Death In Entertainment
Kyle Ploof, Alejandro Dowling and Ben Kissel discuss Hollywood murders, true crime, on-set deaths and more!
Death In Entertainment
From Cute to Cursed: How the Little Rascals Met Their Untimely Demise (Episode 162)
The smiling faces of the Little Rascals hide a sinister secret - one by one, these beloved child stars met tragic, often violent ends that defy coincidence. From Alfalfa's shocking shooting over a $50 debt to plane crashes, hit-and-runs, and house fires, these former icons died in ways so bizarre you'd think they were cursed.
Behind the comedy shorts that entertained generations lies a darker story of exploitation. While Hal Roach Studios made millions, none of the 176 children who appeared in the series ever received a penny in residuals. Many former stars watched themselves on television while struggling to make ends meet - a psychological torture that drove many toward destructive paths.
We unpack how the series began with Hal Roach, a former paper boy to Mark Twain who created groundbreaking entertainment showing black and white children playing together during the Jim Crow era. Yet this progressive façade masked troubling realities – stage parents fostering racial tensions, exploitative financial arrangements, and a work environment that took a toll on everyone involved.
From the suspicious poisoning of Pete the Pup to "Chubby" Chaney's heart failure at 18, "Froggy" Laughlin's deadly newspaper route, and "Weezer" surviving WWII only to die in a training exercise, the pattern of tragedy seems endless. While Roach lived to 100, dismissing any notion of a curse, the statistical improbability of so many early and violent deaths raises questions about the true price of childhood stardom in Hollywood's golden age.
What happens when the spotlight fades but the camera keeps rolling? Listen now to discover the haunting legacy of Hollywood's most beloved child ensemble and decide for yourself - coincidence or curse?
Death in Entertainment is hosted by Kyle Ploof, Alejandro Dowling and Ben Kissel.
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Once upon a time in Hollywood, a bunch of toothless kids in overalls stole America's heart and then died in ways so bizarre, tragic and wildly preventable. You'd think they were cursed. These weren't just cute kids in floppy hats. They were ticking time bombs of bad luck, working for peanuts while the studio raked in millions and possibly angered an ancient spirit that hates children. This isn't just a trip down memory lane. It's a haunted hayride through Hollywood's darkest sandbox. It's the curse of the little rascals, and it's today on Death in Entertainment.
Speaker 2:Live from Los Angeles 911, what is your emergency? We're in Hollywood now. Two counts of murder, injury and death oh my God, shocking new details that has stunned the entertainment world. Um, this makes me a little nervous. The hair stood up on my arms, just like in the movies.
Speaker 4:What do you call this thing anyway? Death In entertainment.
Speaker 1:Greetings Ditto Universe.
Speaker 4:Hi there.
Speaker 1:How's it going, everybody? My name is Kyle Plouffe.
Speaker 4:I'm Ben Kissel and I'm Alejandro Dowling.
Speaker 3:Thank you all so much for checking out this episode of Death and Entertainment. If you want to join our Patreon, go to patreoncom. Slash diebud, watch every episode live and contribute with your comments. Today's episode oh my god, you loved him when you were growing up, but what actually happened? It's the curse of the Little Rascals.
Speaker 1:And this is a crazy one. So if you're at all triggered by very tragic child's deaths, this might not be the one for you, but stick around, stick around See if you're into it, yeah, it's fun To clarify.
Speaker 4:we're not talking about the 1994 Little Rascals, are we?
Speaker 1:No, I mean not specifically.
Speaker 3:That movie that holds up? It does hold up. They do a soapbox, derby, don't they?
Speaker 4:Yeah, yeah. And Donald Trump is in it, is he really? Yeah, he's one of the dads. Is that right Of the kid that is rich.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, the rich kid.
Speaker 3:That's hilarious, by the way, son, my friend Jeffrey Epstein's coming over.
Speaker 2:Hide upstairs, just go upstairs.
Speaker 1:Okay, so to start telling this story, you have to start with the guy who created it all, hal Roach. He was born January 14th 1892, which, I believe, makes him the oldest guy we've ever talked about.
Speaker 3:Wow, I mean I'm sitting here and I'm like that guy must be pretty old. But I realized I'm born 1981. And when people hear that in, like well, even now, they think I'm ancient.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you're born in the 1900s.
Speaker 3:What.
Speaker 1:Did you guys have cars then?
Speaker 4:Yeah, that's a great name too, Hal Roach. Hal Roach, that was his given name.
Speaker 1:Believe so.
Speaker 3:Comes from a long line of roaches. They don't die, they don't go anywhere.
Speaker 1:No, yeah, he was born in Elmira, new York, which is one of the rare times we've been taken to New York State, not New York City. As a young boy in Elmira, hal had a paper route and one of his customers would end up becoming one of his life's heroes. This was a man by the name of samuel clements, who, if you were paying any attention a couple episodes ago, you would know better as mark freaking twain that's amazing in his lifetime.
Speaker 1:He knew mark twain like I thought mark twain was like way older than that right yeah, I just found out that picasso was alive in like the 70s.
Speaker 3:What?
Speaker 1:Yeah, I didn't know that.
Speaker 3:Pablo.
Speaker 1:Wow. Well, Mark Twain lived in Elmira for a while and even wrote the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn there. In fact, he and his wife are actually currently buried there.
Speaker 4:No kidding.
Speaker 1:For now.
Speaker 4:For now? What do you mean for now? Until they dig him up.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and throw him somewhere else. Okay, why, okay, why not? Hal would deliver Twain's newspapers, but it wasn't until he saw Mark Twain perform live that he wanted to be an American humorist as well.
Speaker 4:Until he saw his stand-up set. So he saw Val Kilmer doing it At the Chuckle Hut yeah.
Speaker 1:That guy's got something he does. Hal said that he had attended and been kicked out of every school in Elmira. As we know, people with comedic sensibilities or people who go into the arts rarely are straight A students, absolutely.
Speaker 4:Especially the funny ones, because they're always making jokes in classes and teachers tend to get annoyed of that.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 4:Unless you know, they're one of those cool teachers that finds you funny Right.
Speaker 3:Yeah, mrs Killsdonk, she was the one that found me funny. She was the only reason I graduated high school. And it's crazy, because the larger the laugh from your friends, the more in trouble you get and you're like these are mixed messages.
Speaker 1:Yes, big time. Yeah. At 16 years old he faced his last expulsion from school and his father said he needed to grow up. So he suggested to him that traveling might help. It's totally different than now, I know 16 years old.
Speaker 4:He's like hey, you know what would help you? Getting the fuck out of my house? Well, in a sense, getting expelled. That's growing up. Yeah, Because you're not going to school anymore, True? So you mean I?
Speaker 3:graduated Kind of yeah, I mean, you're not coming to school anymore, right?
Speaker 1:Hal thought going the furthest away from Elmira would be the best bet for him, so he chose Alaska of all places.
Speaker 3:That'll do it.
Speaker 1:When he got there he went full Yukon Revenant and decided to be a gold prospector and a mule skinner.
Speaker 3:Wow.
Speaker 1:So it was a full-time job just being a mule skinner, and yeah, just going and breaking open those hills trying to find the gold.
Speaker 4:Hey, how was your day today?
Speaker 3:Just skinned some mules, you know, yeah yeah, you look at that and you see a wild beast with four legs.
Speaker 1:I see nothing but money he dug and he dug, but he never found any gold. Oh, and he didn't really like skinning mules.
Speaker 3:I don't know who would I hope that they don't associate well, you're talking to two guys from Wisconsin, yeah.
Speaker 4:I think, we know a lot of people that like skin and things.
Speaker 3:That is true Hunting season. You open up the shed and it's Texas Chainsaw Massacre. And you're like that's disgusting. But then two weeks later you're eating deer jerky and you're like this is fantastic.
Speaker 1:Wow, that is so not what happened in Boston.
Speaker 3:Yeah, no murders, no one dies in Boston, nothing.
Speaker 1:No, but we don't kill you.
Speaker 4:You just have a bunch of Italians hanging upside down, yeah exactly, I have to say too, at that time in the 1800s, although I guess would this be more like the early 1900s.
Speaker 1:Early 1900s, yeah.
Speaker 4:Okay, gold mining was more of a thing. Yes being a 49er, it didn't sound so outrageous that now, if you say that they would commit you, yeah. Absolutely, or they'd think you found some 900 number on the TV. There's gold on them heels. What is with all those commercials? They still air them. Oh, those are such scams. You know, like Cash for gold.
Speaker 3:Exactly.
Speaker 4:It's on almost every podcast and YouTube video.
Speaker 1:Yeah, because they give you way less cash than it's worth.
Speaker 3:Yes, give you way less cash than it's worth. Yes, yeah, okay, glad we cleared that up.
Speaker 2:Most of the gold is fillings and just things that your grandma finds around the house.
Speaker 3:Thanks, and they're like grandma. This is a dust bunny, it's not gold and you?
Speaker 4:can't get any cash for it. You're just staring at your grandma all day seeing that tooth in her mouth shining.
