We got some emails about our post yesterday featuring a You Tubed tribute to Carl “Alfalfa” Switzer, one of the stars of Hal Roach’s “The Little Rascals” — an incredibly gifted child comic actor whose life came to a tragic end.
A reader emailed me THIS LINK to a colorized 1937 Little Rascals Short “Night ‘N’ Gales” — one of my favorites. Note that I have absolutely NO PROBLEM with colorization. If it’s done tastefully — as this one is — it makes film comedy that should live forever more accessible to younger people, who have a hard time watching anything in black and white.
Here’s the You Tube embed. If it does not go to the end, click on the link and watch it there. I also found info on the colorized collection, which you can buy on Amazon, and the icon is below (I will order it for my collection of classic comedy to take with me on my 8 weeks on the road this summer). All of these kids were incredible and Switzer was a fine comedian. Watch it and see:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4c6fm5AfNP4&feature=related
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.