- The gang puts on a show, everything goes well, except they're missing an act.
- OUR GANG FOLLIES OF 1936 by Spankysmom
MOOD: Whimsical
The kids are putting on a show. Before the performance, Master of Ceremonies Spanky dressed in a kind of drum major outfit merges from a basement bulk-head door & addresses a group of potential customers who have gathered in the club-house. Spanky wants to generate some extra business by providing some previews outside the main "auditorium" of the type of acts the kids can hope to find inside if they buy a ticket. He sings a ditty of musical lyrics, backed by music that will also be used for nice effect during subsequent portions of the main show:
Step up kids, if you wanna know About the swell stuff in this show There's singin', dancin', and hotcha too It's only a penny, it won't break you!
A skeptical Jerry Tucker then sings back "How do I know it's worth the dough?", and Spanky introduces the first preview, a tap-dancing duo of somewhat older boys dressed in bellhop uniforms. Then on the opposite side of the makeshift stage, an intense-looking Alfalfa sings an excerpt from "She'll be Coming Round the Mountain" The shot again bounces to the other side of the stage: three small girls with leis and grass skirts dancing to a Hawaiian guitar version of "Honolulu Baby". These previews are apparently sufficient for the once-skeptical crowd and they indicate their approval.
The scene shifts to the basement where the kids are jockeying for the best seats. Some amusing vignettes take place during this sequence, including a kid sitting on the very edge of a bench, tipping it up and sending its other occupants (including Alfalfa's brother Harold) tumbling to the ground. Other similar sight gags are shown.
Eventually the first act appears, a Busby Berkely-like lineup of small girls the smallest of which, on the right-hand side of the line, seems barely able to stand & greets the audience with a chorus of:
"Hello, hello, hello, Hello, hello, hello, We hope you like our show, Hello, hello, hello."
They then do a hilarious, fragmented high-step act, almost totally out of synch with each other. The afore mentioned smallest of the girls seems totally distracted by something going on off-stage.
Next comes "How Ya Gonna Keep Him Down on the Farm", performed by a real-life performing trio called the Bryan Sisters, freckle-faced girls who are clad in farm girl dresses and Harold Lloyd glasses. During this number, Buckwheat is chased around the stage by the ornery monkey,Elmer (in a gag that runs throughout the film); the imperturbable Bryan Sisters keep right on singing their enjoyable tune.
This brings on the next act, an elfin Darla dressed in a cigarette girl outfit (this episode marks her debut with Little Rascals). Darla skips out onto the stage and does an unforgettable version of "I'll Never Say 'Never Again' Again", to the delight of her male admirers in the audience, especially the smitten Jerry Tucker and Leonard ("I'm Not Woim") Kibrick. By the way, later in the episode Darla is addressed by Spanky as "Cookie", the short-lived moniker that Hal Roach initially chose for the adorable four-year girl, with a musical voice.
After Darla's song the "Flory Dory Girl Sixtet" is now due to go on but they are nowhere in sight. So Darla comes out & anounces: "Sorry kids but we have to make a change." & she moves the Flory Dory Girls back one and that puts the Spooky Dance next, (one scene sooner than planned) with the kids (Spanky, Alfalfa, et al) dressed in skeleton outfits against a blackened cemetery backdrop. During this number we see various well-done shots of petrified audience members reacting to the routine. As the act concludes, Spanky is told by Cookie, that the Flory Dory girls still haven't arrived, leading him to order Alfalfa to sing what he "has to sing now". He comes out and tells the kids "Something happened and we have to do something about it!" and moves the Flory Dory Girl act back yet again.
After we receive an update in the monkey versus Buckwheat saga, the curtain opens to reveal a Sunday-school outfitted Alfalfa paired with Joy Wurgaft, who sings the first few bars of "Object of My Affection": According to definition, Affection is a thing That seems to take you from the start And complexion is a thing, If affection is to blame Will act just like a mirror to your heart...