Speaker 1:So, since his experience was primarily delivering newspapers, before he took off for alaska, he began delivering mail on horseback pony express yeah. He got stuck in a blizzard one day, though, and nearly lost his foot to frostbite, so he decided he wanted a break his foot.
Speaker 4:What about the horses?
Speaker 1:horses strong yeah, he was like where could I go defrost my foot? Sunny, sunny Southern California?
Speaker 3:Yeah Wow, from Elmira to Alaska, to California.
Speaker 1:Yep Los Angeles.
Speaker 4:And you know he was a paper boy but he was delivering to Mark Twain.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 4:That's amazing.
Speaker 1:Awesome Citizen Twain himself. While he was in LA he's just there, you know, going up and down Hollywood Boulevard airing out his foot and he randomly met some guys that worked in the film industry and the guys were asking him if he was an actor.
Speaker 3:Ah, he must be a good looking fella.
Speaker 1:Yeah, he was actually Okay.
Speaker 4:We got a warehouse in Simi Valley. Yeah, we're going to need that ass.
Speaker 3:And yeah, you got any lube. What are your thoughts on black couches?
Speaker 1:Hmm.
Speaker 4:Do you like gay sex? I'll do it, I do enjoy it.
Speaker 1:He actually I mean, it's better than mule skinning, right. Well, well, to some he said actually he's just visiting and that he really delivers mail on horseback, and they were like whoa, you, you can ride a horse, you got yourself a job, wow. So he became a background actor in a bunch of all the Westerns that they were doing out here, which was a super popular genre.
Speaker 3:Once upon a time in Hollywood. Yeah, very cool.
Speaker 1:So it was 1912 at this point.
Speaker 4:That's pretty much all they were making Westerns and more Westerns.
Speaker 3:Yeah, right.
Speaker 4:I don't even think. I think this was even pre-noir.
Speaker 1:Right yeah. And within five years he had created hal roach studios. So he goes from background actor to having his own studio in culver city producing over 2 000 comedy shorts, including the topic of our show today, the our gang series, which would come to be known as the little rascals now, was that changed for syndication, was it our gang for a while it was our gang for most of the time and then in the 50s when they brought it back to TV from film they claimed it was the. Little Rascals.
Speaker 4:Yeah, that's cool. It was always in the theater. You would see these shorts.
Speaker 1:Yes, yeah, they were films.
Speaker 3:Cinematic.
Speaker 4:Yep.
Speaker 3:I think Little Rascals, it rolls off the tongue. It's got a more catch to it.
Speaker 4:The off the tongue, it's got a more catch to it. The thing is, our gang is also very strong because it implies ownership.
Speaker 1:Right, but it's too strong for what the kids are. They're rascals. Yeah, you little rapscallions, you guys are getting into trouble.
Speaker 4:They're little rascals. But gang meant something else. Then it was like a group, our gang. Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 3:I mean I think more. Our gang is more like the outsiders, a little older okay switchblades.
Speaker 1:You know you're knocking people up yeah, I mean, little rascals are strong, don't get me wrong roach was famous for keeping it loose on set and not caring if things went over budget, and which ended up meaning he got less profit. He wasn't really worried about it. He was a true blue collar guy who wanted to keep things fun maybe a little too fun oh boy this carefree disposition may have contributed to the curse of the little rascals just so.
Speaker 3:Just so I can be prepared. Is he lou perlman? No, okay, great so that's that when you said too fun I was, was like oh man. Yeah, that's not when producers have too much fun. Usually there's too much crying.
Speaker 4:No, I think he was a pretty decent guy Am.
Speaker 2:I right.
Speaker 4:Okay.
Speaker 1:For the most part.
Speaker 4:Oh, for the most, really.
Speaker 1:He had some, he got some skeletons dug up. He's got some things that weren't very nice. He's a human being, yeah.
Speaker 4:Black face was normalized at the time. Okay.
Speaker 3:Yes.
Speaker 4:Get over it Wow.
Speaker 3:Wow.
Speaker 1:Alejandro coming in hot.
Speaker 3:He was also normalized in 2016, when Jimmy Kimmel was doing it.
Speaker 4:Oh yeah.
Speaker 1:And.
Speaker 4:Jimmy Fallon too. Yeah, Every Jimmy was doing it. Whoa.
Speaker 1:And that's another slur too, for.
Speaker 3:Jimmy, yeah, is it. Yeah, Jim Crow was like the slur for them, and then they would call black people jimmy's. Oh no, kidding.
Speaker 1:Oh wow, accidental races, yeah jimmy cag corn and I don't care, jeez and that's the episode of accidental racing we're learning, though we're always learning, we are if you're not familiar with the little rascals, they were essentially a group of poor children who were all neighborhood kids, getting into funny situations and often, often butted heads with the rich kids and their parents. It was the first show of its kind to show black and white children playing together and getting along, and this was during the jim crow era see, that's what I'm saying about hal roach.
Speaker 1:That was a very good thing yes he was promoting that yeah, in that way it was absolutely groundbreaking, despite the fact the films featured a lot of harmful stereotypes.
Speaker 4:Yeah.
Speaker 1:And slurs. Even though all the films seemed like they were fun-loving, carefree set experiences, we would come to find out that, because of the stage, moms and grandmothers, racial tensions would become very real on set.
Speaker 4:Oh God.
Speaker 1:The first momagers, tensions would become very real on set. Oh god, the first mama jurors yeah, awful. Although the kids loved each other, there was still an air of like stay in your own lane and be with your own kind type of mentality coming from the older generations on set. So, with that said, let's get into the drama. Yes, robert mcgowan was the original director of the series and he was ended up being forced to retire from the series after needing to take multiple medically mandated sabbaticals due to the overbearing stress of dealing with stage mothers and child actors they went.
Speaker 3:So he had. He had to deal with so many air quotes, karens, that he went into a medical crisis.
Speaker 1:Yes, wow doctors were like you have to take breaks, so he would go and record a bunch of different ones, and then they would be like, okay, take a month off and then see if you can come back. And he did it a few times and then they were like, just, you've got to stop because your heart's going to explode.
Speaker 3:I can't even look at a woman's hair without freaking out.
Speaker 4:Yeah, I absolutely believe that must have been terrifying, because this is years before the jackie coogan law, which protected kids yes, oh interesting, so the kids were being probably overworked. Yeah as well, okay yeah, they were money bags with teeth got you uh robert became very ill and would die of cancer in 1955 yeah, it turns out you've been diagnosed with bitch cancer.
Speaker 3:You've been around a lot of bitches lately.
Speaker 1:There was a huge feud between Alfalfa and Spanky, the actors that played both of them. What?
Speaker 3:Okay, I mean, it's a dorm, that's the thing. Alfalfa and Spanky fighting just sounds awesome.
Speaker 1:They were fighting over who was the most popular rascal, but that was not started by them, it was started by each other's fathers. Was the most popular rascal, but that was not started by them, it was started by each other's fathers. So the fathers hated each other and they would be on set being, like my kid's, more popular than your kid it's a different style of humor, alfalfa.
Speaker 3:He's bringing some sharp wit. He's more like a freddy krueger and then yeah, well, you know, kind of sharp-witted, yeah, and then spanky. He's your chris farley type. He's like you know, he's goofy, a little chubby. Different types.
Speaker 4:I would say Spanky was the most popular, though.
Speaker 3:Well, when I think of it, I think Spanky, but also Alfalfa, I mean the hair. You've been hearing about Alfalfa. They are really the two stars Right.
Speaker 1:One day, during a break on set, Spanky's dad was walking through to a trailer and Alfalfa lit a firecracker and threw it at Spanky's dad and it exploded on the back of his neck.
Speaker 3:I love it. Oh boy, these are the little rascals both on and off screen.
Speaker 4:Yeah, this sounds very entertaining. I love it Behind the scenes.
Speaker 1:There were cameramen who would get mad at the kids for flubbing lines and making them work longer, making them miss lunch or just make them have them be late going home. Hey, spanky, your mark's over there.
Speaker 3:So yeah, they would be like, hey, can you guys get it together and fucking get your lines right.
Speaker 4:They're like what? Eight years old, if that. Yeah, they were pretty small in the original shorts.
Speaker 1:Alfalfa Carl Switzer, who played him, would stick gum in the cameras of cameramen who were jerks to the kids.
Speaker 3:I love alfalfa.
Speaker 1:And he would piss on lights to make it smell bad, to fuck with the crew if they were mean to them.
Speaker 4:Piss on lights to piss off the crew. Yes, that is my boy.
Speaker 1:So it would just stink. Every time they turn the lights on, the piss would just start crackling. Oh, I can smell it already.
Speaker 3:Smells like old Hollywood, is that?
Speaker 1:kid's piss. Oh boy is that kid's piss, oh boy. So, like I said before, what? Some white parents and grandparents didn't want the kids to be near the black kids during breaks and filming. In 1930, the animals used for roach's films were all housed at the arnez ranch, which was owned by hal but run by this italian immigrant, tony campanero. All the animals that were housed there were used for roach's films, except for one. There was this uh puppy called pete the pup. He's the one that had the ring around his eye.
