
Acting
Joe Cobb
Born 1916-11-07 · Shawnee, Oklahoma, USA
Born in Shawnee, Oklahoma, Cobb auditioned for producer Hal Roach's comedy series at the age of five. He appeared in 86 Our Gang episodes during seven years, and had three guest appearances in the serial in the 1930s. His first Our Gang short was The Big Show. Cobb appeared in the Our Gang series' last silent film, Saturday's Lesson, and its first talking short, Small Talk. He was a recognizable character, with chubby cheeks and a trademark beanie cap. Some sources indicate that his final film with the Gang was Bouncing Babies; however, he does not appear onscreen in that short. His last film as a regular cast member was the previous entry Lazy Days, but he would also return for cameos in three more shorts over the years: Fish Hooky, Pay as You Exit, and Reunion in Rhythm. After his acting career ended in the early 1940s, Cobb became an assembler for North American Aviation, a division of Rockwell International. He retired in 1981. Cobb died of natural causes on May 21, 2002.
Acting credits
6.9The gang creates their own railroad after being chased from a local railyard, and competes with Toughie.
The Sun Down Limited
1924
5.1While the other kids and animals find things to do on the farm, Farina becomes single-minded in his quest to do nothing at all.
Lazy Days
1929
6.6Mr. and Mrs. Weedle are desperate to find two babies, for their rich uncle has sent them money for years thinking they have children. Now that he’s coming into town, the couple must find a pair of babies as soon as possible. The Our Gang kids are ready for the job, but a 27-year old midget is also in the running for the job and he doesn’t play fairly.
Baby Clothes
1926
7.3A couple makes dolls modeled on neighborhood kids. A gardener at a mansion buys four of them for Mary, the girl of the house. He's her only friend: her parents neglect her for work and card games and her governess is humorless. Mary loves the dolls and dreams of them during her nap. While Mary sleeps, the governess throws the dolls in the dust bin. Mary wakes and goes searching - outside she runs into the very same four kids who were the dolls' models, and she thinks she's still dreaming...
Mary, Queen of Tots
1925
6.9Harold Meadows is a shy, stuttering bachelor working in a tailor shop, who is writing a guidebook, The Secret of Making Love, for other bashful young men. Fate has him meet rich girl Mary, and they fall in love. But she is about to wed an already married man, so our hero embarks upon a hair-raising daredevil ride to prevent the wedding.
Girl Shy
1924
9.0Robert Preston hosts this documentary that shows what people of the 1930s were watching as they were battling the Depression as well as eventually getting ready for another World War.
Going Hollywood: The '30s
1984
6.0Mary Ann Jackson and Bobby "Wheezer" Hutchins are the children of a widowed inventor who are forced to endure the cruelties of their stepmother and stepsister. The kids get even by rigging a few clever contraptions of their own. In the end the father sells a patent worth millions. Before that, the Our Gang kids bring out out the old "alum" gag, along with several other tried-and-true comedy bits.
The Spanking Age
1928
8.0Living in an orphanage, the gang has to deal with Amanda, a child-hating spinster. To receive a bequest from a rich uncle, she must acquire a child. Thinking suspicion, the gang causes all kinds of havoc toward her including a mud battle.
Fair and Muddy
1928
5.3A young man visiting Hollywood on family business gets into trouble when he sees a bank robbery in progress, and thinks it is a movie scene.
45 Minutes from Hollywood
1926
6.8A brash young American aristocrat attending Oxford University gets a chance to prove himself and win the heart of his antagonist's sister.
A Yank at Oxford
1938
6.2With Wheezer's new baby brother getting all the attention, he tries to send the baby back.
Bouncing Babies
1929
6.2The Rascals have a boxing arena that could pack them in if they could find fighters who would actually mix it up. Harry and Farina notice a rivalry between two very large young kids, Joe and Chubby, that would fill the bill if only the two heavyweights would put aside their gentle natures. Farina gets an idea: tell each of the lads that the other will take a dive in the second round. So the fight begins and the stands are filled; but will the combatants actually throw a punch? Ernie has one more trick up his sleeve to get the fists flying and the crowd on its feet. Sweet science indeed.
