Exclusive
Interview with Our Gang actor Dick Jones
by
Mike David and Steve Wichrowski
Our Gang star Dick Jones
squeezed in a few minutes to sit down with me and roving reporter
Steve Wichrowski at the recent Williamsburg Film Festival for his
second interview with The Nutty Nut News Network. In this
interview you'll hear him talk about a specific scene in the Our
Gang short "The Pigskin Palooka" which was filmed from September 18
- 25, 1937. (If you have a copy of this, "Dickie" is easy to spot as
leader of the opposing football team and wears jersey number 29.) He
also tells us about going to school with the other Our Gang members,
and indeed a Roach Studio memo notes that there were five teachers
present on the days the scenes were filmed at a field in Culver
City.
This
time around Mr. Jones didn't recall too much from being in 1934's
"Babes in Toyland" but he did recall more in his 2007 interview
which is also available at our website here. The timing of
this new interview was significant since it occurred during the week
when Walt Disney released the 70th Anniversary dvd edition of the
1940 classic "Pinocchio", and it was a youthful Dick Jones who
provided the voice for the title character. You can hear him reveal
a behind the scenes account of what it was like to actually record
the dialogue with other voice artists at the Walt Disney studio.
Dick also discusses his recent participation in the "Extras" dvd
which accompanies the restored version of the film.
I had
a chance to talk with Mr. Jones before and after the interview and
he was very friendly and accomodating. I showed him a copy of some
of the pages from our website here and he was impressed with all the
content and was pleased to see his photographs from his 2007
interview, and I also gave him an audio copy of that.
We
hope you enjoy this interview with an actor who was eager to share
his experiences in movies which, even though they were filmed so
many years ago, still bring so much enjoyment to us all today
Our
roving reporter, Steve Wichrowski, Jr., conducted a brief but
entertaining interview with Dick Jones in 2007.
To
listen