Speaker 4:No kidding yeah, I mean they treated him okay on set.
Speaker 1:He was treated so well. He's a beautiful dog with the ring around his eye, owned by a man named harry lucine. But we go back to tony and t Tony is running that ranch. It's all his animals that are on the ranch. Okay, you know all pissed off that Pete the pup is getting all the attention. He's like hey, I got some mules over here.
Speaker 3:So he's jealous. He's so jealous. Well, don't give the guy mules, he's going to skin him.
Speaker 4:And Pete. He was really one of the stars, right next to Spanky and Alfalfa.
Speaker 3:Yes, absolutely I could see the jealousy. Yeah Well, didn't Target the old superstore, they used that version of Pete.
Speaker 1:They definitely ripped that off.
Speaker 4:And so many things after that, like Frasier and the mask Absolutely.
Speaker 1:So it's been said that Tony was so jealous of Roach's use of the dog over Tony's animals that he poisoned Pete the pup and killed him in 1930.
Speaker 3:Well, tony buddy, because of that we have Doug the pug. Yeah, he would have hated modern era.
Speaker 1:Oh, big time yeah.
Speaker 3:Wow.
Speaker 1:To this day, no one was ever charged or convicted, but everyone in the business knew it was Tony. Wow, what an asshole.
Speaker 3:What a scumbag.
Speaker 1:So the dog died of poisoning that was the first official little rascal's death oh my god, in 1930 yes that long ago, wow just awful.
Speaker 3:That's the worst thing we're gonna talk about today that poor dog had to miss world war ii. Yeah, he would have been. Well, he probably would have been dead anyway, who knows Would have sided with the Nazis. Yeah, hitler kills him. Get that thug? Yeah, he's called up because he's a communist. Gotta go talk in front of the Senate. Bark bark, bark bark. You heard him, folks. He wants to spread the wealth around, bark bark.
Speaker 1:In 1931, norman Chubby Chaney. He was the chubby one, if you didn't know, okay got it and they weren't very subtle with the nicknames, were they? They were real men back then they, he was given the boot for getting too old, which is this is something we see in children's acting all the time yes, and that is why they tend to uh age.
Speaker 3:So, yeah, no, they do. Child actors age strangely, because in order to be a child actor and look young for a long time. It's kind of a character trait that's a little odd.
Speaker 4:Yeah, I'm thinking of Gary Coleman.
Speaker 3:Well, that, and then look at JT Home Improvement Tool Time.
Speaker 1:Jonathan Taylor Thomas.
Speaker 3:Jonathan Taylor Thomas. I mean, I'm not gonna, he's just a dude.
Speaker 4:I haven't seen him recently. Have you, I'll show you. Oh boy, I'm afraid. No, don't be Boy that poor. The kids on that show aren't doing too well.
Speaker 1:No, Zachary Ty Bryan is getting arrested for DUIs all the time. All the time, all the time he's got arrested again, like three times in the last six months, I think.
Speaker 4:Yeah, he's been on the cop dash cam shows more than the cops have? Yeah, exactly, can I put this on my IMDb? And real quickly, home Improvement came on Netflix the other week and I was with Kyle and Kyle told me that as a kid he thought it was funnier than Seinfeld.
Speaker 1:Yeah, Seinfeld wasn't funny to me when I was a kid. Just wanted to say that it was adult situations.
Speaker 3:And I have said this to Kyle. You guys are both wrong. The show that is the funniest is Tool Time, the show within Home Improvement, the show within the show.
Speaker 4:Yeah. I would rather watch Tool Time.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 4:Although I did like the wife.
Speaker 1:You could have seen Tool Time if you watched Home Improvement.
Speaker 4:Oh my God, Okay, ben, picture of JTT now.
Speaker 3:This boy used to be on every girl's wall Again he's just a dude.
Speaker 4:They age, are you?
Speaker 1:sure about that. It's not the heartthrob he once was Based on that photo.
Speaker 4:That's all Doesn't even look human, jeez.
Speaker 3:Back to the wrestles. Okay, okay.
Speaker 1:So Chubby Chaney he was originally hired because they essentially just wanted to cast a fat kid.
Speaker 4:No relation to Dick.
Speaker 1:No, chubby Dick. Well, they're both fat.
Speaker 3:Fat fucking assholes. Well, maybe Chubby's a good kid.
Speaker 1:Poor kid. He was 3'11 and 115 pounds. He was a big boy. Over the course of the show, his years on it, he grew from 3'11 to 4'7.
Speaker 4:When he was 4'7, he weighed over 300 pounds. Oh, I thought you were going to say he got lean with his height?
Speaker 1:No, no, unfortunately not.
Speaker 3:Four foot seven 300 pounds.
Speaker 1:Yeah, he had a glandular disease that caused his condition, so it really was like a medically.
Speaker 4:He wasn't eating donuts.
Speaker 1:It was a medical condition. Okay, oh, my lordy. That's sad. And just a few years after that he succumbed to an enlarged heart and died at the age of 18.
Speaker 4:Oh my god.
Speaker 3:At least he got to be in the pictures. That's true. That sucks though. 4'11 and 300 pounds. He couldn't walk. I don't think he could walk.
Speaker 4:Probably had to roll him into the doctor's office.
Speaker 3:Yes, Willy Wonky, he ate the wrong food.
Speaker 1:Bring this kid to the juicer.
Speaker 3:Yes.
Speaker 4:Between him and JTT. I'm getting depressed.
Speaker 3:Yeah, you never want to go to the producer that's known as the juicer.
Speaker 2:Go see the juicer?
Speaker 3:No. Do you want a career or not? Time to get juiced.
Speaker 1:Yuck, oh boy, we had Billy Froggy, laughlin Froggy. He's got the yeah.
Speaker 4:That was a thing later on too, in the 60s. A singer like Clarence Frogman Frogman.
Speaker 3:Jones yeah, and it's interesting They've all come out against vaccines. Something about that voice.
Speaker 1:This poor kid, like I said, one with the raspy voice. He actually based his voice off of a Popeye impression he would do for kids at school.
Speaker 3:So that was him stretching his vocal cords, a olive oil. That wasn't his real voice.
Speaker 1:No, that wasn't his voice, See that's talent, that is talent.
Speaker 4:A kid to be able to change the voice like that, because JTT in the Lion King Home Improvement sounds like the same kid Right, and I'm shitting on JTT. I'm sorry, but this Frog, he's got talent, froggy's got it, he's got talent.
Speaker 1:Four years after he leaves the Rascals. He's 16 years old and he's delivering newspapers, just like Hal Roach used to do. He's delivering them with his buddy and Froggy's on the back of the scooter and his friend john is driving the scooter it sounds like so.
Speaker 3:I guess the word romanticizing is what I'm doing, although they're children and I'm not doing it in a sexual way, but it sounds so like every time, everyday usa, like yeah, here's your paper, mrs robinson absolutely I don't like where this ride is going froggy had just gotten this scooter two weeks before for his birthday.
Speaker 1:And so they're going down the street, they're throwing the newspapers like the kids do and they realize, oh shit, we just missed a house. So he's like, hey, banging, you turn real quick. So they turned immediately and they didn't realize there was a truck speeding right there, yikes, and the truck crushed both of them oh, both of them yeah, they were both on the same scooter yeah, was the game frogger based on this?
Speaker 3:it possibly could have oh boy yeah, you want to avoid the truck yeah I mean that one guy would have been like guys, I don't need the paper today anyway yeah, don't worry about it off the I don't care about anything. Pearl harbor's, not for a second.
Speaker 4:Yeah wow, like what a difference.
Speaker 1:Who roach got to deliver to an american icon and frogger gets smushed by a semi yeah uh, billy froggy laughlin died instantly, yet somehow his friend john survived with only minor injuries so he must have like gone under and not been hit by a tire or something right, yeah, yeah the only side effect is he's shaped like a pancake. So next up we got Bobby Weezer Hitchens.
Speaker 3:Okay, we got the Weez.
Speaker 1:We got the Weez. They called him Weezer from his first day on set. He was running around. He started to wheeze.
Speaker 3:So he's asthmatic man. I love it. Back in the day Now they'd be like oh wow, we need a doctor. And they're like he's wheezing.
Speaker 4:We're going to call him Wheezy, and now that would be offensive to people who cough.
Speaker 3:That's my biggest pet peeve. Couldn't make that anymore. Couldn't make that anymore. I know.
Speaker 4:I don't know, everything is still being made, it's just not what it used to be. I'm going to make it. Yeah, why not? I'm going to make it.
Speaker 1:Well, weezer is a band, it's true, yeah, one of the wives of him just got killed.
Speaker 3:Really.
Speaker 1:By an officer.
Speaker 3:Anyway, that's old. We're talking about an okay bud. That's old.
Speaker 4:Oh, okay, Okay bud Sorry.
Speaker 1:He ended up being able to catch his breath, and finally, with the Rascals. That's ironic, yeah, exactly.