At which point Alfalfa joins in with his classic performance of the rest of "The Object of My Affection". Right away, little Darla struts out and sits herself next to (& winks her eyes, to him) Alfalfa, who then starts directing his song to Darla, much to the consternation of Joy. During the song, we see several priceless shots of Darla looking up adoringly at Alfalfa, giving him goo-goo eyes and literally squirming with admiration. As the number ends, Alfalfa and Darla join hands just as the curtain closes. A relieved Alfalfa returns backstage, joining Scotty and Spanky, and says that he's glad that's over with. As he says this line, he loses grip of his hat and it falls to the ground.
Meanwhile, a crisis is brewing: The Flory Dories still are nowhere to be seen and they are now the last act and up next! The audience is getting antsy, and start up a spirited chant, (almost rioting) of "We want the Flory Dories!". Harold Switzer and Jerry Tucker are two of the instigators that started up the chant. Spanky tells Scotty and the other boys backstage not to worry, he knows the dance the Flory Dories were scheduled to perform. His idea is for them all to dress up in the Dories' dresses elaborate, Gay-90's fringed affairs topped off by large hats and follow Spanky's lead once they get onstage. "Do exactly I do", Spanky coaches his skeptical co-horts.
But there is a problem: Elmer, the monkey that has been harassing Buckwheat all through the episode is chased across the stage and climbs into the back of Spanky's flouncy bustle skirt that is on the floor while Spanky was putting on the blouse. Spanky now dressed is walking by Scottie's dressing room and Scotty pops his head out and tells Spanky "Your going to ruin the show, none of us know this dance!" Spanky then re-assures them by telling him "I told you there's nothing to worry about. I know the dance so all you have to do is watch me and do EXACTLY what I do." Scotty says "I hope your right!" In the wings the dancer's are gathered ready to go on. One of the boys tells the other "Now remember do everything that Spanky does!" The monkey is seen sticking his head out of Spanky's bustle dress and ducks back in grabbing a straight pin and and settling it against the corset covering Spankys hinny.
As the boys start their dance as Spanky takes the first few steps of the dance on the stage the monkey wastes no time in sticking Spanky in his hinney with the needle or pin, causing him to twitch and gyrate in pain. This happens to Spanky a few times, each time Spanky is seen barely holding in the ouch of being stuck desperately trying to hold it together to finish the dance and not ruin the show!!! Since Spanky has told the other boys TO DO EXACTLY WHAT I DO, all the other "dancers" begin wriggling just like the frantic Spanky. As the crowd laughs hysterically, all the shimmying causes Alfalfa's skirt to fall down to around his thighs and he reachs down and pulls it back up when he realizes that the crowd is laughing at his exposure.
The crowd begins to roar with laughter on seeing a tail that is now sticking out of Spanky's bustle and the boys doing the dance are stunned at seeing the tail sticking out from the rear Spanky's bustle skirt. Spanky takes a few more steps and receives stick then a few more steps and another stick, Spanky can't take it any longer! He jumps and turns and begins to wriggle and shimmy in ernest. The music that was heard at the beginning of the episode begins to play and Spanky begins to jump out of his skirt the other boys follow his lead and begin to jump out thier skirts also.
Offstage, Darla seeing the boys on stage thier bustle skirts discarded and the corsets and frilly underwaer exsposed for all to see, quickly lowers the curtain but it comes down behind the exsposed performers. The monkey is still in Spanky's disgarded bustle skirt goes running off the stage holding the pin in his hand. The crowd is going wild!
Spanky, is now relieved of his pain rubs his hinny and turns around to see the laughing crowd and looks down and realizes that he is standing there in his corset. He turns around to find the curtain is down and he is on the wrong side! As a result, they resort to crawling on their hands and knees under the curtain as the crowd continues to guffaw at the kids' plight. After the boys are under and behind the curtain Spanky then comes out from behind the curtain in his bodice and fancy hat and using the two halfs of the curtain to cover up where his skirt was and sings,
How's that kids? Now ya' gotta go, That's all there is, there ain't no more that's end of our the show! And goes back behind the curtain the Flory Dory Girl hat, he was wearing falling off in the process.
The happy audience heads for the exit as the episode fades to black.
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