Boxing Gloves
1929
6.3The gang creates its own makeshift county fair, highlighted by a "movie," which is really a clever stage performance.
The Big Show
1923
9.0A hypnotist comes to town and puts the gang in animal-like trances. Now that the spell is off, the gang returns back to their usual roles. But then while at an afternoon tea social , the spell returned, ruining a perfectly good afternoon.
Heebee Jeebees
1927
7.5Farina and Joe fib to the gang that they've beaten up the neighborhood bully. Later, they hear he's been murdered and think they'll get the blame.
Telling Whoppers
1926
6.0In this musical comedy, a motley band of musicians have only their extreme poverty in common. They end up writing a hit and getting a recording contract. The trouble is, the composer's works are never played without another band member doctoring them up to make them swingier. Fortunately, the composer isn't too averse to the changes as he has just won the heart of the beauty who sings his revamped songs.
Where Did You Get That Girl?
1941
NRJoin all your favorites—Spanky, Buckwheat, Alfalfa, Darla, Butch, Froggy and more—in a jam-packed special covering more than twenty years and 200 episodes of Hal Roach's inimitable brand of childhood magic. This fascinating video offers insight into the Gang's personal lives, as rare footage follows each member's career through the joys and misfortunes that went along with being one of America's most beloved kids. See how the series began in 1922 and changed after the first all-talking release in 1929, why Shirley Temple and Mickey Rooney never made the Gang, a fifteenth anniversary reunion, and clips from their only feature.
The Our Gang Story
1994
7.0Steve Allen hosts this collection of clips of some of the greatest comedy teams in movie and television history, including Our Gang, Laurel and Hardy, The Marx Brothers, Burns and Allen, The Three Stooges, The East-Side Kids, Abbott and Costello, and Martin and Lewis.
Classic Comedy Teams
1986
6.0The gang is playing around the railroad station, and Joe and Chubby's father, an engineer, lectures against the kids playing in such a dangerous area. True to his word, after Joe and Chubby's father leaves, a crazy man starts a train with most of the kids on it, save for Farina who is nearly run over several times. Once Farina manages to climb aboard himself, the kids attempt to stop the runaway locomotive, but have no luck until the engine crashes into a grocery truck. As it turns out, however, the entire incident is revealed to be a dream Farina had as Joe and Chubby's father lectured the kids about rail-yard safety.
Railroadin'
1929
6.5Your Own Back Yard is a 1925 American short silent comedy film directed by Robert F. McGowan. It was the 43rd Our Gang short subject released. Farina is having a very bad day, especially by his friends-very cruel playing nasty tricks, etc. Heeding his mother's advice to stay "in your own back yard," he does just that, feeding jumping beans to his chickens.
Your Own Back Yard
1925
7.1In this Our Gang film, James Finlayson plays the gang's schoolteacher who takes the kids to Europe after winning a local contest. He takes them on a tour of Naples, Pompeii, Rome, the Vatican, Venice, London, and finally Paris, where problems arise on top of the Eiffel Tower.
Seeing the World
1927
6.5The circus is in town and for one day only. By pretending to be sick some of the gang members were able to play hooky from school so as to attend the festivities.
Circus Fever
1925
6.8The gang has a taxi, consisting of an old Model T with no engine, pushed by a horse. When the owner takes his horse back, they must rely on motorists to tow them to the top of the hill so they can coast down. Little Farina borrows the car and it runs out of control all over town, causing mayhem everywhere it goes.
One Wild Ride
1925
8.0One of a handful of currently unavailable Hal Roach/MGM “Our Gang” silent films, School Begins was a series of gags built around the unenviable ritual of returning to school during the first week of September. School begins and some gang members are forging notes from their mother wanting out. Then too-young Wheezer parades by the school with escaped circus seals following him, causing a disturbance.
School Begins
1928