Saturday, January 5, 2013

Cabin Kids - Their Rise and Fall

Whatever happened to The Cabin Kids?

My thanks to Ruth's children Ruben and Anita who contacted me in May, 2013, and filled in some of the fascinating history of this singing group that is beloved by many film fans for their appearances with Our Gang, Gene Autry, Bing Crosby and W.C. Fields.

The foremost correction is that Ruth was not related to the other four!  Ruth was born LaRuth Shegolden Chavis and her parents were friends with Mrs. Beatrice Hall and her four sons and daughters.  The popular singing quintet consisted of Helen (10) and Ruth (11) in the top row left to right, and in the bottom row left to right Fred (4) known as "Honey", Winifred "Sugar" (6) and James "Darling" (9). Those ages are approximate for 1935, which is the year of their first film.

There is some reference to their singing on the radio first in the Los Angeles area, which may be why they were cast in the Our Gang film Beginner's Luck, released Feb. 23, 1935.  In this above average Little Rascals comedy, Spanky is entered in an amateur contest whose acts include the very first appearance of Alfalfa singing with his brother and the Meglin Kiddies, 5 young girls who do not dance in synch very well and hence the humor.  The Cabin Kids harmonize to "Dinah" for less than a minute.  The youngest, Fred, seems disengaged and barely singing until his brief solo of a scat refrain.  Throughout their 16 or so films Fred seemed to get the most close-ups as he picks his ear or scratches his nose and occasionally struts a few steps that might be construed as dancing.  The reason Fred scratched in the first film is that he was just recovering from a case of ringworm!  Fred also stood out as being short and bald.

The Cabin Kids were also featured in the next Our Gang film Teacher's Beau.  They open the film by leading the class singing "Old MacDonald Had a Farm."  Alfalfa is a full gang member in his second film, and this marks the last appearance of Stymie Beard who had grown too tall and was replaced by Buckwheat as the black child who was a friend and equal of the white kids.  The Cabin Kids do not appear later in the film, only in the first school scene where they blend right in since black children were an honored tradition in the Our Gang comedies since the first one in 1922.

Their biggest film was certainly Mississippi (1935) with Bing Crosby and W.C. Fields.  They first show up two minutes into the film supporting Queenie Smith as she rehearses a number on Fields' showboat.  They accompany Fields to a plantation party where they sing an extended solo and then start "Swanee River" led by Fred but that morphs into a Bing Crosby rendition.

Their only other "A" picture appearance was a few brief glimpses in Hooray For Love (1935) starring Ann Sothern and Gene Raymond. Three of the Cabin Kids appear ever so briefly in the film "I'm Livin' in a Great Big Way" number with Bill Robinson and Fats Waller!  Ruth is not one of those appearing.  Look fast to even spot them, but I present the clip here as an homage to Bill and Fats appearing in the same film for the first and only time that I know of.


Educational Pictures, that only made inexpensive short subjects, starred the Cabin Kids in 11 one-reel musical shorts from 1935 to 1937.  In The Life of the Party a high society hostess is short on entertainment until she finds the five kids of the kitchen maid singing up a storm.  The black stereotypes that Hollywood hung on black adult actors carried over to Spooks (1936) where the kids roll their eyes and get scared between songs. Most of the shorts are quite rare, unseen for many years.  The only information at IMDB about Pink Lemonade (1936) is that it is directed by Al Christie and stars The Cabin Kid and Toto the Clown in his last screen appearance.

The Cabin Kids Educational one-reelers:
The Life of the Party (1935)
Radio Rascals (1935)
College Capers (1935)
Way Out West (1935)
Easy Picken's (1935)
Way Down Yonder (1936)
Spooks (1936)
Pink Lemonade (1936)
Gifts in Rhythm (1936)
Rhythm Saves the Day (1937)
All's Fair (1938)

They returned to features two final times in Gene Autry westerns.  Round-Up Time in Texas (1937) is a most unusual western in which Gene takes horses to Africa and mixes it up with lions, a gorilla and natives.  The Cabin Kids are Chief Bosuto's children whose musical talent is discovered and nurtured by Smiley "Frog" Burnette.  They sing "Dinah" and assist on a few other numbers.

