The composer of the movie music used in Our Gang, Charlie Chase, Laurel
& Hardy and some other Hal Roach cinema comedies of the thirties was
LeRoy Shields.  The Dutch combo, Beau Hunks has reconstructed the sheet
music for these and recorded them using "Little Rascals" prominently in
the title.

The CD is quite credible, but my mind keeps playing the tunes back to me
in pipe organ registration (?!) and I cannot but think I have heard this
material played on the organ somewhere.  Perhaps it was on a band organ
or orchestrion.  The pieces are hardly long enough to be useful as tunes,
but there is a strong recognition factor which always gets a positive or
negative reaction from the individual listener.

Has the Shields music been cut for band organ or orchestrion?  Is there
a cure for having tunes run through your head played on instruments that
you never heard before?

Karl Petersen

 [ Travel to Holland and hear the songs on a real Dutch Street Organ! :-)
 [ "Little Dancing Girl" is probably the best-known Shields song, and
 [ it's likely that an organ arrangement has existed in the Netherlands
 [ and/or England for many years.  Maybe even in the States, on a Wurlitzer
 [ or BAB-conversion carusel organ!  -- Robbie