Election Day

Production Notes[]

Length: Two Reel
Producer: Hal Roach and Robert F. McGowan
Director: Anthony Mack
Photography: Art Lloyd
Editor: Richard Currier
Titles: H. M. Walker
Writer: Hal Roach
Released: January 12, 1929
Studio: M-G-M

Main Cast[]

Supporting Cast[]

Baldwin Cooke - Gangster
Clarence Muse - Farina and Pleurisy's Father
Dick Gilbert - Gangster
Ed Brandenberg - Pedestrian
Gene Morgan - Police Officer
Ham Kinsey - Bystander in town
Jack Hill - Gangster
Louise Beavers - Farina and Pleurisy's Mother
Retta Palmer - Bystander in town

The Short[]

Plot: Farina and Pleurisy are stuck delivering the laundry their mother takes in, much as Farina did with Ernie back in Saturday Morning. Unfortunately, the other Rascals are up to some nasty tricks. Jay R. and Joe are running (for a position that is never explained), and expect Farina and Pleurisy to elect one of them. The two are threatened by the candidates, preventing them from leaving their yard to deliver the laundry. To get out of electing (and fighting), they try a number of disguises which fail; the only one that works is hiding in the scarecrow which scares even their parents. They finally get into town and get caught up in the plot of the Pool Room Party to loot the ballot boxes. The two of them unwittingly foil the crooks and return the lost ballots hidden in their laundry wagon, but none of this impresses mother who is upset that the laundry wasn't delivered.
Quotes:

"You don't cross that line till I'm elected!" - Jay R. Smith
"Pull 'em up or take 'em off --" Farina to Pleurisy regarding her "plus fours" which keep falling down.
- "Pull 'em up or take 'em off --" Pleurisy mimicking Farina after she sees a chicken with white hair on its legs resembling Pleurisy's plus fours.
"We gotta catch him before he starts votin'" - Joe

Notes/Trivia:

The visual gag with the cloud of dust kicked up by Farina and Pleurisy's parents was borrowed from Spook Spoofing and reused in "Way Out West" by Laurel and Hardy.
This was the last appearance of Jackie Condon in the Our Gang series. Having been absent in the series since the short, Growing Pains, he had appeared in seventy-eight shorts over seven years; only Allen Hoskins, George McFarland, William Thomas Jr. and Joseph Cobb would beat him in the sheer number of shorts completed.
Much like several of the Rascals who left Our Gang over the years, no mention is made of Jackie after this short or what happens to him. Many of the Rascals left the series before adolescence or as their contracts expired. In Joe Cobb's case, it's suggested some of their characters stayed in the neighborhood and just went to other schools since he appeared as a patron in Our Gang Follies Of 1938. Afterward, many of them went on to college like Mickey Daniels and Mary Kornman in The Boy Friends. While this is never really expanded on, it is likely with the high turnover in characters that many of them moved away with their families.
In available prints it is never explained why Joe and Jay are so determined to prevent Farina from leaving his yard and voting, but a missing open title card explains a lot: "The trouble started when Farina threatened to vote eight times against each candidate."

Sequence[]

Previous Short: The Spanking Age
Next Short: Noisy Noises