SPANKY & SCOTTY OUR GANG THE LITTLE RASCALS 10x8" HAND COLOR TINTED PHOTOGRAPH

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Up for auction is an awesome 10 x 8" full color photograph print of a vintage image featuring, George McFarland "Spanky" & Scotty Hastings "Scotty" Beckett from the 1920s & 30s films & television series, The Little Rascals, Our Gang This is a high-resolution (320 dpi/ 3,200 x 2,240 pixel) 10" x 7" vintage image, hand oil tinted and photo processed onto Fuji Film Archival Photo Paper. Fuji Film Archival Photo Paper is the highest quality paper and photo processing available. Fuji guarantees it not to fade for up to 70 years! George McFarland "Spanky" & Scotty Beckett, The Little Rascals "Our Gang George Robert Phillips "Spanky" McFarland (October 2, 1928 – June 30, 1993) was an American actor most famous for his appearances in the Our Gang series of short-subject comedies of the 1930s and 1940s. The Our Gang shorts were later popular after being syndicated to television as "The Little Rascals".Early yearsMcFarland was born in Dallas, Texas, at Methodist Hospital in 1928 to Robert Emmett and Virginia McFarland. He had three siblings, Thomas ("Tommy," who himself appeared in a few Our Gang episodes as "Dynamite"), Amanda, and Roderick ("Rod").Prior to joining the Our Gang comedies, Buddy, as he was called by his family, modeled children's clothing for a Dallas department store and also was seen around the Dallas area on highway billboards and in print advertisements for Wonder Bread. This established "Buddy" early on in the local public's eye as an adorable child model and provided experience before cameras.Our GangIn January 1931, in response to a trade magazine advertisement from Hal Roach Studios in Culver City, California, requesting photographs of "cute kids," Spanky's Aunt Dottie (Virginia's sister) sent pictures from Buddy's portfolio. An invitation for a screen test soon arrived, which happened that spring, leading to his acting career. Portions of Spanky's screen test are included in a 1932 Our Gang entry, aptly entitled Spanky.McFarland's nickname "Spanky" is erroneously said to have arisen from warnings by his mother not to misbehave during one of the initial discussions with Hal Roach in his office. As the story goes, he had a habit of reaching out and grabbing things, and on doing so his mother Virginia would say, "Spanky, spanky, mustn't touch!" While this story has considerable folksy appeal, Spanky himself refuted the tale, saying that the name was given by a Los Angeles newspaper reporter. Use of the "Spanky" name by McFarland for subsequent business or personal activities was expressly granted to McFarland in one of his studio contracts. In later years some in his family would affectionately refer to him as "Spank."After his discovery at the age of three, he instantly became a key member of the Our Gang children's comedy movie series and one of Hollywood's stars. His earliest films show him as an outspoken toddler, grumpily going along with the rest of the gang. His scene-stealing abilities brought him more attention, and by 1935 he was the de facto leader of the gang, often paired with Carl "Alfalfa" Switzer, and always the enterprising "idea man." Switzer's character became as much of a scene stealer as the young McFarland was, and the two boys' fathers fought constantly over screen time and star billing for their children.Spanky McFarland's only starring feature-film vehicle was the 1936 Hal Roach film General Spanky, an unsuccessful attempt to move the Our Gang series into features. He also appeared as a juvenile performer in many non-Roach feature films, including the Wheeler & Woolsey comedy Kentucky Kernels and two Fritz Lang features of the 1940s.Following the 1938 Our Gang short Came the Brawn, McFarland "retired" from Our Gang, beginning a personal appearance tour. In mid-1938, Hal Roach sold the Our Gang unit to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, who began casting for a new "team leader" character in Spanky's vein and ended up rehiring McFarland himself. He remained in the MGM Our Gang productions until his final appearance in the series, Unexpected Rich... read more

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