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 
My memories of Denise’s birth are confined to just a few seconds of standing in Grandma and Grandpa Murphy’s family room, looking through the sliding glass patio doors at my parents pulling up in the driveway in our ’72 AMC Hornet, exiting the car, and carrying my new sister into their house. Obviously, this is where I was dropped off as my parents headed to the hospital. In addition, although I can’t remember it specifically, there is a great Super 8 film that my Dad took of my Mom and me getting out of the car and bringing Denise Anne into our Echo Hill front doors for the first time. This was taken on Tuesday, April 13.