Our Gang, also known as The Little Rascals, was a long-lived series of
comedy short films about a troupe of poor neighborhood children and
the adventures they had together. Created by comedy producer Hal
Roach, Our Gang was produced at the Roach studio starting in 1922 as a
silent short subject series. Roach changed distributors from Pathé to
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer in 1927, went to sound in 1929, and continued
production until 1938, when he sold the series to MGM, which continued
producing the comedies until 1944. A total of 220 shorts and one
feature film, General Spanky, were eventually produced, featuring over
forty-one child actors. The series, one of the best-known and most
successful in cinema history, is noted for its showcase of natural,
convincing child talent, in contrast to a number of previous,
contemporary, and future child actors.
Read the rest of this article:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Our_Gang
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Today's selected anniversaries:
1128:
Alfonso I of Portugal fought the Battle of São Mamede, the first step
toward Portuguese independence.
(
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_S%E3o_Mamede)
1314:
Scotland regained independence as forces led by Robert the Bruce
defeated Edward II of England in the Battle of Bannockburn.
(
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Bannockburn)
1441:
Eton College in Berkshire, England, was founded by King Henry VI to
provide free education to poor students who would then go on to King's
College, Cambridge.
(
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eton_College)
1535:
The Anabaptist state of Münster was conquered and subsequently
disbanded.
(
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M%FCnster_Rebellion)
1597:
The first Dutch voyage to the East Indies reached Bantam on Java.
(
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Java_%28island%29)
1947:
First known sighting of UFOs: Kenneth Arnold saw nine luminous disks
in the form of saucers flying above the U.S. state of Washington.
(
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/unidentified_flying_object)
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Wikiquote of the day:
Conservative, n. A statesman enamored of existing evils, as opposed to
a Liberal, who wants to replace them with new ones. -- Ambrose Bierce
(
http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Ambrose_Bierce)