July 05

 William Robert Laughlin's Birthday
 
    Billy Laughlin was the most memorable member of the MGM Our Gang short films from 1940 to 1944. He became a star in his first film The New Pupil (1940) in which he played  the character, "Froggy" named  for the way he talked with a loud and deep  voice (due to a faulty tonsillectomy). He made two dozen of these short films in four years playing the same character.

There was a curse on most all of the Old Gang players. Billy was riding double with a friend delivering newspapers on a old three-lane highway in La Puente when a truck hit him from behind and killed him and his friend, .Bobby (Robert) Blake was suspected on murdering his wife Bonny Lee Bakley 60 years later in 2001.

 

Carl "Alfalfa" Switzer was shot to death at age 31.Chubby -- 300-pound Norman Chaney died at age 18 following surgery for a glandular condition. Brisbane -- Kendall McCormas, known as Breezy Brisbane, committed suicide at age 64. Scotty Becket died at age 38 following a brutal beating. Darla Hood -- The Our Gang leading lady contracted hepatitis and died at age 47. Mickey Daniels died of cirrhosis at 55 alone in a hotel room. Stymie -- Mathew Bear led a life of crime and drugs. He became addicted to drugs, especially heroin and spent much of his young adult years in an out of jail. He died of a stroke at age 56. Scotty Becket died at age 38 following a brutal beating. Darla Hood -- The Our Gang leading lady contracted hepatitis and died at age 47. Mickey Daniels died of cirrhosis at 55 alone in a hotel room. Stymie -- Mathew Bear led a life of crime and drugs. He became addicted to heroin and spent much of his young adult years in an out of jail. He died of a stroke at age 56.

Billy Laughlin's death at 16 is proof that only the good die young. So we celebrate his memory on his birthday by watching some of the Old Gang comedies which Netflix carries and making a batch of Frogmore Stew.

Now a little food history, When Frogmore Stew was first cooked in the 1960s, Frogmore was a little hamlet on St. Helena Island, near Beaufort, South Carolina. In the 1980s, the postal service abolished the name Frogmore. Then Beaufort tried to change the name of the popular dish to Beaufort Stew- although nearly everyone still calls it by its original name  You can sample Frogmore Stew in July at the ten day Beaufort Water Festival, where they feeds 2,400, the recipe includes 1,200 lbs of shrimp, 2,400 ears of corn, 600 lbs of sausage, 72 oz of seafood seasoning. Frogmore Stew has become a current favorite at some fancy restaurants in Charleston and some of the resorts along the Carolina coast.
 

Frogmore Stew

 

Ingredients
 
1&1/2 gallons water
Juice of one lemon
Salt to taste
3 TB Old Bay Seasoning

 		 2 lb kielbasa sausage cut
   into 1/2-inch slices
12 ears of corn on the cob, broken
   into 3- inch pieces
4 lb uncooked shrimp in shell
 
Instructions