Hugh Chapman: A New Rascal
Sunday, July 29th, 2007
It’s always a distinct pleasure to meet a newly-discovered indentifiable performer from the Our Gang series. Although admittedly only playing a minor role in the Little Rascals, Hugh Chapman is my latest example this. He appeared in three of the Hal Roach one-reelers in 1937: The Pigskin Palooka, Glove Taps, and Mail and Female. He subsequently made a return to the Our Gang in 1939 after the series had been sold to M-G-M, appearing in Time Out for Lessons and Clown Princes. Read the rest of this entry »
While the day’s earlier events are now relatively lost from memory, I can distinctly and vividly recall most of the evening’s activities on Thursday June 29, 1995. The afternoon doubtlessly consisted of Laurel and Hardy location scouting and cemetery haunting. But this was the night that the Los Angeles Conservancy presented a screening of the Alfred Hitchcock masterpiece Vertigo in the majestic State Theatre. I arrived grossly under-dressed and Bob and I prepared to pounce on one of the evening’s special guests while we waited in line to gain entrance to the theater. 
This is a continuation of the memoir I wrote shortly after my October 2005 Hollywood trip, which began 
In a previous 
I had really enjoyed Daniel Stern’s performance in Barbra’s Wedding, a story about an out-of-work actor and his wife living next door to Barbra Streisand on the day that a wedding was taking place at her home…and they weren’t invited. He was also the author of the play and I found it very funny and extremely entertaining. The fact that we were in the front row and that the actors were practically performing in our laps didn’t hurt either. I also really liked Stern’s work in City Slickers, Home Alone, and as the narrator on the TV show The Wonder Years.