Speaker 3:I want to go to the military branch that has the thing I don't Air.
Speaker 4:Yeah, like if Froggy joined the Frog Brigade, the.
Speaker 3:Frogmen, I think there is.
Speaker 4:You fixed my joke. There you go.
Speaker 1:The week he was due to graduate flight school and become an actual pilot. He was flying during a routine exercise and collided with another plane.
Speaker 3:Oh, my God.
Speaker 1:Killing him three days shy of his 20th birthday.
Speaker 3:I mean, these guys are just little rascals.
Speaker 4:Somehow I've survived all these years without jumping in front of a truck or flying into a plane.
Speaker 2:Well, yeah, you don't do anything.
Speaker 3:You just sit and watch Netflix, which is great.
Speaker 1:Well, you know what's crazy about this story. The other pilot survived the crash.
Speaker 4:Just like the one right before.
Speaker 3:Yes, this is Final Destination level dude. It's insane. How does the pilot survive a mid-air collision?
Speaker 4:How did he? Did he out like with a parachute?
Speaker 1:they said he was, his plane wasn't as destroyed as the other one.
Speaker 4:Somehow I don't know able to land. So he was able to land.
Speaker 1:Okay, it wasn't like a head-on collision yeah, I think the wings clipped each other, oh my god, yeah, well I.
Speaker 3:I guess he wasn't ready for war.
Speaker 1:Well, he went to World War II. He did serve.
Speaker 3:He survived World War.
Speaker 1:II. He survived World War II to die in 1945.
Speaker 3:Oh, the guy that didn't die in the thing.
Speaker 1:No, both of them.
Speaker 3:No, he went to World War II. Oh, Weezy did survive.
Speaker 1:Yeah, no, no, no, he died in 1945,.
Speaker 4:Weezer survived World War II, only to die in another plane crash. Gotcha, that's like those people that survived 9-11 and then went to see Great White at the station, or something.
Speaker 1:Yeah, seriously.
Speaker 3:Just my luck, this place is on fire too.
Speaker 4:I'm finally ready to come out for a good rock and roll time. You know what? Maybe it was my time.
Speaker 1:That's Final Destination, shit though For real it is. So. That brings us to Carl Alfalfa Switzer.
Speaker 4:This is the main chorus right.
Speaker 1:This is a decent chunk of the episode here.
Speaker 4:Because I know a little bit about this. But, man, because you always think Alfalfa, that was the goofy character. Yeah, and in real life, like this guy was.
Speaker 1:He was throwing firebombs at people and pissing on the lights, like he was a bad seed.
Speaker 3:But he was doing it for a good reason. Okay, he was a goofy character, but technically all the goofiness was serious crimes.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:So Carl was born in Paris, illinois, please, which sounds pretty nice, so close to being somewhere, good yeah.
Speaker 4:If Chicago doesn't come before the word Illinois, it sucks yeah.
Speaker 3:I lived in Wheaton, illinois, for a little while. Nice little suburb. No, I think you're mostly correct, yeah.
Speaker 1:He was born on August 8th 1927. When he was visiting Los Angeles, his family thought that they would try their luck bringing he and his brother over to the Hal Roach Studios to audition for the Little Rascals Put these kids to work.
Speaker 1:And they didn't realize that you needed to have an actual parking pass and show up for an actual audition. They were just like let's just go to the studio and see what happens. I love it. I had family members being like I used to email uh, ellen, degenerate show to see if they could get you on. I was like that's not how that works, but thank you I love it.
Speaker 4:Yeah, well, I think they sort of did it like that back in the day like you could you know, like um the poltergeist girl heather o'rourke yeah she was just having lunch and gets discovered yeah, you never know, right, never know so undred.
Speaker 1:they still were like oh, you can buy a pass and go walk around the studios on a tour, and they did this underterred. Undeterred.
Speaker 3:Yeah, so they were just kind of living under a bunch of shit. Yes, underturred, I like it. I am a child. It took me a second. I'm a little rascal. I caught up, you, little rascal. I'm a big fucking rascal.
Speaker 4:And I like how they say you don't need a headshot resume, you need a parking pass.
Speaker 1:Yes, so they paid for the studio tour. And by the time they get shown the cafeteria, that's when Carl and his brother realizes they have the spotlight. I love it. And they run into the cafeteria and just start singing and dancing.
Speaker 4:That's what I'm saying. It all happens in the cafeteria.
Speaker 1:You know who just happens to be there having lunch at the time? Hal Roach Love it and he signs them there on the spot.
Speaker 3:Also, that is a perfect time because he's eating, he's happy. Yeah, they say if you audition just before lunch you have a much worse chance of getting cast versus post-lunch.
Speaker 1:That's true.
Speaker 3:Because everyone's full.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 3:I tried that once at Paramount and they just kicked me out, I'll just start singing around any food court, no business like show business.
Speaker 4:You'll be swell All right.
Speaker 3:Welcome to One Potato, two Potato.
Speaker 4:Would you shut up? We're trying to finish our rap.
Speaker 1:So Alfalfa joins the show instantly becomes a hit, one of the top two characters. Like we said, spanky and Alfalfa.
Speaker 4:Did they replace Petey? Yes, because I was noticing if he died in 1930 and Alfalfa was born in 1927, they didn't overlap then.
Speaker 1:No, no, it's a different Petey, then Petey the dog.
Speaker 3:There was a bunch of.
Speaker 1:Petey's. There's a bunch of Air Buds too. You don't really think about it, but then you find out.
Speaker 4:It's like 27 different dogs Shut up. Oh yeah, they've killed. You mean it was Air Bud. Golden Receiver was not the same one.
Speaker 3:No, no no.
Speaker 4:From the.
Speaker 3:You don't want to know what happens to the earbuds when they're no longer needed.
Speaker 4:They just get thrown into this cage.
Speaker 1:Oh it's horrible, they get shot out of a cannon yeah.
Speaker 3:We'll uncover an Air Bud tomb one day, and it's going to be devastating.
Speaker 4:But it was worth it. Yeah, for all the good times, great movies.
Speaker 1:For all the great to VHS, straight to VHS.
Speaker 4:All the great puns with the titles.
Speaker 1:He appeared in 61 of the film's series.
Speaker 4:Wow, is that the most?
Speaker 1:It's up there. Yeah, we've talked about this in episodes for Bobby Driscoll and other child stars. At a time where there were absolutely no residuals, it was extremely difficult to make a living after that amount of fame washes away.
Speaker 4:Yeah, and you know you grow up, yeah, right.
Speaker 1:So after he's done, pissing on all the lights and sticking gum in cameras.
Speaker 3:Being a cool kid yeah.
Speaker 1:He's throwing firecrackers at people.
Speaker 3:He's my friend, like literally, me and my friend used to do this, basically the exact same stuff.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you know, time's up on set. You're too old now and they're like we gotta move on, so he ended up getting a few bit parts, one being in it's a wonderful life with jimmy stewart and donna reed, which was not a hit originally.
Speaker 4:It wasn't, no, I didn't realize that it went. It came and went without much fanfare and then, many years later, it started to get played on tv on christmas, and that's when it had high viewership Interesting.
Speaker 1:And that's where it became a classic. No kidding.
Speaker 4:So Alfalfa didn't even see any of that. Wow, sort of like the.
Speaker 3:Big Lebowski Exactly Not a hit, but now a massive one, right.
Speaker 1:And it's weird because he's a good-looking guy. As he got older he wasn't pimply and weird and awkward like the other kids were, but nobody would put him in an actual role, even though he had all this experience.
Speaker 3:He's a child actor.
Speaker 1:Yes, but also the studios whispered saying they would have hired him, but he had a reputation that preceded him of being a troublemaker and always wanted to get back at people for perceived slights.
Speaker 4:We can still smell those lights. Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:I mean he's method, yeah, method yeah that, but that was before method was actually respected, I guess oh yeah, he was a good looking guy. Yeah, he was a very good looking guy, he could have been a leading man, but it was just let me see the risk that the studios didn't want to take of him going off the deep end kind of looks like a kennedy.
Speaker 4:Yeah, he looks like a crooner, he does, he's got that dean martin hair. Yeah, he Kind of looks like a Kennedy. Yeah, he looks like a crooner, he does, he's got that Dean Martin hair.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 3:He also kind of looks like he could kill. He kind of looks like a sniper.
Speaker 1:So, like all good child actors, he took to the bottle and became increasingly frustrated. Where he was at in life, he took whatever tiny roles he could muster up and then bartended around the city as well, as he became a dog trainer and hunting guide on trips up in Northern California.
Speaker 3:Okay, wow Interesting.
Speaker 1:He would bring guys like Roy Rogers, dale Evans, jimmy Stewart and Henry Fonda up to Northern California and give them guided hunting expeditions.
Speaker 4:Shut up, Like he took the rich and famous up there.
Speaker 1:And none of them were like dying to get him in movies either. Just like thanks for the good time, see you later, I mean he was working. Yeah, he was barely making ends meet with it, though it was kind of cool. Yeah.
Speaker 4:Boy. Yeah, the dog days.
