Figure 1.--This is Mickey Daniels with I think Mary Kornman. Notice the sandals he is wearing. We suspect that the children were for the msdt psart dressed by their parents and not costumed at the studio. This is the only example we have found of one of the boys wearing sandals. (A reader tells us that Spankey sometimes wore sandals.) We suspect the studio advised the parents not to outfit the boys in sandals because they were not commonly worn by the average children they were meant to be depicted. We doubt if the studio would have chosen the sandals, This photograph was probably taken about 1924. Compare the still here from the way Mickey dressed regularly by clicking on the image. There seems to be less difference on the way the girls dressed.

HBC is unsure as to how the children in the "our Gang" films were costumed. Unfortunately we have no details at this time on just how the productions were costumed. This would be interesting information to have and we would be interested in what readers might know on the subject. These were fairluy low budget productions. As far as I know there was no wardrobe costumer n the production staff. Some pf the children wore rather ragged clothes, but as they were well paid for their acting this had to be costuming. They did not receive really high salaries, but it was enough to support the families involved. We suspect that the parents may have been general instructions on how to dress the children. They were dressed up for some scenes or had characters who might be dressed up. Some of the fancier clothes may also have been costumes. But often they wore clothes that seem similar to what average kids were wearing at the time. We suspect that many of the children came to the shoots in their own clothes and that they were costumed only if the plot required some kind of garment or special look. Some instructins may have developed if the children showed up in something inappropriate. The sandals Mickey Daniels here is wearing may be such an example. Although a reader reports that Spanky sometimes wore sandals. He tells us, "I have seen Spanky wearing single bar t-strap sandals." I don't think this was very common, but it has been some time since I have seen the series.