Thelma Todd: SITTING PRETTY

The 1933 movie SITTING PRETTY featured Thelma Todd in a small part.

It also featured one of the Our Gang kids in a bigger role.

Jerry Tucker, center, between Jack Oakie and Ginger Rogers.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Jerry Tucker
Born	Jerome H. Schatz (1925-11-01) November 1, 1925 (age 86) Chicago, Illinois
Occupation	Film actor
Years active	1931-1939

Jerry Tucker (born November 1, 1925) is a former American child actor, most notable for appearing as the "rich kid" in the Our Gang short subjects series semi-regularly from 1931 to 1938. Tucker first appeared in the 1931 Our Gang short Shiver My Timbers. Then, he also appeared in many Our Gang episodes after that and left the series in the 1938 Our Gang short Three Men in a Tub.
In addition to his Our Gang appearances, Tucker appeared in the Marie Dressler film Prosperity, again as a spoiled rich kid. He also appeared as one of Mother Peep's children in the 1934 Laurel & Hardy feature film March of the Wooden Soldiers.

Later years

Tucker went on to serve in the United States Navy during World War II and the Korean War. He later married his wife Myra and had a long successful career with RCA before retiring.
Tucker is one of the few living Our Gangers from the original series. Other surviving members are Mildred Kornman, Marianne Edwards, Jean Darling, Mickey Gubitosi, Sidney Kibrick, and Jackie Lynn Taylor.

External links

Jerry Tucker at the Internet Movie Database
Jerry Tucker at AllRovi
University of Maryland
Prosperity (1932) Jerry played the part of Buster.

Marylin Bourne, Spanky McFarland, Jerry Tucker, Scotty Beckett, Stymie Beard

in MAMMA'S LITTLE PIRATE.

Here is a coming attractions slide for SITTING PRETTY, with Thelma Todd on the right.

Jack Oakie is at left, with Ginger Rogers next, and then Jack Haley.

Thelma Todd with Jack Oakie.

You see pictures like this occasionally with a spurious copyright notice.

Although Ginger Rogers posed for publicity photos that suggest that she was a fan dancer, she didn't actually do a fan dance in the movie. She did have a scene where she walked along holding a fan while being serenaded with the song "Did You Ever See A Dream Walking?"

The fan dance was in the news at the time, because Sally Rand did it at the Chicago World's fair in 1933. Here we see the genuine article with her fans. Compare it with the publicity photo of Ginger Rogers above.

Following Ginger Roger's scene, some other girls do a fan dance.

Helen Splane, Mae Madison and Peaches Jackson. Publicity had it that these three charmers were selected as the most beautiful chorus girls in Hollywood.

And here we have a publicity photo of Thelma Todd in the same costume. Which actually includes a pair of tights as well as the more obvious glittery parts. The things on the wrists help hide where they end at her wrists. You see that in movies in this period, the hula dancers in SONS OF THE DESERT wore tights, too.

I don't think Thelma Todd was actually among the fan dancers at the end of the movie. In SITTING PRETTY, she had about the same part she had in SPEAK EASILY, she was the vamp or other woman character who threatens the romance of the main girl in the story. It was actually the same part Thelma Todd had in a number of movies.

Another element that is related to Buster Keaton is the presence of Lew Cody in the cast.

Lew Cody was one of Buster Keaton's best friends. Here we see him, right, with Buster Keaton, his two sons, and Jimmy Durante with Keaton's "Land Yacht". This was a sort of mobile home that Buster Keaton was living in while he was working for MGM.