Speaker 1:In early 1954, switzer went on a blind date with Diantha Collingwood, diantha, diantha Collingwood, diantha Diantha.
Speaker 4:Oh my, how many times do you think she had to repeat her first?
Speaker 1:name it's.
Speaker 4:Diantha.
Speaker 3:Diantha. My dad had a list. It was supposed to be Diana, but it's Diantha.
Speaker 1:She was the daughter of Lilo and Faye Collingwood and an heiress to the grain elevator empire Collingwood Grain. All right, so like those big corn silos they created.
Speaker 3:That that's them, that's them Hell yeah, that's some money right there.
Speaker 1:Yeah, collingwood had moved with her mother and sister to California in 1953 because her sister wanted to become an actress and Switzer and Collingwood got along very well and within three months took a drive over to Las Vegas and got married.
Speaker 4:Oh, I love that, and the little rascals, as they are called now, is probably playing on TV all the time.
Speaker 1:Oh wow, it's just starting to.
Speaker 3:Yeah, oh, that's interesting, it's almost Black Mirror-esque. So he's struggling financially and he's watching himself as a child on TV not getting any residuals. That must be a little difficult to handle.
Speaker 1:Yeah, he started getting desperate. He was running out of money. But his mother-in-law was just like hey, if you guys leave Los Angeles, you can take our farm in Pretty Prairie, kansas.
Speaker 3:Go do it, baby. Pretty Prairie Kansas Sounds great, it's flat. Yeah, but they have a fortune You're taken care of.
Speaker 4:And if he waits a little longer he'll be able to do conventions, He'll be able to go to Comic-Con.
Speaker 3:I mean he's got to wait 60 more years, but yeah.
Speaker 1:Their son, Justin, was born that year. They divorced in 1957, and Diantha left him to marry this guy, Richard Roswell Eldridge, who adopted and raised Justin as his own.
Speaker 3:Who would have thought a Las Vegas marriage wouldn't last. That is how I'm going to get married, though, in Las Vegas. Whoever is the lucky lady out there, get ready for a Vegas wedding.
Speaker 1:Just don't go there with Andy Dick.
Speaker 3:I'm not going to go anywhere with Andy Dick and do not marry.
Speaker 4:Andy, dick, no, I'm good. So they took the kid away too. Yes, he's all alone.
Speaker 1:So, Diantha and Richard? Neither of them ever told their son who his real father was.
Speaker 4:Okay, diantha is diabolical, diabolical.
Speaker 3:Yeah Diabolical, yeah Diabolical. That's too bad, super sad yeah.
Speaker 1:So he's depressed, he's getting drunk, he's getting into fights. He's obviously miserable.
Speaker 4:Is he in Kansas during this?
Speaker 1:No, he's not in Kansas anymore.
Speaker 4:He went back to LA.
Speaker 1:He comes back to Studio City.
Speaker 4:Okay, yeah, nothing bad could happen there.
Speaker 1:No. On January 26, 1958, he was getting into his car in front of a bar in Studio City when a bullet went through the windshield and struck him in the arm. He survived. However, the gunman was never identified or caught.
Speaker 3:Now, was this an intentional shooting towards him or just crossfire?
Speaker 1:It was probably intentional towards him.
Speaker 4:He was getting in a lot of fights and getting really mouthy gotcha okay, so yeah, so it wasn't a surprise that he had people wanting to after him, hurt him yeah, okay that december of 1958 switzer was arrested in the sequoia national forest for cutting down 15 pine trees he was going to sell illegally as Christmas trees.
Speaker 3:I mean it's a little rascal crime that is such a rascal crime. Look at the forest boys, we're rich.
Speaker 4:And he had his friend Fatty with him.
Speaker 3:Yeah, oh, come on man.
Speaker 4:And he's an entrepreneur. That's the really tough part.
Speaker 1:Well, he forgot to get his business license Right. Yeah, he's not really tough part. Well, he forgot to get his business license Right. Yeah, he's not really an entrepreneur.
Speaker 4:But he's a go-getter. He's taking Laurence Olivier up to the mountains with the dog and cutting down trees to sell. He's not just sitting on his ass, go-getter is one way to Desperate, I think desperate yeah. Yes, but there's desperate with a plan or there's just desperate.
Speaker 1:Right.
Speaker 4:I don't know if he had a plan.
Speaker 3:If you cut down 15 trees. He had an ax. I think it was impromptu because, again, he didn't get any of the licenses or anything.
Speaker 4:He may have had an ax to grind, but he did.
Speaker 1:He was sentenced to one year probation and he was ordered to pay a $225 fine, which is more than $2,500 today.
Speaker 4:He was ordered to pay a $225 fine, which is more than $2,500 today. He was ordered to be Santa Claus at the mall. Yeah, the mean one. He would have loved the job. I know that sounds like a movie premise right there.
Speaker 1:Yeah. Absolutely In 1959, Switzer agreed to train a hunting dog for this guy, Moses Samuel Budd Stiltz. We'll just call him Stiltz.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I love it, stiltz. We'll just call him Stiltz. Yeah, I love it, stiltz, great Love it.
Speaker 1:Stiltz was Switzer's longtime friend and on-again, off-again business partner. I don't know if they were cutting trees down together or what.
Speaker 3:Well, I mean, if you're going to cut down trees with anybody, you want to do it with Stiltz? Yeah, get up there.
Speaker 4:Absolutely.
Speaker 1:Switzer and Stiltz. Oh, I love that band. They met while working together on productions with Roy Rogers.
Speaker 3:Roy is all over this story. Yeah, I don't get it.
Speaker 4:Why isn't Roy Rogers helping them?
Speaker 3:He doesn't know, you can't just help when you get picked up by an Uber driver. They're actors. You can't just go around and be like oh, you need the job, here's your job, Right.
Speaker 4:No, but come on, it's so different. Roy Rogers is doing the dog stuff with him and then also doing stuff on set. The expeditions.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I don't, but I think again, his reputation was probably all bad. I think people wanted him where he was.
Speaker 4:Yeah well, his punishment was being in that Snow White Oscars number. Roy Rogers was one of the elders in it?
Speaker 3:Was he really Check out that episode, by the way?
Speaker 1:Fantastic. So the dog, while Switzer took him out into the woods, ran away to chase a beer, a beer.
Speaker 4:A beer.
Speaker 3:A Budweiser. What you got on your mind? A bear, a bear, a drunk bear that drank beer.
Speaker 1:Yes, let's have a bear.
Speaker 3:And just took off and disappeared oh my god, dumb dog, dumb dog and stilts was like hey, I see that you're back from the expedition.
Speaker 1:Where's my fucking dog? And he was like, oh I got lost.
Speaker 3:He's getting hammered in the woods with this bear.
Speaker 1:You don't want to see him and he was pissed because he thought the bear ate his dog. So he's like all right, you're gonna pay me for my dog, which is 50 bucks, okay, and that's a lot of money back then it is.
Speaker 3:It's a lot of money now. So yeah, 250 was 2500, you were. What are you looking at? I mean, I can't do math, but a thousand bucks yeah.
Speaker 1:Switzer was working as a bartender at that point and he was unable to make with the cash. So he took out ads in the newspaper, which I think would be expensive too Right, but it must have been cheap enough for him to put out the ads in the newspapers, put up flyers, and he also offered a reward for the safe return of the dog.
Speaker 4:This is an episode again. It's of the little rascals. Yeah, I think missing dog. Right next he's gonna sell lemonade, that's not lemonade yeah, it's piss the thing is, I think ads were affordable back then because everyone was doing it. It's how you in a sense communicated right sure for the internet.
Speaker 1:Yeah, bulletin, bulletin board stuff eventually the dog was found and it was brought to the bar where carl switzer alfalfa was working there you go, the dog, the dog that chased the bear.
Speaker 4:Yes, showed back up, yeah and it wanted another beer.
Speaker 3:So it went to the bar yeah, exactly it.
Speaker 4:Like you should see the bear.
Speaker 3:Hello, fully milked and tired, I haven't come that hard in years. Thanks, dog.
Speaker 1:So Switzer rewarded the rescuer with $35 in cash and $15 in a bar tab.
Speaker 4:So that's his 50 bucks that he paid the guy. Now he gets it back.
Speaker 1:That's equivalent to $540. Okay $540.
Speaker 4:Great Wait, did Stiltz give him the cash back? No, what Don't you think that that's a you know?
Speaker 1:Yeah. So Switzer was annoyed by having to pay out the reward, because that's what they came to. He didn't actually pay him the $50. He paid the guy the rescuer.
Speaker 3:I mean, none of this seems like that serious, but I guess it is serious.
Speaker 1:Well, I mean 540 bucks. That's enough to piss somebody off.
Speaker 3:I would guess that's true, that's true.
Speaker 1:A few days later and he had a very emotional conversation with this friend, this guy Jack Piot, and he was a 37-year-old still photographer and and he was a 37-year-old still photographer, and the two just like riled each other up and he's like yeah, man, you should get that fucking money back from Stiltz. He should be the one to pay for that. He should be, I agree. So their argument was that they were going to go show up to this guy's house and say, hey, you pay him back now or there's going to be trouble.
