FOUND! LOST OUR GANGSTER -- IN 2 L&H PIX -- Part II

Question: And ON THE LOOSE?

Bud McDonald: That's the one where I came down the slide in the fun house. That was great. We were on location over in Venice for a week, shooting the fun house scenes at the Venice Pier. We had the whole place to ourselves and I was the only kid there! The police department detailed scores of cops to keep all the crowds and sightseers out of this huge amusement park. Merry-go-rounds, roller coasters, shoot-the-chutes, ferris wheels, mechanical airplanes, the fun-house -- I did all that stuff every day. Think of that. I got skinned and plenty of bumps and bruises. What fun.

I had a ball, with all those rides to myself, but Hal Roach wouldn't let me go down that one slide until the last minute when they were ready to film it. The assistant director came down the slide head first, while the cameraman was hooked to the back of him and had a huge camera. So he was going down backwards in order to face me! Then I followed them down the slide for the first time so they could capture the surprised expression on my face. It was a long, bumpy ride and slide, I dropped the sucker, and I had big eyes all the way down. That was a thrill worth waiting for.

After it was all over, and I saw the scene, I understood why I couldn't get on the slide until they were ready to shoot it. They wanted the very first and wide-eyed expression that I had racing down that slide. And it was a one-shot deal, we only did it once. That was the way Mr. Roach liked to work -- fast. He seemed to be a busy guy! He had figured it all out beforehand, raced through the directions he gave us, and we all had to execute the scene.

I think he was a little impatient. He would say, "That's good," and it meant we got it right. As I say, on the first take. Everyone applauded in congratulations. It was a complicated shot; even as a kid I knew that much. They were all gleeful, applauding themselves. Roach just smiled. He never got excited. I got pats on the back, "You did good, Buddy, you did good."

And then I could ride the slide all I wanted to.

Comment: The man at the top of the slide, the actor playing the attendant who got you going, was then doing bit parts and working in the Hal Roach Studios casting office -- Gordon Douglas. He later directed Our Gang, Laurel & Hardy, and something like seven big feature pictures with each of Alan Ladd, Elvis Presley, and Frank Sinatra.

Bud McDonald: Well, I'll be damned. I never knew who that was.

Comment: The first picture he directed with Our Gang was called BORED OF EDUCATION, it was a slick remake of TEACHER'S PET, and won an Academy Award as the best short subject of 1936.

Question: Since it was shot back in the studio, I don't imagine you were there when Laurel & Hardy filmed their cameo to conclude ON THE LOOSE, were you?

Bud McDonald: No, I don't recall the bit about Laurel & Hardy in ON THE LOOSE.

Question: What else do you remember about Hal Roach directing Thelma Todd and Zasu Pitts in ON THE LOOSE (which up until the very last minute was going to be released under its working title of HOT DOGS)?

Bud McDonald: He put the sucker up Thelma Todd's dress! I saw that!

Thelma Todd was a gorgeous, gorgeous woman, and sweet, both of them were; Zasu Pitts was as nice as could be.

I was supposed to have this sucker when I got on at the top of the slide. It was actually made of wood, it wasn't a real lollipop. Then I came down the slide, all shook up, and I dropped the sucker. I lost it. So next when Thelma Todd came down the slide it got caught up, it ran up inside her dress, her skirt, and got stuck there. At the end of the slide she realized she had picked up something on the way, but she had to look to see what it was. Roach was the one who put the sucker up there where he wanted it, and outlined the thing with chalk on her skirt. He did it himself, so you could better see the imprint the sucker made underneath the dress. Then while they used a closeup of her face, I supposedly reached up her skirt to pull my sucker out, and so she screamed, turned around, and I said, "I paid a nickel for that!"

She screamed, like she'd been goosed or something. Roach was actually the guy who also pulled the sucker out from under the dress. She just stood there, I suppose she was a little embarrassed, I can't remember that, we are talking about events of a long time ago! Anyway, somebody had to get in there and pull my sucker out, and Roach was the boss! But Thelma Todd ... what a beautiful woman.

Hal Roach was a little aloof, I would say. Not like McGowan, who was really into we kids and vice versa. McGowan was a wonderful, wonderful man. And as I say, I liked Jack Roach. I was sort of a pet of his, and got to spend time with him, even in his office. Their father was there too on the lot -- C.H. "Pop" Roach, they called him. He signed our checks, and I think Jack Roach gave them to us. Sometimes we got paid daily, other times at the end of the shooting or the end of the week. And God, that was a lot of money for those days. My dad would've worked for five dollars a week in those days.

But Thelma Todd, I never forgot her. She was as nice and as sweet as she looked. And she was absolutely gorgeous. To a little kid's eyes, or anyone's. The only other one who could compare, was Marion Davies, whom I saw one time down at M-G-M. She had an angelic look, a glow about her that was something special. Thelma Todd had that same aura about her. Just those two.

Now, I was a child, but you only had to spend a short time with her to see she was pretty, and also learn she was pretty inside, as well. Because she was so nice to us kids wherever we would see her around the studio. Just a wonderful person.

Comment: Hal Roach said there was no one, ever, better liked at his studio than Thelma Todd.

Bud McDonald: I'll tell you who else was nice to the kids in the Gang: Oliver Hardy. He was another one who showered us with attention. We kids used to roam all over that studio, what a great playground, and when we weren't busy filming we could sneak onto the stages where Laurel & Hardy or Thelma Todd or Charley Chase were working. We knew to keep quiet. We had to keep quiet on our own sets.

