'Alfalfa' Was an Asshole

He's the guy who opens the gym floor in It's a Wonderful Life.

I read he liked to piss on the lighting equipment on the set of The Little Rascals so that when lights were turned on it filled the set with his stench. What a hilarious asshole.

Alfalfa went to seed.

o-tay!

He was always a motherfucking asshole. What a piece of shit loser!

Sounds like a little rascal.

He was a real cowlick.

He taught me all I know. If only he'd had an IG account to share the travails of faded child stardom, as I do, he might have survived..

He was fabulous.

R1, his name was Othello.

Wasn’t Harry Bailey a doll?

Oh yeah?

Well guess what, OP?

I'm STILL an asshole!

See?

[quote]his name was Othello.

His name was Freddie. The guy says "what's the matter, Othello, jealous?" because Freddie was so pissed that George stole his date.

^ I believe he said "Lothario," not "Othello."

Is that Alfalfa's spawn at r11?

R14-I'm pretty sure it was Othello. Back then, the average movie goer would have gotten the reference.

He tortured his younger brother, Brussel.

There's an interesting story about him later on when he became an adult. He was in a room with a group of men when a man with a trained bear showed up. He told 'Alfalfa' to put his face near the bear just to show him that the bear was tame and wouldn't hurt him. 'Alfalfa' refused so the man put him own face near the bear - and it bit into his face. He dodged a bullet on that one!

^ Alfalfa knew a wild beast when he saw one.

Spanky used to do things to poor Alfalfa. What things? Well, let's just say Spanky really lived up to his name on this one.

Told you I was ourGANGSTA!

R14 Sheesh all you want. He says Othello.

He was handsome as an adult. Shame he couldn't work well with people or he might've gone further in Hollywood.

Dionne Warwick actually recorded a hit song that was a musical tribute to the beloved, troubled little fella . . . . . . I'm sure you all remember it !

🎼 [italic] What's It All About, Alfalfie ?

You had me at the thread title, OP !

R23 Cute kid however he became an ugly adult.

^ Funny. I think he was a fug kid who became handsome as an adult.

[quote]I believe he said "Lothario," not "Othello." —Sheesh!

You are completely wrong. Perhaps he refers to him as "Lothario" earlier, but in the scene in question - when he's about to open the gym floor - he specifically says "Othello" and it's specifically in reference to the fact that Freddie is seething with jealousy over Mary dancing with George.

[quote]He was handsome as an adult.

You and I have different notions of "handsome," r23. Here's mine:

He was basically common white trash who had no conception of how to comport his life in an upstanding way. Most likely he was mentally ill, but back then no one looked into those sorts of things until things got so wild there was no other alternative, and then they just threw them into a mental institution and doped them up.

R30 = Frances Farmer, who knows.

Is the picture at R23 a young Cosmo Kramer ?

What's the big deal? He was just a bratty little kid. Of course when he grew older his career waned and he was harassed by people who would razz him by saying "Hey Alfalfa, sing off key!" He died at age 31, shot during an argument with someone over a small amount of money (fifty dollars). A critic said "it was a sad ending for someone who'd brought so much laughter to others."

I imagine he had real shitty parents.

He was a real loser, take it from me Scotty Beckett

^ Wow, that Scotty Beckett was a piece of work himself.

Seems some of these "little rascals" grew up to become legit rascals: Alfalfa, Beckett, Robert Blake...

Alfalfa has BDF for days in that pic R23.

Did he have a freckled asshole?

Some people couldn't cope. I did quite well.

"Most likely he was mentally ill"

Um, yeah, nice try. He was the Redmond O'Neal of his day - an neglected punk, a ruffian, a sociopath, a criminal.

Aw Miss Crabtree, you can call me Chubsy Ubsy

Robert Blake grew up to be no walk in the park.

Little sociopath

In r23 he looks just like a guy I knew in high school who was a scary, aggressive asshole.

He is the most famous person from Paris.

wasn't he also a low-level bagman for the mob, too? I read a post somewhere about it but it might have been bullshit.

I suppose Butch was a real sweetie.

Hes not gorgeous per se , but there was something sexy as hell about him as he aged . I agree he had BDF for days.

[quote] Most likely he was mentally ill, but back then no one looked into those sorts of things until things got so wild there was no other alternative, and then they just threw them into a mental institution and doped them up.

Yeah, things are much better now that we let the mentally ill sit in the oval office instead.

R47 Tommy Bond was friends with Alfalfa as a kid but went behind the scenes and lived in Fresno most of his life. All signs are that he was a very nice man and married to the same woman for like 50 years.

He grabbed my no-no spot .

^^ signed Darla

Learn that poem. Learn that poem.

He raped my chubby anal hole .

Was he the brother shown in a picture in White Christmas?

R44, it's too bad the teachers couldn't just beat the shit out of those assholes; it's really the only thing they understand.

He must've really pissed someone off to have gotten shot in the nuts.

Butch grew up to be Jimmy Olsen in the Superman serials.

He also did behind the scenes work on Laugh In.

Now that you mention it, Alfalfa did have crazy eyes. But he was a gas on that show.

What become of Alfalfa's son? Did he have BDF, too?

DL sleuths, find out and report back with pics!

About his ex-wife and son:

"Heiress of the grain elevator empire Collingwood Grain, Inc. and first wife of murdered Our Gang actor Carl "Alfalfa" Switzer who met and married the troubled child star on a blind date in Las Vegas, Nevada in 1954 and became the mother of his only known son Justin Lance Collingwood-Switzer, but the marriage lasted less than two years, ending in divorce in 1956."