Speaker 4:Uh-oh yeah.
Speaker 1:The yeah, yeah, the oj method, that's give me my stuff back. So this guy, uh, jack and carl switzer, they both went to stiltz's home in mission hills and they demanded the money. They went on a mission, yes in the hills yeah, they were. There are differing accounts of the events, but pretty much they all agree that silts was struck over the side of his head with one of his glass clocks.
Speaker 3:Wait, what glass clock? Why is this a cartoon?
Speaker 2:What is?
Speaker 3:happening.
Speaker 4:I've never heard of a glass clock before it's another episode of Little.
Speaker 2:Mask.
Speaker 1:You just clocked me with my clock. All right With a glass cock, no, a glass clock.
Speaker 3:Clock by Diane Falk. Oh, my lord.
Speaker 1:So this guy.
Speaker 4:Stiltz, and that was all over the paper too. It said Stiltz got clocked. Yeah, he got clocked.
Speaker 1:So they cave one of his eyes in oh my Jesus, and he runs to his room to grab his 38 and Switzer tries to wrestle the gun away from him. His account was that the gun goes off. It missed both of them, but it went right next to stiltz's stepson, 14 years old. He was there.
Speaker 3:yes, the whole family's there oh my god, the whole stiltz family so like we're just trying to eat our tv dinners here in peace.
Speaker 1:Uh, furious stiltz was able to kick switzer off and then shoots him he uses the stepson as a shield.
Speaker 4:Yeah, I'm sorry. What was what you said? Something serious. Yes, switzer got shot. Oh yeah, wow, yeah. So he's like. You almost killed my fucking kid.
Speaker 1:I'm gonna kill you okay, so this is the second you said something serious. Yes, Switzer got shot. Oh yeah, Wow yeah. So he's like. You almost killed my fucking kid. I'm going to kill you.
Speaker 3:Okay, so this is the second time he's been shot.
Speaker 1:Shot him in the dick.
Speaker 3:He shot him in the dick. Yeah, what Ouch. Okay, how is he doing?
Speaker 4:Well, how would you like to be shot in the dick? How?
Speaker 3:small is your gun.
Speaker 1:I need that like I need another hole in my dick. I don't have one of those.
Speaker 3:You don't have a hole in your dick. No, it's on the side.
Speaker 1:It whistles when a A real bell kilmer.
Speaker 4:Yeah, you thought those were the birds chirping.
Speaker 1:So Stiltz's account of the event was one of self-defense. He testified that Switzer had banged on his door yelling let me in or I'll kick the door in.
Speaker 4:To be fair, that is his home and his family's there that checks out.
Speaker 1:Got to protect your family.
Speaker 3:Absolutely. Stiltz is not in the wrong here.
Speaker 1:No, the threat was followed by a struggle that began with one of the men, either Switzer or Piot he doesn't remember striking him in the face with the clock. This prompted him to retrieve his firearm and, according to stiltz, switzer threatened him with a knife and yelled I'm going to kill you. And stiltz says he fired the shot into switcher's groin, which damaged an artery that caused massive internal bleeding and it did it damage anything else uh his life yeah switzer, was pronounced dead on arrival at 7 27 pm at the hospital at the age of 31.
Speaker 3:Yeah, there's a massive artery that goes in that part of the body. Yeah, wow, jeez, shot in the cock and died.
Speaker 2:He got clocked.
Speaker 1:He got cocked.
Speaker 3:He got cocked, clocked and put in a grave.
Speaker 4:Put that on your tombstone. Shot in the cock and died Usually cum. Put that on your tombstone Shot in the cock and died Usually. Cum shot means something else in Hollywood. Yes indeed.
Speaker 3:A gunshot is worse than a cum shot.
Speaker 4:Yeah, poor guy, although he was asking for it.
Speaker 1:Was he In a sense? What do you mean?
Speaker 4:Did you show?
Speaker 1:up somewhere with guns. Well, there's a differing account from a witness.
Speaker 4:Okay, let's hear the other side.
Speaker 1:So Stiltz's own stepson, tom cordigan, the 14 year old that almost got his head blasted off, a traumatic event.
Speaker 1:He must remember it too, because it was so scary yes, he has an account that differs significantly from that of his stepfathers. Okay, he told investigators that stiltz shot switzer as him and piot were leaving. After the gun's accidental discharge that almost hit him, switzer turned to piot and said they needed to leave, so he was so freaked out by that. Alfalfa was like we need to get the hell out of here. That was so scary, got you? Uh, the two were headed for the door.
Speaker 1:When stiltz then fired the fatal shot, he said that switzer never drew a knife, as his stepfather stiltz claimed he had okay, this is just the definition of fucking around and finding out, I guess yeah wow corrigan all because of a dog yeah, corrigan was never called to testify at the coroner's inquest and stiltz testified in his own behalf, so he's like you know I'm the best right his test, his testimony was taken to be truthful, despite the physical evidence that contradicted his account, because it did appear that he was shot from behind and it did hit him through the back of the leg, oh my God. Yeah, the shooting was judged to be self-defense.
Speaker 3:Did it take place in his house still.
Speaker 1:The shooting Right in the doorway.
Speaker 3:Yeah, so, oh, my goodness.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so during the inquest regarding the death, it was revealed that he actually did have a penknife that was found underneath him.
Speaker 3:Okay.
Speaker 1:So a tiny little.
Speaker 3:I mean they still went to this guy's house. They hit him in the face with a clock. I mean things are going to happen, yeah 42 years later, in January 2001,.
Speaker 1:Tom Corrigan had told reporters it was more like murder.
Speaker 4:It was more like murder, so he didn't like his stepdad.
Speaker 1:I guess not. It doesn't sound like they got along very well.
Speaker 3:Yeah, he really snitched him out, didn't he? I mean, that's putting it lightly. He very well could have been shot and killed by this bullet. Yeah.
Speaker 4:I know, and yet he's defending the guys that came over. Yeah, maybe he's a big fan, that's true.
Speaker 1:He said he heard a knock on the front door and he was there in the living room and he heard Carl Switzer say Western Union for Bud Stiltz, and that's why his mother opened the door and there were two drunk guys complaining about the month-old debt and demanding repayment.
Speaker 3:Hey honey, alfalfa's at the door. He says he's got a package for you. It's all so stupid.
Speaker 4:Western Union Flower delivery yes.
Speaker 1:He said that Stiltz claimed he was going to beat up his stepdad, but that Stiltz confronted Switzer with a .38 caliber revolver already in his hand, and that's when Piot broke a glass clock over his head.
Speaker 2:Okay.
Speaker 1:Causing his eye to swell shut.
Speaker 3:Man, I feel bad for that clock. I don't think I've ever seen a glass clock since. No, did it shatter? I guess it did, yes. Well, that's why his eye was all fucked up. You know just asking.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah. So Corrigan said he stepped out the front door when he heard but did not witness the second shot behind him. He said he turned and saw Switzer sliding down the wall with a surprised look on his face like you shot me.
Speaker 4:Oh my God, but what did he expect I?
Speaker 3:mean, if he was leaving, I think he wanted it to all just be done. Yeah, wanted it to all just be done. Yeah, All of this for 50 bucks Ain't worth it, mm-hmm.
Speaker 1:No, Piot was. Then he was being held up against the kitchen counter by stilts, being like I'll fucking kill you too. And then they heard the emergency siren. So the father got freaked out and let him go Okay. So that's the only reason that Piot didn't get killed as well. Gotcha Wow didn't get killed as well.
Speaker 3:gotcha wow, yeah and but he claims to his dying day that his stepfather lied in his account of the event.
Speaker 4:All right, oh, you know. Yeah, it's. Uh, there's a lot of gray area here.
Speaker 3:Yeah black and white. Indeed, it is not not much like the early version of yeah you get it, he was never.
Speaker 1:Or the newspaper that wrote sir, very good twain, yeah, good point he was never charged or arrested or anything, and stiltz died in 1983 at the age of 62, so he got away with it all right if it was a but he died young yeah 62 ish yeah I guess in those days that was more like 102 carl switzer was interred at the hollywood forever cemetery, where a lot of our you know artists are yeah on january 27th 1959, but this is also a episode that we covered last year.
Speaker 1:Uh, farrah fawcett died, and right after that michael jackson died right, and so she got same day buried before, yeah, same day, just hours later, uh, so her news got buried right before she got buried. This is exactly what happened to him right after he died.
Speaker 3:Cecil B Demille died uh well, you're gonna lose it. I mean, it is what it is. There's an award for this, cecil guy there is.
Speaker 1:There's no alfalfa prize.
Speaker 4:No, they don't even know he's dead yet it's all, cecil, they don't say I'm ready for my close-up alfalfa yeah, they don't.
Speaker 1:Switzer had appeared as a slave, uncredited, in one of the last films for which DeMille was credited as a producer the Ten Commandments really yeah interesting so RIP to Carl Switzer yeah, not a great way to go yeah, but remember his brother harold, that sang with him in the cafeteria.