It was fun to watch Laurel & Hardy doing their stuff. Laurel was the more energetic one, always laughing, entertaining. He seemed to be having such a great time. Oliver Hardy had more of an affinity for me. He liked me. He would swing me up and I could ride around on his shoulders. I was a big shot then, riding around atop Oliver Hardy! He'd carry me around from the backlot, or the stage, right up front to the Our Gang Cafe. You can't imagine the good times we had being a part of all that.

Question: We have a shooting script and one still photograph to document the scene you filmed with Laurel & Hardy for an ending sequence of PARDON US, which was cut. Not used.

Stan and Ollie were shown as old men, with beards, fishing by a picturesque river stream. It was actually the Ballona Creek in Culver City, not far from Hal Roach Studios and the same spot where scenes from SCHOOL'S OUT (1930), FISH HOOKY (1933), and FORGOTTEN BABIES (1933) were shot.

Ollie is shown in a wheel chair, Stan is fishing -- of course it was his true favorite pastime. You are one of the two boys they advise in their old age about their misspent youth and lives. Stan concludes, "It all goes to prove that you can't be too careful." At least that is what the script calls for. Then he moves the stone acting as a break holding Ollie's wheelchair. Down the incline Ollie careens into the river as you and Stan and the other Our Gang kid, Bobby Mallon, watch in stunned silence. Presumably, Ollie flails around in the creek, or maybe drowns!

Question: And HOOK AND LADDER?

Bud McDonald: I was on the back of the hook and ladder trying to drive the thing and they had to pull me off of there. Don Sandstrom had to take over. I was supposed to steer from back there, but it was difficult for me and also a little dangerous. Scary, too. I allowed the contraption to get away from me, and it scared us all, so the assistant director took over. I just didn't know how to steer it. The thing wasn't meant to swing side to side; I couldn't keep it running straight. It must have looked funny because even after Don Sandstrom took over steering, it continued swaying back and forth. This time on purpose. I was lucky I didn't kill somebody on the city streets!

Question: How does it strike you now to look back and see something like that you filmed more than seventy years ago?

Bud McDonald: When I reflect on all this now, the times gone by, it's all part of living. Look back a hundred years. In 1901 only fourteen per cent of all the homes in the United States had indoor plumbing. I can remember using outhouses, and especially when we were picking fruit. In 1901 there were but 800 miles of paved road in the U.S. I remember a lot of those times.

A guy in our neighborhood flew a biplane around. He'd land in a vacant lot where Florence and Atlantic is now, in Bell. He'd fly in, land, then walk to his mother's house. He'd buzz the house a couple times first before he landed, to let his mother know he was coming home to fix dinner! You don't see anything like that nowadays.

A kid and I had a paper route in Bell after we came back from Oregon. The movie days were finished for me, and my earnings had all gone to my parents. I had nothing. The kid and I pooled our resources and saved our money until we had enough to buy a 1921 model-T Ford. That car cost $5! F-i-v-e dollars. We bought four used tires from the wrecking yard, and by golly, we were in business. I didn't have a driver's license, I wasn't even old enough to have a license. But cops didn't bother us, as long as we were behaving ourselves. It was a whole different time and era.

Comment: Time travel is part of the appeal of these films; some little fragment of what you're talking about was captured in Hal Roach comedies. Particularly since, unlike big budget features, they were filmed out of doors, using actual, authentic locations. Showing real people doing real things. No one intended to document a particular time and place -- how people looked and what they did and said -- even as it was vanishing from the scene, but it's a happy consequence of this kind of filmmaking.

Question: Did you ever come back to visit Hal Roach Studios?

Bud McDonald: Never did. I drove by there one time to show my wife where it was. I told her about the fun we used to have, because not only was it fun being in the pictures themselves, but we spent the rest of the time entertaining ourselves. We invented games to play, and did a lot of prowling.

God, if we weren't shooting a scene, bingo, we headed for a stage where something else was going on. So we'd snoop -- search for adventure. We got to know every nook and cranny of the lot. Where to hide. Where the fun props were. Where something good was shooting that day. As I say, we knew to be quiet. "Silence!" they would yell, then start filming. So you could sneak in and see what Laurel & Hardy were doing, or anybody. I was surprised to see those two smoked, because they didn't in their movies.

Question: Do you recall anything personal about Charley Chase? You had bit parts when they needed a kid in several of his films.

Bud McDonald: He was a funny, funny man. His humor was droll. In one of the pictures, my line was, "Help! I swallowed twenty-five cents!"

He said, "You mean you swallowed a quarter?"

I said, "No, it was two dimes and a nickel." I think he was playing a druggist.

Question: Maybe the way to conclude this is where we began, where you were called upon as "Buddy O'Donnell" in SCHOOL'S OUT.He said, "You mean you swallowed a quarter?"

I said, "No, it was two dimes and a nickel." I think he was playing a druggist.

Question: Maybe the way to conclude this is where we began, where you were called upon as "Buddy O'Donnell" in SCHOOL'S OUT.
One older kid has given everyone trick answers out of a joke book, to aid in their assignment that day. You guys are still innocent enough not to know they're making a mockery out of the day's lesson. Miss Crabtree is getting angry, and warns, as stern as she could be, "Somebody's in for a real trouncing." She calls on you to recite, and asks, "On Paul Revere's night ride, what did he say as he stopped his horse in front of the colonial homes?" You glance down at your desk to find the answer....

Bud McDonald: He said, "Whoa!"

-- by Richard W. Bann --