I had no idea. I though Alfalfa was his only role then he disappeared into a sad, anonymous life.

Child stars, probably big risk of being molested by pedos. That's why they end up completely fucked up.

R63, there was a pedophile among the 'Our Gang' directors - Gus Meins, senior director for some sixteen of the films, 1934-36. I have no idea if he troubled any of the Rascals actors.

Here he is with the kid Elizabeth Taylor in 1942. They also acted together four years later in one of those Lassie films.

Robert Blake was once known as Bobby Blake.

[quote] there was a pedophile among the 'Our Gang' directors - Gus Meins, senior director for some sixteen of the films, 1934-36. I have no idea if he troubled any of the Rascals actors.

No doubt he did. Pedos who find a way to work with children usually do.

Alfalfa (Carl Switzer) had an older brother, Harold!

Harold also appeared in some of the Our Gang episodes, mostly as an extra.

And he had a turbulent adult life:

"Though not saddled with the same problems his younger brother was faced with due to being typecast as a "child star," Harold had his own problems. For several years, he operated a Speed Queen Company franchise, installing and servicing washers and dryers. In 1967, after killing a customer over a dispute, Switzer drove himself to a remote area near Glendale, California and committed suicide. He was 42.

Harold "Slim" Switzer is interred at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery in Hollywood, California, alongside his brother Carl."

Allen Hoskins's derogartory character, Farina, the archetypal pickanniny, belied his upper middle class, Boston bred upbringing.

Here he is, out of "costume" with his mother.

Hal Roach, the studio head, once said of Hoskins, "I think Farina particularly was one of the finest natural actors we had in the Gang. He could cry great big tears in just a few seconds. You’d think his heart was breaking then they’d cut the camera and he’d be back playing again."

He woulda been a upstanding citizen of Pottersville.

A guy who orders hard drinks to get drunk fast.

Not the kind trying to add "color" to the joint, if you know what I mean.

He was probably passed around in Hollywood in order to stay in pictures and that messed him up.

More details about his death with good photos of him.

According to a witness who was a young teen at the time, Alfalfa wasn't killed in self defense:

The truth, or the closest thing to it, wasn’t disclosed until 2001, when a reporter took the testimony of a 14-year-old boy. Of course, Tommy Corrigan wasn’t 14 any more. He was 56, a San Fernando Valley character who dressed like a movie cowboy with a ten-gallon Stetson, and was owner and face of the western-themed Corrigan’s Steakhouse, the most popular eatery in the Valley. Tom Corrigan was Crash Corrigan’s son, and later, stepson to Bud Stiltz. He was the kid who was in the room when Alfalfa and Bud engaged in their fatal combat.

Tommy had just walked out the front door when he heard another shot. Then he saw Alfalfa, looking surprised as he fell back against the wall and slid to the floor, shot in the groin. “It was then,” Cason wrote, “Corrigan spotted a closed penknife at Alfie’s side, He figured it either fell out of his fist or his pocket.”

Meanwhile, Stiltz had Jack Piott backed up against the kitchen counter at gunpoint, shouting that he was next. Jack cried and begged for his life. Rita screamed at Bud not to shoot. The sirens were approaching. This time, Bud Stiltz backed off.

In this version, Alfie didn’t lunge with a knife. The gun didn’t go off in the heat of battle, or in self-defense. Tom Corrigan told Colleen Cason, “It was more like murder.”

Also...

"According to his bride, money was scarce because Alfie never learned to read. “He was very bright but he needed help reading the scripts,” Dian Collingwood recalled many years later."

He looks pretty hot here !

His son, Justin Lance Collingwood-Switzwer (aka "Lance Switzer"), is a small time theater actor.

^ Alfalfa's son Lance is also a fat lighting director.

Alfalfa wore heavy makeup to play a 100 year old Indian in Track of the Cat (1954).

Has Miss MacGillicuddy commented?

I need a long, hot purifying shower after reading all of the above.

Arguably, this ranks among Datalounge's most depressing threads

Close your eyes and think of Dickie Moore.

"Alfalfa made most of his money between the ages of seven and twelve. His parents spent it all. As he grew into and out of his teens, he worked steadily in character roles with diminishing returns, always immediately and distractingly recognizable as Alfalfa."

Tell me about it!

He never called me Spanky or George. He called me "Fat Fuck."

Re: Robert Blake, Bobby Blake, Michael James "Mickey" Gubitosi. I have no doubt Mickey/Bobby was molested as a kid. Anybody who ever saw him on Carson during his "Baretta' days saw he had issues.

R79, that's MISS CRABTREE!!!!

Seems like he enjoyed killing animals, which is usually not a sign of a nice person.

Another Alfalfa in trouble

Documentary about Alfalfa's life, with new details suggesting his death by gunshot was most likely not accidental.

Looks like it WAS Othello.

[quote] Switzer played the role of Freddie Othello in the Christmas film ‘It's a Wonderful Life’ in 1946. The same year, he acted in the movies ‘Gas House Kids´ and ‘Courage of Lassie’. The following year, he starred as Alfalfa in the comedy films ‘Gas House Kids Go West’ and ‘Gas House Kids in Hollywood’ respectively.

Wasn’t there another kid from the little Rascals that ended up dying on skid row as a junkie?

Found him it was Matthew Beard

It's a shame he couldn't make hay while the sun shone and find real success.

Matthew Beard had cleaned up by the time he died, but it was too late apparently.

Bug Hall also had nude photos