Chapter 24

The Not-So-Little Rascal

Carl Switzer—Los Angeles

Carl Switzer and his older brother, Harold, were popular entertainers in the little town of Paris, Illinois, where they lived. They sang and danced, performed comedy skits, and engaged in general buffoonery whenever they got the chance.

In 1934, while on a trip to visit relatives in Los Angeles, the family took a tour of the Hal Roach Studios, where the popular Our Gang shorts were filmed. While in the Our Gang Café, the studio’s cafeteria, six-year-old Carl and eight-year-old Harold broke into one of their musical skits. Carl hammed it up with his comical, off-key singing and exaggerated, angelic facial expressions, and Hal Roach signed them on the spot.

Carl was given a giant cowlick in his hair and a new name, Alfalfa. He quickly became a favorite of the series, the mischievous country bumpkin. Even though he sang horribly, he was usually scripted to sing one song, much to the dismay of the adults in the series. Harold resigned himself to being a background actor.

Switzer was aware of his popularity with his audience and pushed as many of the cast’s and crew’s buttons as possible. He was a bully and played dangerous pranks on his fellow actors that sometimes required stitches. Switzer once urinated on some stage lighting, causing the bulbs to explode when they were turned on. Production was stopped as a room-clearing odor filled the stage. The expensive bulbs had to be replaced. Switzer often refused to participate in his studies at the studio school, and he would often hold up filming over a temper tantrum.

The Our Gang series wrapped up in 1940, and Switzer, at the age of twelve, found that maintaining an acting career in Hollywood wasn’t as easy as starting one. His reputation as an egotistical prankster did not endear him to the studio bosses. Switzer obtained small parts in a dozen movies before he found himself basically unemployable in the industry.

Alfie, as he was known to his few friends, grew up to be a gloomy, bitter young man. He was angry that his film career seemed to be over before he could even get a driver’s license, so he drank and moped. He was a braggart, telling outrageous stories that nobody believed or cared about.

In 1957, Switzer moved to Kansas and married a rich farmer’s daughter. The marriage lasted four months and resulted in a son, but Switzer soon found himself back in California. He managed to find occasional work in television and films, but he usually worked as a bartender and hunting guide.

While Alfie and the other actors in the Our Gang series were basically living hand-to-mouth, Our Gang was rechristened The Little Rascals and sold to television. It raked in millions of dollars, yet none of the former castmates received a penny.

Alfie was arrested in Sequoia National Park for illegally cutting down trees. He was so desperate for money that he was poaching small evergreens to sell as Christmas trees back in Los Angeles. He was fined two hundred and fifty dollars and given probation, but time was running out for the reckless, washed-up actor.

In February 4, 1958, Switzer was shot while getting into his car in Studio City. It was only a flesh wound, but Eugene Earl Butler was charged with “suspicion of assault with intent to murder.” Switzer was dating Butler’s ex-wife, Susan.

Switzer borrowed a hunting dog from his friend and sometime business partner, Moses “Bud” Stilz, but Alfie somehow lost the valuable dog. After offering a fifty-dollar reward, Switzer was contacted by the man who found it. The man met Alfie at the bar where he worked, and Alfie paid him the reward. Alfie ended up paying the man’s fifteen dollar bar tab, too.

A few nights later, on January 21, 1959, Alfie, in a drunken stupor, decided that Stilz owed him the reward money. With his friend, Jack Piott, Alfie drove to where Stilz was staying in Mission Hills. Stilz’s girlfriend and future wife, Rita Corrigan, the former wife of stuntman Crash Corrigan, answered the door.

There are always a couple of different sides to every violent action, but this is the official version of what happened next: Switzer flashed a fake police badge and demanded the money from Stiltz, an argument erupted, and Switzer hit Stilz over the head with a glass-domed clock. Bruised and bloody, Stilz grabbed a pistol from his dresser draw and Alfie lunged for it; they fell to the floor and wrestled. The gun went off, the bullet hitting the ceiling. Alfie got the gun, but Stiltz grappled it back and shot Switzer in the stomach as Switzer was pulling out a knife. Carl Switzer died at a nearby hospital.

Stilz was exonerated from any charges because he had clearly acted in self-defense. Rita Corrigan and her three children, as well as Switzer’s friend, Jack Piott, all witnessed the attack by the drunken, fallen star.

A few years later, Carl’s brother Harold committed suicide after murdering a business partner. Showbiz was not good to the Switzer boys.