"Should We Sing A Song About The Trees Of Arbor Day?"

                             Girls, let me tell you, I did not even know what Arbor Day was, until I saw the 1936 Little Rascals short, entitled such, while still a child.  They never tell you on what date it is--it is actually today, April 22--but you learn it has to do with the planting and caring of trees.  Now, 77 years later, it is called the more generic Earth Day!  I like the name Arbor Day, better!

                              The whole thing is framed around a school pageant for the holiday, complete with docile male teachers and spinsterly looking female ones.  The female one here looks to be the same actress who played the dance instructor in "Rushin' Ballet."

                             But the reason to celebrate Arbor Day, and watch this short, is to see George and Olive Brasno, a brother-sister midget vaudeville team--steal the show from everyone else, with their Arbor Day song, which turns into an advertisement for their circus, (from which they have escaped, and, after seeing the insanity of school and childhood depicted here, are almost glad to return to!!!!!!!!) and which is exactly the kind of number I might have performed as a child!!!!!!!!!!!!  Hell, I still would!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

                             The Brasnos did a couple of Little Rascals shorts, where they impersonated children.  The other memorable one starred Spanky in an orphanage, presided over by  a mean headmaster named Mr. Crutch!!!!!!!!!    There is a magic lamp involved, and George and Olive play this couple, Dick and Mary, reduced to what they must have been as children.  I always loved the scene where Mary transforms back, and the authority figures get it!

                             As they do in "Arbor Day!"  For, after George and Olive have been exposed, and are carried back to the circus, the truant officer who found them is fired!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

                             Now, I understand it is Arbor Day, darlings, but not all of us have green thumbs!  My mother did, and she also had other things--like an aptitude for science--which I certainly did not inherit!!!!!!!!  So, if you haven't the skill to plant today, then I am telling you, in honor of Arbor Day, to shake and shimmy!!!!!!!!!!!

                               And just wait till you see MY side show, darlings!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!