I was curious as to any information regarding which Our Gang/Little Rascals shorts were released by Blackhawk, particularly standard 8mm releases. The only short I’ve seen in standard 8 for sale (and already have) is ‘Uncle Tom’s Uncle’. But it would be nice to see a list of all of their releases, whether super 8mm, standard 8mm, or 16mm. :-)

You can find info here Tim! Scans of almost every Blackhawk Bulletin. http://uschefnerarchive.com/blackhawk-films-catalogs/

You have these for Super 8 at least.

880-05-1566 A Tough Winter 400 b/w sound 1930
880051557 F Glove Taps 200 b/w sound 1937
880051608 Spooky Hooky 200 b/w sound 1936
880-05-1583 Teacher's Pet 400 b/w sound 1930
880-05-1551 Three Men In a Tub 400 b/w sound 1938
880-05-1623 Three Smart Boys 400 b/w sound 1937
880-05-1591 Two Too Young 400 b/w sound 1936
860-05-1182 Uncle Tom's Uncle 400 b/w sound 1926
880-05-1552 Washee Ironee 400 b/w sound 1934
880-05-1606 When the Wind Blows 400 b/w sound 1930
860-05-1449 Wiggle Your Ears 400 b/w sound 1929
880-05-1589 Wild Poses 400 b/w sound 1933

Thank you Mats and Eivind! Both of you have been very helpful!

Wow Mats! I just had a look. This is EXTENSIVE! But GREAT! :-)

To save people the time of scouring all those old Blackhawk catalogs at Hef's site...

All 80 Hal Roach Our Gang talkies (a.k.a. The Little Rascals) were issued by Blackhawk films. 79 of them were released in Super 8 sound. 1 was only released in 16mm -- BIG EARS. I remember seeing it for sale just once on eBay a long time ago. I once scoured that website to find evidence that BIG EARS was indeed released. I forgot exactly when, but it was pretty late in the game for Blackhawk -- in the 1980s.

To the best of my knowledge and research, all 80 were never available at the same time. They started to release the talkies in the December 1973 catalog. Almost every month thereafter, there seemed to be a new one released. They made a big "to-do" about the new releases, but were quiet when one was discontinued, for whatever reason.

I can't vouch for how many, if any, were released in Standard 8mm sound. In the mid-70s, Blackhawk started to phase out Standard 8mm, particularly the sound releases. The December 1973 catalog only shows the titles being released in Super 8 and 16mm.

The first 6 titles released were:

MAMA'S LITTLE PIRATE
FOR PETE'S SAKE
MOAN AND GROAN, INC.
THE PIGSKIN PALOOKA
THE KID FROM BORNEO
FRAMING YOUTH

Excellent choices except for MOAN AND GROAN, INC. I believe by that time, King World Productions (who had the TV rights in the U.S.) had already pulled this title from syndication, along with THE KID FROM BORNEO and several others. That's the only motivation that I can surmise on why MOAN AND GROAN, INC. was released as part of the first batch. Note: on screen, Blackhawk left off the "INC." part of the title, for reasons probably only known to Eastin and Phelan. The catalog, however, lists the full title.

Prior to the beginning of the release of the talkies, Blackhawk already had a handful of the Our Gang silents for sale, including in Standard 8mm. I have never put together a list of all the silents that Blackhawk released. What I do know is that once the talkies started to be released, they rarely released a new silent title.

Interestingly enough, Blackhawk almost always issued these titles in a "Hal Roach Comedy in 8mm" box -- they never bothered to create an "Our Gang" box. Occasionally, they supplied one in a generic Blackhawk box.

Another point of interest -- while the Laurel and Hardy talkie shorts were always set at fixed prices (one price for a two-reeler, another price for a three-reeler), the prices of the Our Gang talkies varied. Granted, the L&H talkie lengths varied by 1 to 3 minutes, while for Our Gang the variance could be greater. I still have never been able to figure out, however, the method to their madness, since the length did not seem to necessarily dictate the price, except of course between a one-reeler and a two-reeler.

I have 61 of the talkies in my collection. All but 2 are Blackhawk Super 8 prints, which are 16mm King World prints. I thought I was safe in buying the 2 titles that I did, because King World was notorious for editing them for political correctness (though that term had not been coined yet at that time.) The two are one-reelers, which for the most part were not un-p.c. Wouldn't you know it though, they did manage to cut out a line of dialog in each. That's not too bad, since some of the earlier two-reel shorts were cut down to about one-reel by King World.

I'm not sure if I will ever get all 80, or even 79. I have passed many times on some of the titles from the first "season" of talkies, that being 1929/1930. That would be anything prior to PUPS IS PUPS. I do have a handful of those, including one that I bought within the last year. The difference between those shorts, and anything from PUPS IS PUPS on, is like night and day. It's like those who were working at the Hal Roach Lot regrouped during the summer break of 1930 and did a major re-tooling. Similarly, the Laurel and Hardy talkies went on an upswing during that same time period, though the difference is not as drastic. A small handful of L&H's best talkies were made during the 1929/1930 season.