Robert F. McGowan
Director
Our Gang...Mack, nephew of the series' main director back at Roach, Robert F. McGowan). Robert A. McGowan was credited for these shorts as "Robert McGowan"; as a result, moviegoers have been confused for decades about whether this Robert McGowan... In this article: Our Gang, Hal Roach, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, The Little Rascals, Robert F. McGowan, King World, and Billie "Buckwheat" Thomas |
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Wikipedia | October 31, 2009
Matthew Beard (American actor)
...would stay on until the series disbanded (Billie "Buckwheat" Thomas). The name "Stymie" was provided by Our Gang director Robert McGowan, who was always frustrated ("stymied") by little Matthew's curious wanderings around the studio; the...
In this article: Our Gang, Matthew Beard, Billie "Buckwheat" Thomas, Trademark, The First Round-Up, Synanon, Heroin, Hal Roach, Dickie Moore, and Robert McGowan
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Teacher's Pet (1930 film)
...your entertainment and approval, ''His Rascals, in their latest Our Gang comedy entitled Teacher's Pet.'' first twin) Direction by Robert McGowan.... second twin) ...photography by Art Lloyd... first twin) ...edited by Richard...
In this article: Teacher's Pet, Our Gang, Jackie Cooper, Ice cream, Hal Roach, Bored of Education, and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
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June Marlowe
...to drift away from acting. By chance, she happened to meet Our Gang director Robert F. McGowan one day in a Los Angeles, California department store. McGowan was searching for an actress to portray the schoolteacher in the Our Gang series...
In this article: June Marlowe, Our Gang, Parkinson's disease, Hal Roach, Jackie Cooper, Los Angeles, and Wampas Baby Stars
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Mary Ann Jackson
...winsome miniature heroines who would populate the series before and after her tenure. In 1933, longtime Our Gang director Robert McGowan wrote in an Los Angeles Times feature that they normally preferred to cast children who had no...
In this article: Mary Ann Jackson, Louise Brooks, Our Gang, Los Angeles Times, Los Angeles, Rudolph Valentino, Jackie Cooper, and Ruth Taylor
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Norman Chaney
...in Los Angeles, California has him born in 1918 or 1919. In the late fall of 1928, Our Gang producer Hal Roach and director Robert F. McGowan began to look for an overweight child actor to replace Joe Cobb in the series. Joe was twelve...
In this article: Norman Myers Chaney, Our Gang, Joe Cobb, Hal Roach, Maryland, Baltimore, Railroadin', Surgery, and Myocarditis
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Robert F. McGowan
Robert Francis McGowan (July 11 1882 - January 27 1955) was an American film director and producer , best known as the senior director of the Our Gang short subjects film series from 1922 until 1933. Before moving to Los Angeles,...
In this article: Our Gang, Hal Roach, California, Divot Diggers, Curley, Who Killed Doc Robbin, Shivering Shakespeare, Allen "Farina" Hoskins, and Paramount Pictures
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Our Gang (film)
...series. Fred Newmeyer directed the original version of this short, shot in January 1922. After preview screenings, Roach brought in Robert F. McGowan and Tom McNamara to reshoot the film (following their work on two other Our Gangs, Fire...
In this article: Our Gang, Hal Roach, Fire Fighters, Young Sherlocks, Tom McNamara, Pathe, Charley Chase, Fred Newmeyer, and Little Rascals
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Wild Poses
...is two-reel (twenty minute) short subject in the Our Gang (a.k.a. The Little Rascals) series. It was produced and directed by Robert F. McGowan for Hal Roach Studios and first released on October 28, 1933 by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. It was the...
In this article: Wild Poses, Our Gang, Laurel and Hardy, Matthew "Stymie" Beard, Bedtime Worries, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, Tommy Bond, and Franklin Pangborn
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Fred C. Newmeyer
...also titled Our Gang; his version tested poorly, and producer Hal Roach scrapped most of the footage and remade the short with Robert McGowan as the director. Newmeyer, after directing numerous other shorts at Roach, would return to the...
In this article: Fred C. Newmeyer, Our Gang, Hal Roach, Harold Lloyd, The Pinch Singer, Arbor Day, Male and Female, Girl Shy, The Freshman, and Safety Last
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New York Times | November 10, 2008
New DVDs: It's Spanky and Gang: Hold on to Your Beanies
...exhausted by the stress of dealing with the dozens of child actors who passed through his care. But McGowan clearly had a profound rapport with children. He didn't work from scripts, but instead guided the kids through structured...
In this article: Our Gang, Hal Roach, Spanky, MGM, Irving Berlin, Warner Home Video, This Is the Army, and Luis Bunuel
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Description from Wikipedia:
Robert Francis McGowan (July 11 1882 - January 27 1955) was an American film director and producer, best known as the senior director of the Our Gang short subjects film series from 1922 until 1933.
Before moving to Los Angeles, California, McGowan was a firefighter in his native Denver, Colorado. An on-the-job accident during a fire rescue mission left him with a permanent limp.
McGowan moved to California in the 1910s and made the acquaintance of Hal Roach, an aspiring film producer who opened his own studio in 1914. By 1920, McGowan was a director at the Roach studio, and in 1921 began work on the first entries in the Our Gang series.
The Our Gang series was at its most popular and successful under McGowan's direction; when he became ill in the late-1920s and had to turn over the director's chair to nephew Robert A. McGowan (Anthony Mack) for two years, the series faltered. McGowan was a natural with kids, and knew how to explain scenes and comic business to his young charges to elicit convicing performances out of them. His favorite Our Gang kids were Allen "Farina" Hoskins, Mary Kornman, Matthew "Stymie" Beard, and George "Spanky" McFarland, whom McGowan declared a "natural". McGowan's daughter Jerry was an actress and dancer herself; she would often sit in on Our Gang story meetings and appears onscreen in Shivering Shakespeare (1930), directed by her cousin Anthony Mack.
McGowan left Our Gang in 1933, after no longer able to bear the strain of dealing with stage mothers and the other hassles of directing child stars. He moved over to Paramount Pictures, returning for one last Our Gang short (Divot Diggers) in 1936 , and retired from directing in the 1940s. He died in Santa Monica, California on January 27 1955 at the age of 72.
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