MovieChat Forums > Beginner's Luck (1935) Discussion > Some new Information

Some new Information

posted 13 years ago by doug78595
6 replies | jump to latest

A little over a week ago someone came to me with a simple question and it turned out to be a great one that no one has thought of that I know at least.The guy said he was looking over the Leonard Maltin book on the rascals and saw that the BL section had two pictures from the short, they looked closer and saw that these photos were not actually in the short but were staged publicity shots.I realized I never took any consideration of these photos.So I knew there were at least 2 staged publicity photos.
1. The MC,Spanky,Mom and Grandma from the scene where the MC asks is Barrymore ready yet.

2. The shot of Spanky on the stage floor looking up in complete surprise at his mother.This is s full body shot not the one from the film.

From this point I went to all the guys I know and asked them if they knew of any other of these staged publicity photos comming from BL.They quickly came up with 6 more.

3.Side of stage curtain a shot of Spanky (IN ARMOR)and Alfalfa both smiling at the camera.

4.A shot of Spanky (in armor) and Daisey from the stage wings

5.Mother,Granny and Spanky in the early living room scene ,Spanky standing on the side of big chair ,granny sitting and Spanky's mom sitting on the arm of the chair looking forward with her hands on her knees.

6. The gang comming to tell Spanky of the plot to foil his act.

7.After Spanky tells the girl the dress is in the bag there is a shot of Spanky and his mom on the side of the stage ,mother bending down to talk to Spanky.

8.Mom talking to the gang.

anyone who has ever seen BL a few times will quickly see that these photos are not from the short but slightly different.

As far as we know these are all that exist.But we have no idea there could easily be another 50-75 photos .If anyone knows of others please come and tell us.

[–] worldchampion165 13 years ago

Good detective work, Doug. Other than the Leonard Maltin biography, where did you find all of the BL publicity stock photos?

[–] doug78595 13 years ago

When a person saw the difference they asked me about it and I looked and was I surprised.I spoke to all the people that really were experts in BL.Most of these photos were either in books, magazines ,or prurchased on EBAY.But no one knows how many more are there.

[–] steveb789 13 years ago

I'm shocked Doug that you didn't know about the staged studio pics!All the ones you mentioned i've seen.I think there are some others but i'm not sure.'ve been told by a few guys there's a shot of the stage wings as the curtain raises,with granny pulling down on the ropes and laughing and the MC right next to her with his eyes popping out of his head and a laughing mother of a performer and Daisey and her mom.Another is close to #5 but it's right after Spanky says "A moustache" but not the same.There is another shot of the mom with the gang but this one all the kids are smiling and looking away from the stage and directly at the camera,Spanky's mom is smiling too leaning on the seat infront of the kids.What's interesting is she is standing on one foot as you can see her shoe in the air at the bottomof her coat.

[–] doug78595 13 years ago

Hey Steve

I've heard about these as well.There are also others maybe 4 ,Spanky,Alfalfa,Harold Mom and the MC with the cowboys frpm the drugstore

another is MC,Mom and Granny in stage wings watching the act

others are the stage prop in plce but they have different fronts not the dog/lion---when I heard of this I remembered one poster swearing he remembers her with an oestrich body and maybe this is what he saw somewhere,as they say one is an oestriech.

To be honest I think i saw the one ypu mentioned with the people watching on the side of the stage-Granny on the ropes ,MC looking on the mother you mention is the harmonica's player's and he is staning infront looking out on stage.Daisey and her mom are there too.What struck me about it that Daisey and her mom are both smiling looking out at Spanky's mother who got them that dress.

To be honest I can't remmember if I really did see that or not but many people spoke about it and these things are just like the rumors and stuff and can be untrue.So I can't be sure untill I see these to confirm it.

[–] onestooges 13 years ago

Well Doug ----How the mighty have fallen----

I'm surprised too that you run into this stuff in all your research.The first group I think i've seen most of those but I didn't see any of others anyone mentioned.There was a video cassette I saw maybe 20 yrs ago telling the Rascals story and showing clips of some of the episodes.For several minutes your on the BL set,no actors at all and no stage prop can be seen but you can clearly see the area where most of BL took place the stage wings.Just checking if you are aware of this.

[–] doug78595 13 years ago

Hi Stooges

Now I'm surprised that I didn't see this stuff yrs ago.You would think it would only make sense.But better late than never I guess.

The film your talking about is called "the our gang story" it had to have been filmed around the time of the BL shoot as everything looks exactly like it does in BL.