Git Along Little Dogies is a more traditional B-western about Gene singing on the radio and raising money for oil exploration.  Gene introduces the Cabin Kids to sing in the radio studio as "Sam Brown's Children The Cabin Kids."  They only sing one number, the delightful "After You're Gone" with Fred scratching his face and back more than singing, his odd trademark for a singing group.  Audiences must have found it amusing, or maybe not since this was the end of the line for Cabin Kid movies.  Likely Fred had a growth spurt and the older girls were no longer children in 1938.  Ruth in particular was edging up on the tall side.

So whatever happened to The Cabin Kids?  They grew up too fast, of course.  Ruth, Helen and Winifred then formed a singing group billed as the Hall Sisters.  They made three records and toured with the USO during World War-II in a segregated unit of African-Americans who performed before black troops, an unknown segment of our history that I had not heard about before.

Enjoy clips from the Gene Autry films followed by the rare 1936 short Gifts in Rhythm.


Visit my websites at Festival Films and Lost and Rare.

28 comments:

  1. Thank you so much for posting this. I have wondered about this group since I was a child. I think that they were important enough not to be forgotten.
    Thanks again

    Brent

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  2. I'm watching the movie Round-Up Time in Texas. I thought these children were amazing!

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  3. Wow! What a coincidence! I just finished watching Round-up Time in Texas a few minutes ago (about 3:00 pm Dec. 21, 2013). I loved The Cabin Kids, too. I wonder if any are still liviing. Did they sing as adults? They were absolutely amazing and deserve tyo be remembered for their beautiful faces and voices. What tremendous talent!
    J,N.G. New Hampshire

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  4. They were originally from Salisbury,North Carolina.They first started singing Gospel songs under the named THE FIVE SPIRITS OF HARMONY.In fact,they were credited with that name in their first motion picture for Educational Pictures which was called "She My Lilly( I'm Her Willie) from 1934.They sang three songs in that film including "This Train" and "Honey." You can hear both of these songs(as well as two songs from the film "Way Down Yonder") on Show # 4 of my BLACK QUARTETS IN FILMS Internet radio show which can be heard and download for free at: www.vocalgroupharmony.com

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    1. They also lived in plainfield new jersey!

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  5. I just watched the 1931 Charley Chase short WHAT A BOZO! and it sure looks like The Cabin Kids were the group that appeared in the film.

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  6. They were very good
    What happened in their personal lives?

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  7. ...believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved...
    Acts 16:31

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    1. There need to be a documentary made about these fine people y are they forgotten

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  8. I loved the Cabin Kids in the Little Rascals shorts. It's nice that there's a page for them

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  10. What Do The Cabin Kids Look like Now And How Old Are They Now

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    1. Sheila, I knew two of the girls, one worked at Teppers back in the 1950's, very pretty lady! The other was 'cute' Sugar Hall and I remember seeing the brother, Honey...they were older than me and I am 83 years old now! Look for them online... - Irene

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  11. I have added all 5, plus a separate page on my site. I have also credited this page as a source, amongst the other sources I used for their dates.
    If it is of any interest:
    http://www.lordheath.com/The_Cabin_Kids.html

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  12. I loved them in the 'little rascal' shorts. Whatever happened to them and are any of them still living today?

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  13. Thank you for posting this, even though it was so long ago. I can only hope these talented kids lived fulfilling lives in their later years. Their story could (and probably would) make for an awesome documentary - especially if it included interviews with any surviving members.

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  14. I grew up in a family of six kids, I was the youngest. As kids we sang old spirituals with my grandfather who'd once sang in a quartet. Whenever I saw the Cabin Kids perform in a Little Rascals episode, I imagined me and my siblings up on stage doing the same thing. Other than performing Talent Shows in our living room with relatives and friends, we never put together an act for the public stage. I believe our singing together at such a young age helped bond our sibling relationship throughout the many years. Music has a way of bringing groups of peoples together in a joyful, celebratory way. I pray it contributed to joyful, lasting relationships in the lives of all the Hall Family.

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  15. So happy to see this site about the Cabin Kids. Glad they are on Little Rascals and other shows on Youtube. They were great and a favorite to me as a child and I was shocked to see Little Rascals on Youtube along with the Cabin Kids.

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    1. Wow just learned about them today

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  16. Lovely group they were. Wish they had come along a little later in history when technology to better preserve their performances existed—those old "Our Gang" clips are SO noisy…

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