Speaker 1:That also got signed, yeah, sure, while he never got the same amount of fame he was pretty much like an extra in the little rascals, uh but he was hired to appear in some of the films. Well, eight years after the death of his brother he was operating an appliance sales and repair company. So he would sell you a washer and dryer and do the maintenance on it if they need yeah he ends up getting into this major argument over a payment dispute with a customer and in a blind rage he killed his customer what?
Speaker 4:there you go. And it was 50, yeah it could have been um.
Speaker 1:He was so freaked out after he kills this dude I would hope so he drives to a remote area in Glendale, California, and kills himself in his own car.
Speaker 4:Yikes, I mean he couldn't have been happy at his job.
Speaker 1:Yeah, he left behind a wife and five kids at 42 years old.
Speaker 4:And a bunch of appliances.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so I'll just run through pretty quickly the lesser known rascals that also died crazy deaths. Okay, wow, scotty Beckett. Scotty couldn't get any work after the rascals and pretty much took it out on everyone. He would get into bar fights and brawls all the time. He had a criminal record for fighting and several drinking and drug-related offenses. In early 1957, he was arrested for possession of 250 tablets of Speed.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, living life in the fast lane. Yeah, he was. Four days after the arrest, he smashes his car into a tree with permanently crippling effects. He was unable to work in films any longer.
Speaker 3:Yeah, dang.
Speaker 1:This was too much for his wife, who divorced him that year, and right after that he was arrested again for drunk driving.
Speaker 4:Okay, well, good for him. Sounds like a menace.
Speaker 3:Sounds like a depressed former child actor. Yeah, right, after that A rarity.
Speaker 1:Yeah, beckett marries a woman named Margaret. The following year, in the depths of his drinking, he attempts to kill himself. In 1968, he got into a bad fight and was savagely beaten by people like destroyed uh. He checked himself into a medical facility and had only been there two days when he actually did take his own life with an od of barbiturates at 38 years old what about barbiturates? Yeah, they're a real bitch.
Speaker 3:Yes, yes indeed.
Speaker 1:Ricky Mickey Daniels. Long estranged from his wife and children, he died alone in a San Diego hotel room in 1970. Cause of death the cirrhosis of the liver, and years had passed before his remains were claimed and identified by his family, so they didn't even know where he was. Wow.
Speaker 3:Like Bobby Driscoll.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 3:I wonder if they started drinking real young.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think they did On the set of the Little Rascals. Yes, Daniels was 55 when he died and he is currently buried in an unmarked grave.
Speaker 4:Do we know if the kids were all into drugs and alcohol?
Speaker 1:They did get into it early. Yeah, wow, there was some drinking and stuff.
Speaker 4:So there was more than one roach on that set.
Speaker 1:Wow, yeah there was some drinking and stuff, so there was more than one roach on that set as that got older, because they started realizing, oh my God, we're aging out of this and a lot of kids were getting replaced. And so when they started seeing that turnover, they were like they could see it coming.
Speaker 4:Right, they're like we got the new Darla and Petey coming in today. Yeah.
Speaker 3:Yeah, just swilling back whiskey at 11 years old, a haggard 64-year-old longshoreman.
Speaker 1:Yeah, speaking of Darla, darla contracted hepatitis that was her real name. What she had a burst appendix and needed to get an emergency appendectomy contracts hepatitis while getting blood for it and dies at the age of 47. Oh my God. One year later after that, william buckwheat thomas, a neighbor who hadn't seen him in several days, entered his home and found him dead in bed oh, how'd buckwheat die heart attack that's the best one, yet that's the in his sleep.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you'd hope he's asleep how old, was he 49 oh, so that's, oh, that's young still yeah, a weird thing of note that there was a major reporting error 10 years after his death. This is so goddamn funny. This there's. This wacko who worked as a grocery store bagger in arizona said he was the guy who played buckwheat on abc's 2020. They did an entire story on this guy, bill english, who just completely lied, oh my god. And they they put it on air good for him.
Speaker 1:Wow, keep buckwheat alive yeah, so the la time says 2020. Producer resigns over buckwheat interview. He takes responsibility for the bogus story. William thomas, who portrayed the our gang character, died 10 years ago, in 1980.
Speaker 3:Oh, my God.
Speaker 1:Yeah. So they said what are they?
Speaker 4:supposed to vet people that come on their shows? Yeah, something like that.
Speaker 1:Guy had the best excuse. He said that the reason he changed his name and didn't sign any autographs was because he didn't want it to interfere with the store's operations. The supermarket.
Speaker 3:Yes, all right, you don't want it to interfere with the store's operations. The supermarket yes, all right, you don't want to mess that up.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so let's see this clip here.
Speaker 3:If I came out as Buckwheat, the deli would be slammed.
Speaker 4:So this is the original piece from 2020, and then at the end of the clip is a current affair. Talking to Spanky, actually, who outed the fake Buckwheat yes, we found him at Smitty's supermarket where he's the most popular bagger for miles around. Hello there, how y'all doing.
Speaker 2:Ah, bump on me.
Speaker 4:hey, hey everybody.
Speaker 2:He won't sign autographs because he says if he did he'd never get any work done. All he needs is to feel useful. You serve your public in some way I don't know how you put it but you just don't sit down and think about yourself. Good guy, nice lad, good guy. Abc realized they had been hoaxed after Spanky himself called 20-20 and told them Buckwheat Billy thomas had been dead for ten years. With us now is george mcfarland, who played spanky and also joining us that the billing, but probably a lot of george.
Speaker 2:What was your reaction when you saw bill english say he was buckwheat on television? Well, my, my first reaction was uh, uh, what, mr english? Why did you do this? Come forward and say that you're buckwheat. Give me what I do there. I know I'm buckwheat oh, god, my first reaction was what, what?
Speaker 4:oh my god, he sounds like old spanky oh my so spanky lived yeah, he didn't live too much longer after that, though yeah, but it wasn't miserable the way he died no so spanky had a pretty good final uh couple of years he did all right, it's good, and I love how that was a big time for barbara walters. She was getting to the bottom of the gerbil story yeah and getting to the bottom of buckwheat Right so funny.
Speaker 1:So buckwheat wasn't the only black kid that was on it, there was also Stimey. He was the one that had the derby hat the circular hat, of course.
Speaker 1:He ended up being a high school dropout and he fought a heroin addiction for more than 20 years, Was frequently in and out of prison because he was trying to commit crimes to pay for the drugs. It's an awful cycle. Yes, indeed, rascally rascal, and he beat the habit in the 1970s but passed away in 1981 from pneumonia, following a stroke where he fell down and smashed his head and never regained consciousness.
Speaker 4:For 81, that's very old for a rascal that was 1981.
Speaker 1:He was 56. Oh. Still old for a rascal. Yeah, that was the year I was born. Welcome back, Stymie here in the reincarnation of stymie I'm him 2020 should go get you I know robert bone dust young fell asleep while smoking in bed in 1951 and then he turned to bone dust. He died in the ensuing fire at age 33 that's dude. That is like what do you think I was gonna say? The fire put itself out. I'm sorry, have you been here for the last hour? Oh?
Speaker 3:no Dude, people used to just die smoking all the time.
Speaker 1:All the time.
Speaker 3:Jeez, my friend's mom used to smoke on the couch constantly and he used to save her life all the time.
Speaker 1:Jesus.
Speaker 4:Yeah, how many kids' houses did you back in the day that had cigarette burns all over the couches?
Speaker 1:Oh, that was my house, yeah, oh that was your house. Yeah.
Speaker 4:Oh, very nice, that was your bed.
Speaker 1:Yeah, my parents fucking smoked like four packs a day. It was insane.
Speaker 3:Different time. Different time 2004. Yeah, I mean, you know, it was a different time, 9-11. People were stressed out.
Speaker 1:Stressful you you know the war going on.
Speaker 4:Uh, jay pinky smith, he was stabbed to death in 2002 by a homeless man he'd befriended who was living behind his house. Oh, 2002, so this?
Speaker 1:is much later. He was 87 years old, the guy. The guy stole his car, dumped his body, uh, in the desert outside of las vegas like he was a friggin mob hit.
Speaker 4:Oh my god like 87, so this guy is in his 80s. Yes, not the year 87. It's 2002. Yes, so he survives all that time. He's like man, I'm the oldest living rascal. Then he gets fucking stabbed.
Speaker 1:He felt bad for the homeless guy that was living behind his house and he was like hey, man, come live with me, Get your life together.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it was pretty nice and the guy went crazy and killed him. Yeah, we cover some stories like that on OK Bud 2. You just never, you can't. The elderly are oftentimes victimized.
Speaker 1:Yeah, this person was victimized Dorothy Dandridge. She committed suicide in 1965 after losing all of her money in a phony investment scheme. Oh no, Dorothy Dandridge.
Speaker 4:The Dorothy Dandridge.
Speaker 1:Dorothy Dandridge. She was 41.
Speaker 4:What did she?
