Children acting like children, making mischief and finding themselves in goofy predicaments as they play with their pals, has been a foundation for endless and ageless humor. This is precisely what producer Hal Roach had in mind when he began making his Our Gang comedies in 1922. In these films, a hardscrabble conglomeration of boys and girls came together to amuse themselves and their audiences with prankishness and frivolity. The series was astoundingly successful and over the next 22 years, 221 10-and 20-minute-long Our Gang comedies were produced, with Roach re-energizing the series by adding carefully selected replacements as his pint-sized stars outgrew their roles.

A Ouija Board in use.

Our Gang comedies were not completely original, having evolved from a series of "Sunshine Sammy" shorts produced by Roach in 1921 and 1922 and featuring Ernie "Sunshine Sammy" Morrison, a black child actor. Back in the 1920s, the majority of silent...