Darn Right It's Butch: Memories of Our Gang, the Little Rascals

by Ronald Genini

This is the autobiography of one of the original Our Gang-Little Rascals featuring Spanky, Buckwheat, Alfalfa, and of course Butch. Tommy Butch Bond takes us on a nostalgic trip to Hollywoods Golden Age. Bond played with many luminaries of that time of glitter and imagination including Eddie Cantor, Laural and Hardy, and Herbert Marshall. He takes us behind the scenes and tells us about movie magic with candor and humor that is both fascinating and heartwarming. From his adventures with Our Gang, to his role Jimmy Olsen in the first Superman Serials, and on through his 64 films, Tommys story will entertain and delight you.

Genres: Nonfiction

192 pages, Hardcover

First published April 1, 1994

Reviews

[Samantha Glasser · Rating 3 out of 5]

Tommy Bond's biography reveals that although he is best remembered for playing a bully, he was actually a pretty nice guy who started with the Rascals as one of their friends. Bond's story covers going from being an ordinary kid to slowly breaking into show business, and the 2 week car ride to California to try to make it big. His career didn't stop with the Our Gang, but that is what he is famous for, and he didn't mind the recognition.

The book is detailed enough for those with no knowledge about early Hollywood to understand it. However, this makes it so those who do know a lot about it might feel a little bored. Bond jumps around a bit chronologically but always finds his way back to where he began.

Bond does a good job of using expert sources to back up his information, especially Leonard Maltin and Richard W. Bann's book about The Little Rascals, but he does not use a bibliography.

This isn't expert writing, but it is easy to read and it is quite enjoyable.

[Rex Hurst · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the autobiography of Tommy Bond, best known as the character of Butch in the Our Gang (aka The Little Rascals) series of shorts, and as the original Jimmy Olson in the two Superman serials – Superman vs. the Spider Lady and Atom Man vs. Superman. Apparently he was offered the role of Jimmy Olson on the George Reeves TV series as well, but turned it down as he was developing a career behind the scenes in the wide open field of television. With close to ninety credits to his name on IMDB, this books offers a firsthand account of child actors in old Hollywood, tidbits of life working on the Our Gang series, and – most interesting to me - a look at the early days of television, a medium Bond worked in from the 1950s, when it began to boom, up until the late 80s.

This isn’t the greatest written work, but it’s concise and sticks to the point. He was one of those child actors who actually had decent parents and managed to keep himself from going off the deep end. He wasn’t an alcoholic or became addicted to drugs. In fact, he presents himself as pretty level-headed man, who worked hard, loved his family, and forged a decent life for himself. Thus the book does not have an artificial level of drama. Also bear in mind, that Our Gang series ran from 1922 until 1945, thus had various waves of characters came and went, the series eventually boasted at least a hundred different characters. Tommy Bond was part of the “Golden Era” of shorts – along with Spanky, Darla, Alfalfa, Buckwheat, Stymie - which produced its most memorable episodes. As only those who would be interested in the Our Gang series will read this, I don’t really have to say this is for nostalgia lovers. If you have no idea what the Our Gang series was or have no interest in reading about old-time television this isn’t for you.