Speaker 1:have to do with the rascals. She was one of the lesser known Rascals.
Speaker 4:But you know, there's the Dorothy Dandridge, where Halle Berry played her in a movie the singer and actress. She's a legend.
Speaker 1:Dorothy Dandridge.
Speaker 4:I didn't know that she may have been involved With the Little Rascals or appeared in it. Wow, there's a whole movie about her with Halle Berry. We'll have to watch that yeah we'll have to find out. No, wow, there's a whole movie about her with Halle Berry.
Speaker 1:We'll have to watch that. Yeah, we'll have to find out if that was the same one, but that's the one I got here.
Speaker 4:Or maybe it's like the buckwheat thing, where there's a fake one. Yeah, could be.
Speaker 1:Then we have Kendall Breezy, brisbane McComas. He committed suicide in 1981, two weeks before being forced into retirement as an electrical engineer.
Speaker 3:Welcome back.
Speaker 1:Breezy, he was 64.
Speaker 4:Wow, oh man. And then he didn't want to retire.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 3:Well, I guess he did want to retire, in a sense.
Speaker 1:He was going to feel useless. Mm-hmm, oh, darwood, waldo, kay. Waldo was the rich kid with the glasses who Right the kid in the movie.
Speaker 1:His donald trump is his dad yes, yes he competed with spanky and alfalfa for dollars affection. Right in 2002 he was struck and killed by a hit and run driver while walking on the sidewalk, coming home from church because he became a seventh day adventist pastor. And uh yeah, some guy just fucking drove up on the sidewalk and got away with it. They never, never found him. All right, he was 72.
Speaker 4:Did they find some ancient artifact on the set of our gang that everybody?
Speaker 1:rubbed Serious the piss lamps.
Speaker 4:Yeah.
Speaker 3:This is insane. It's the revenge of the piss lights.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and this is a big fact None, not one. There was 176 kids that played the Little Rascals over the entire 22-year run. Not one of them ever received a residual or a royalty from reruns or licensed products with their likenesses.
Speaker 3:Wow, that's horrible, there was even one kid.
Speaker 1:Who? And Hal Roach? This is why not everybody's totally good. He would get money from Paramount Studios or MGM for $25,000 per kid, and then he would get money from like paramount studios or mgm for like 25 000 per kid, and then he would give them 50 a week oh my so it's like why are you paying the producer? Who's paying them?
Speaker 4:so he wasn't a good guy. Yeah, it's you know.
Speaker 1:I bet he died happy and rich I will leave everybody with this hal roach, who outlived many of his child stars and died in 1992 at the age of 100. And he also got an Academy Award at 92. Ooh, mama For what it was like an honorary. Oh, okay, yeah, he never believed the kids were cursed. He said quote naturally some got into trouble or had bad luck.
Speaker 4:He's like that's how people die.
Speaker 1:They're the ones who made the headlines. But if you took 176 other kids and followed them through their lives, I believe you would find the same percentage of them having trouble later in life. Let us take that to.
Speaker 3:Final Thoughts Hollywood chews you up, spits you out. You can't base your self-worth on that industry and it's unfortunate because in this time frame, as Alejandro alluded to, you can have a career forever. Now you know when you're a child star, you can do the cons, you can have your own Insta page and all that stuff. There was no avenue for them, yeah. So I'm sure that was pretty devastating. And again, to see yourself on TV constantly and be dead broke must be a mindfuck. That's what it is. And again, to see yourself on TV constantly and be dead broke must be a mindfuck.
Speaker 1:That's what it is. I think a lot of these troubles would have been avoided had they been afforded the luxury of getting some royalties on the dolls that look exactly like them the lunchboxes.
Speaker 3:The DVDs, the VHSs everything.
Speaker 1:That's a billion-dollar franchise that they could have easily paid out on and the Comic-Cons now that too.
Speaker 4:The cameos of it all. Yeah, they would have been very popular absolutely so.
Speaker 1:It's very sad, and uh rip to everybody who was lost by the curse and, I guess, the alfalfa in the 94 version.
Speaker 4:This guy named bug hall yeah, he's a religious loon now, oh, and he got kicked off of twitter a few years ago and he believes in like corporal punishment for his kids. Oh god that the wife should just bow down to him. He has a big duck dynasty beard. Yeah, that's about the worst curse I could find for the new one, wow oh my gosh besides that, it doesn't seem like any of them really acted again as adults.
Speaker 1:No, no, it doesn't seem that way.
Speaker 4:Nope, definitely not. Well, you know what Our gang? They were funny.
Speaker 3:They were funny and they all died like gangs.
Speaker 4:They died like gang members.
Speaker 3:They were all shot and killed or died of drug overdoses or alcohol House fires, house fires, smoking, I mean they're little rascals. I mean, they died the way their characters, much like Tony Soprano and James Gandolfini, died, just like him. They died as if their characters were real.
Speaker 4:Yeah, and I hate to say it, but if you took the sound out of all their deaths and added sound effects and made it black and white and sped it up a little, it'd be kind of funny.
Speaker 3:It's funny, the clock. Yeah, exactly, the glass clock. What time is it?
Speaker 4:And then you got the fake buckwheat.
Speaker 3:I mean, this is sort of that fake buckwheat's pretty fantastic.
Speaker 1:Yeah, sort of humorous. That guy would not back down he sounded very educated.
Speaker 3:It's full of fake buckwheat. He's like yes, yes, I don't want to interfere with the supermarket, I don't want to let anyone know I'm actually buckwheat and also well-trained in sticking to the story.
Speaker 4:Yeah, never deny it.
Speaker 1:Borderline sociopathic.
Speaker 3:Sure, but they loved him at that Smitty's grocery store, and I am just upset that they, back in the day, they used to have grocers who would actually put your groceries in a bag. Now you're going to do it yourself.
Speaker 4:These days you go to Ralph's the self-checkout. They don't even want to give you a bag.
Speaker 1:Yeah, they don't even say oh tay, Nothing Very good.
Speaker 4:Yes, RIP little r everybody? You've got mail, yay, oh my goodness, and it's not being delivered by hell roach, no.
Speaker 3:Or froggy, thank god, poor froggy yeah, that's pretty yeah, you know, he died doing what he had to, not what he loved yes, on our latest episode, hollywood urban legends, volume three uh doug runkle oh runkle oh good, old runkle.
Speaker 1:He said another great show found you guys because of ben. Now I'm working my way through your whole library. You guys rock rock and roll uh, we also have been corrected numerous times. Uh, the heaven's gate comet was hail bop, not haley's comet, like we said on the show whatever it's the same shit figure it the fuck out.
Speaker 4:Mark twain was born and died during hayley's comet yes and we thought it was the same one where the yeah, exactly, might as well be.
Speaker 1:It's a comet yes, the hayley joel osment comet oh, it's a very anti-semitic well, he was drunk.
Speaker 3:Wait, who hayley joel?
Speaker 4:he's anti-semitic he got arrested. I don't know the latest stuff, you can't just bring that up. Oh, fill you in.
Speaker 1:Oh, him says fucking great episode. Love you guys. Y'all get me through my day.
Speaker 3:Nice.
Speaker 1:And where's the bear said. Nice change of pace, guys. There used to be a website called paulisdeadcom. It went into things like difference in height, facial structure, eyes, eyes and earlobes not being the same, etc. Even compared voice patterns. All of it would make you a believer in the fact that Paul McCartney was replaced.
Speaker 4:All right, sure, why not? All right? We're going to check that out then, because I'm 50-50.
Speaker 1:It's got to be on the Wayback Machine. We can see some of those Figure it out.
Speaker 4:Remember that song Paul McCartney did speaking in 9-11? Freedom. Probably McCartney did speaking of 9-11,. The freedom, oh I do remember that that's not Paul McCartney.
Speaker 1:I hope not. That's Billy Shears. Okay, I hope not. So he was in the towers. Yeah, they replaced the replacement.
Speaker 4:Oh, I see what you're saying Double replacement. Because, that's even worse than the other solo music from the 80s. Wow, so they keep having to replace the replacement.
Speaker 3:Jeez, vietnam gave us really great music.
Speaker 4:Yes.
Speaker 3:Sure, that was the only good thing about that war.
Speaker 4:Those were the days. Yeah, and Oliver Stone movies yeah, that's true.
Speaker 3:All right everyone. Thank you so much for listening Again. Check out OK Bud as well. And Patreon patreoncom slash diebud.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 3:OK, so Patreon, patreoncom slash diebutt. Yeah, okay. Thank you all so much for your support. I hope you enjoyed the episode, made you laugh and think a little bit. Hail yourself.
Speaker 4:And until next week, don't go dying on us.
Speaker 2:Bye, bye-bye you have just heard.
Speaker 1:A true Hollywood murder mystery. I have never seen anything like this before.
Speaker 2:The movies, Broadway, music, television, all of it.
Speaker 1:A place that manufactures nightmares.
Speaker 3:Okay everybody.
Speaker 2:That's a wrap.
Speaker 3:Good night. Please drive home carefully and come back again soon.