Happyland by the cold-hearted county officials. Farina, Mango, and the other kids escape the cruel orphanage in the dead of night, while Uncle Tom, preparing for their return, "borrows" food, clothes, and furnishings from various merchants.

In this Our Gang film, James Finlayson plays the gang's schoolteacher who takes the kids to Europe after winning a local contest. He takes them on a tour of Naples, Pompeii, Rome, the Vatican, Venice, London, and finally Paris, where problems arise on top of the Eiffel Tower.

Ten Years Old is a 1927 American short silent comedy film directed by Robert A. McGowan. It was the 58th Our Gang short subject released. It was remade as Birthday Blues in 1932. Nobody comes to Joe's birthday party so he goes to the rich kid's party with his own special cake.

Farina Hoskins discovers a stray dog. Joe Cobb suggests that he and Farina take the dog to the gang's dog show. In the middle of the show, the dogcatchers crack down on picking up all unlicensed strays to control a hydrophobia epidemic; the injection to control the disease costs five dollars.

Tired Business Men is a 1927 American short silent comedy film directed by Robert A. McGowan. It was the 60th Our Gang short subject released.

Joe Cobb is a wealthy child who longs for a baby brother. His nursemaid takes him to the other side where he meets some kids his age (the rest of Our Gang) where Joe offers three dollars for a baby. Farina finds a fellow African-American neighbor woman who lets him mind her infant which he then paints white and sells to Joe. The rest of the gang has set an assembly-line system that washes, dries, rocks, and feeds male and female babies.

It's the Fourth of July and the mother of Our Gang member Joe Cobb is doing a brisk business at her fireworks stand. Briefly left in charge of the stand, Joe does his best not to blow up himself or his friends, but a poorly-aimed skyrocket owned by Allen "Farina" Hoskins triggers a somewhat premature but undeniably spectacular display of pyrotechnics.

While the world watches the Olympic Games in Stockholm, the Rascals gather at the flats for their own games. Whether it's the shot put, the hurdles, the pole vault, or the high jump, not much goes right. There's a deep mud hole that catches several of the kids, and someone out there keeps giving them the razzberry. It's young Wheezer hiding out of sight with his dog Punch, but the kids think it's another boy, so every time they hear the Bronx cheer, they chase the innocent lad and give him a thumping.

Chicken Feed is a 1927 American short silent comedy film directed by Robert A. McGowan. It was the 66th Our Gang short subject released. The kids go to a magic show and decides to try a little magic of their own.

Farina's mother is very ill and the mortgage is due. He tries to take over her laundry business, but the kids just wreck the clothes. Joe takes pity and devises a scheme to make money: the gang builds their own oil well.

A hypnotist comes to town and puts the gang in animal-like trances. Now that the spell is off, the gang returns back to their usual roles. But then while at an afternoon tea social , the spell returned, ruining a perfectly good afternoon.

Mickey's mom is about to give birth, but he gets worried when he reads that every fourth child born is Chinese. Spanky and the gang then visit a Chinese friend and learn that kids are kids, no matter where they are from.

As a joke, several members of the gang convince Farina, who is "brave but superstitious", that he's caused the demise of a young acquaintance and must therefore lay the body (actually still very alive) to rest in the old burying ground, under the watchful eye of "the graveyard witch". The joke backfires spectacularly on the pranksters.

On Mickey's birthday, Miss Pipps, the school teacher, serves cake and ice cream during school hours. Sour old Mr. Pratt, head of the school board, stumbles on the festivities and has Miss Pipps fired. The Our Gang conspire to save her job by inviting all the parents to a special meeting. There the gang stage a melodrama, with Mr. Pratt portrayed as Simon Legree. The parents react by demoting Mr. Pratt to janitor. They appoint kindly Mr. Swanson, the current janitor, to head the school board. And of course they reinstate Miss Pipps as school teacher. Sometime later, in an act of forgiveness, Miss Pipps and the gang hold a birthday party for Pratt who is then humbled by the experience.

Farina and Joe fib to the gang that they've beaten up the neighborhood bully. Later, they hear he's been murdered and think they'll get the blame.

Alfalfa and the gang decide to turn to a life of crime, but Spanky tries to trick them with a fake burglary.

An abandoned old show boat is moored in a lazy creek. The Our Gang put the old vessel back to use when they stage a show featuring "Darla's Dancin' Dandies" and a "meller dramer" entitled "Out in the Snow You Go." All is not smooth sailing however, as Butch seeks revenge for having been excluded from the cast.

Mary Ann is becoming a serious problem to the other gang members and Joe was given the job of training and controlling her behavior.

Farina's mother is very ill and the mortgage is due. He tries to take over her laundry business, but the kids just wreck the clothes. Joe takes pity and devises a scheme to make money: the gang builds their own oil well.

The Boys Scouts give a demonstration of their camping skills, but Our Gang are excluded from participating because they are not yet old enough. Undeterred, the kids head off on their own unsupervised camping adventure, with comically disastrous results.

Little Mother is a 1929 Our Gang short silent comedy film directed by Robert F. McGowan. Produced by Hal Roach and released to theaters by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, Little Mother was the 87th Our Gang short to be released. A silent film, it followed Our Gang's first sound film, Small Talk, on the release schedule.

Alfalfa "trades in" his whining baby brother for another baby--who turns out to be a midget criminal.

Our Gang member Janet Burston believes that her family is neglecting her, so she decides to run away from home. The other gang members try to help Janet get adopted (or "adapted") by a more agreeable family, choosing a kindly elderly couple (Sarah Padden and Harry C. Bradley) for the honor.

Farina, Joe, and friends use dogs to power their "roadsters," but following a lesson from the head of the Be Kind to Animals Society, they make it their cause to rescue animals from bad treatment. Joe even manages to find patience for a nagging flea that persists in biting him. Meanwhile, Wheezer, who has been tormenting animals with his games, dreams that the animals have turned the tables on him.

Jackie throws his schoolbook out the window in disgust, but then climbs outside to retrieve it. Finding himself locked out, he tries various means of getting back inside without his parents finding out. When his parents mistake his noises for a burglar, a local policeman is called, but he seems incompetent to catch either the phony burglar or the real one who has shown up in the meantime

While the Our Gang kids are enjoying the local swimming hole, a rival group ties all their clothes in knots. Our Gang challenges the meanies, and the two sides have a military-style battle using fruits and vegetables for ammunition.