Words can never adequately describe the thrill of meeting an former Our Gang member whom I’ve never met before for the first time. It plays tricks on the mind to realize that a kid who was in such an iconic group of motion pictures, particularly ones that have been solidified in my psyche for the past forty years, is now the very same person standing directly in front of me, now fully grown, in living color, and three dimensional. In the current day there are so few Little Rascals left with us, that it adds an even greater dimension of poignancy.
Such was the case with meeting Betsy Gay when she appeared at the Laurel & Hardywood Sons of the Desert convention in Hollywood on July 4, 2014. Betsy has appeared in four of the Our Gang films between 1936-1938. With a time period such as this, it is obvious that she was not a core member of the game but rather subcontracted through an outside agency known as the Famous Broadway Artists for various roles, including her debut appearance as a dancer in The Pinch Singer in 1936.
As adorable as can be
But she could be sassy too!
Betsy takes the stage second from right in The Pinch Singer
Her role was a little more prominent in her next appearance later that year when she starred as one of the Gang members’ classmates putting on a performance in Arbor Day. The most memorable of appearances however came a year later in Our Gang Follies of 1938 when she played one of the homely girls swooning to Alfalfa’s swooning. She was known as “Effie” by then, and the fact that she was recognized as Alfalfa’s girlfriend would play a part later in her life. Her final appearance with the Gang was in 1938 in Came the Brawn, in which she was little more than a face in the crowd during the boxing match between Alfalfa and Butch.
Betsy is second from left in Arbor Day
Signed still from Arbor Day
Betsy (left) admires the King of Crooners in Our Gang Follies of 1938
Signed still from Our Gang Follies of 1938
And with that her Our Gang career came to a close… but her life in show business was just beginning. Although she would go on to appear in a number of other feature length movies, often speaking, singing, and yodeling, among them the Marx Brothers’ At the Circus and the 1938 version of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, her real calling did not prove to be celluloid.
As the story goes, she was asked to sing and yodel in an Andy Clyde short subject in 1941, which she quickly learned to do by listening to The Stuart Hamblen Radio Show on KFWB in Los Angeles. Music soon took center stage in her show business career as she participated in her family’s radio performances, having been trained well by her parents, who operated a music school in her hometown of Waterford, Connecticut. It wouldn’t be long until she herself was regularly featured on The Stuart Hamblen Radio Show.
During one such appearance on February 2, 1945, which happened to be on the occasion of Betsy’s 16th birthday, the host Stuart Hamblen has a surprise for Betsy: he brought on Carl “Alfalfa” Switzer as a special guest. Since Stuart had often teased Betsy about being Alfalfa’s girlfriend on screen, he often joked with her that Alfalfa was her real-life boyfriend. This led Stuart to dare Alfalfa to give Betsy a birthday kiss, which wound up being the very first kiss of her life!
On her sixteenth birthday Betsy and Alfalfa reunite
Alfalfa inscribed this photo to Betsy “my best girl”
Over the next 25 years, Betsy’s career path took her from popular radio shows, to regular appearances on TV shows such as Hometown Jamboree, Town Hall Party, and Country America, plus guest appearances on The Mike Douglas Show, her own records, and then into live performances until the early 1970’s.
Among her legacy – outside of her music – are her five children, two of whom appeared as the infant Judy Benedict in the movie Giant with James Dean, Elizabeth Taylor, and Rock Hudson, and her sixteen grandchildren.
With Betsy in 2014
Meeting Betsy was definitely one of the highlights of the convention, and she was as sweet as can be, bringing her show business background and charm to her on-stage interview and autograph signing afterward.
I consider myself and everyone at the convention lucky that we found Betsy Gay.
The Our Gang celebrities of the Laurel & Hardywood 2014 will continue…
Hi Brad, Loved the article! Thank you so much for it-great job! Love, Betsy
Betsy Gay
March 18th, 2018
Brad, What a wonderful article. Betsy Gay married my Uncle Tom Cashen, so she is my Aunt. She was appearing on Town Hall Party (I believe) when they married. I loved her records and yodeling. Thanks for writing about her,
Linda Cashen Gaunt
Linda Cashen Gaunt
March 21st, 2018
I will never forget my aunt Betsy yodeling outside of the Chinese restaurant in Isleton Ca !! You have given me many fond memories xoxoxo
Terry Cashen
March 28th, 2018