Posted on 03/12/2015 2:04:56 PM PDT by lowbridge
You are welcome.
I saw Mr Buckwheat Thomas at Turf Paradise horse track in Phoenix,AZ in 1979. They brought him out in the winners circle and announced he was there. He just waved to the crowd.
Yup; here’s the video:
https://screen.yahoo.com/eddie-murphy-snl-skits/buh-weet-sings-223446547.html
Er....
Here:
https://screen.yahoo.com/buckwheat-buys-farm-000000954.html?query=buckwheat buys the farm
Not sure if Ben is kidding around because thats not buckwheat. He was an imposter who was featured on ABCs 20/20.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XGq1kHwREnc
http://articles.latimes.com/1990-10-12/entertainment/ca-2106_1_william-thomas
Not sure if Ben is kidding around because thats not buckwheat. He was an imposter who was featured on ABCs 20/20.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XGq1kHwREnc
http://articles.latimes.com/1990-10-12/entertainment/ca-2106_1_william-thomas
Ouch. Sorry
Looks like I got suckered.
Cool picture:)
Real name, “Billie Thomas”.
He served our country:)
“After Our Gang was discontinued, Thomas enlisted in the US Army in 1954, and was released from active military service in 1956 decorated with a National Defense Service Medal and a Good Conduct Medal.
After returning to civilian life, Thomas faced a dilemma shared by many of his co-stars from Our Gang. Though offered many film and stage roles, he had no desire to return to Hollywood as an actor. “After the Army, I wasn’t really interested in the hassle of performing,” he explained shortly before his death in 1980. “Even the big stars had to chase around and audition; it seemed like a rat race to me, with no security.”
However, Thomas still enjoyed the film industry at large, and had a successful career as a film lab technician with the Technicolor corporation. He ably took his experience in film work and learned the trade of film editing and cutting.
Sons of the Desert Convention
In 1980, the Second International Convention of The Sons of the Desert took place at the Los Angeles Hilton Hotel, with more than 500 fans in attendance. Several days were spent touring famous Hollywood attractions, and then the highlight of the gathering took place in the hotel ballroom. Among those honored were fellow Our Gangers Spanky MacFarland, Dorothy DeBorba, Tommy Bond and Joe Cobb. When Thomas was brought out, he received a spontaneous standing ovation, and was moved to tears.
Death
Thomas died of a heart attack in his Los Angeles apartment on October 10, 1980, 46 years to the day after his mother brought him to audition at the Hal Roach Studios.[1] Thomas is interred at Inglewood Park Cemetery in Inglewood, California.”
One more thing:
“Comedian Eddie Murphy did a series of Buckwheat sketches on Saturday Night Live during the 1980s. Thomas’s co-star George McFarland, who played “Spanky” in the Little Rascals, did not like Murphy’s imitation, saying that Murphy turned Buckwheat into a stereotype at the expense of Thomas’s surviving relatives.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Billie_Thomas
OMG ROFL ROFL That is a classic from Eddie Murphy skit on SNL.
Thanks for the clarification. I recall that Spanky McFarland confronted the guy face to face as a fraud.
I liked them all.
Farina,
Stymie (It’s an Artichoke! “Well, it may have choked Artie but it ain’t gonna choke Stymie!”),
Buckwheat.
Back in the 1950s SPANKY landed as host on a kid show out of Tulsa Oklahoma. We saw lots of the Little Rascals movies on that station.
He later said he hated the show as it made him dress up like an adult kid Spanky.
Loved “Our Gang” when they used to play all the time on the early days of TV - “Yum. yum, eat ‘em up!”.....
Great historic photo.
ping
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.