“Beyond a cute small-boy personality”

In late 1929, Elmer “Scooter” Lowry finished his vaudeville tour with fellow Our Gang veterans Mary Kornman and Johnny Downs. They had been on the road together for well over a year.

Then in October “Scooter” went back out, now teamed with thirteen-year-old Joe Cobb, whose long tenure at the Hal Roach Studio had ended that spring. Their act was called “Two Kids Kidding,” and it lasted into the first weeks of 1930.

For the rest of that year ten-year-old “Scooter” performed as a solo act. In 1931 he teamed up with Peggy Eames and another boy, sometimes falsely billed as an Our Gang alum; their act was called “Doin’ Tough” or “All in Fun,” and it included describing life on a movie set. By that time “Scooter” hadn’t made a film in four years.

Newspaper stories show that “Scooter” Lowry continued to perform in vaudeville through 1935.

That track record raises questions about how “Scooter” left the Hal Roach Studio in the spring of 1927. That departure happened suddenly, not only in the middle of a movie-making season but in the middle of the making of one movie, “Olympic Games.”

A younger castmate, Jean Darling, recalled many years later, “I was told Scooter left because he was rather disruptive. That’s all I know.”

Whatever disruption “Scooter” might have caused at Hal Roach didn’t stop him from headlining on stage, show after show, for at least seven more years. It didn’t stop three more prominent Our Gang performers—Mary, Johnny, and Joe—from signing up to tour with him. He could hit his marks, and he could get along with other kids.

I can imagine different scenarios to explain these circumstances. It’s possible the same energy that made “Scooter” a successful stage performer could wear out people at a movie studio while they were trying to hang lights or have business conversations. It’s possible the source of disruption wasn’t “Scooter” but his mother, pushing for more pay or more time in the spotlight.

Unfortunately for “Scooter” Lowry’s show-biz career, vaudeville was fading away in the early 1930s. Already live acts were competing for time with movies, and after sound came in, many theaters shifted to showing movies only.

On top of that, “Scooter” grew up and stopped being so cute. Reviewers were less impressed by his act than when he was eight, or maybe they just didn’t hold back. So there are notices like this, in the August 21, 1930, San Francisco Chronicle:

“Scooter” Lowry, the “tuff guy” of Our Gang comedy, makes a personal visit. The kid is clever. He has plenty of poise for such a small tad, and his dancing is really good. It is an act that makes its principal appeal to the youngsters, however. “Scooter” naturally has little to offer beyond a cute small-boy personality.

The June 6, 1931, Milwaukee Sentinel:

Scooter Lowry, one of the “Our Gang” screen comedians, heads the vaudeville bill. Scooter is the “tough guy” of Hal Roach’s kid pictures. But on the stage he impresses mothers in the audience as being a gentlemanly little fellow, and an industrious one. He tap dances well, tells proper stories and sings. His voice isn’t very big, but his smile is. An indulgent audience gave him a hand.

And ultimately the April 19, 1935, Worcester Evening Gazette:

Scooter Lowry, once a member of Hal Roach’s “Our Gang” in the movies, is on hand, taking the stage all to his little self to entertain the assemblage. Master Lowry dances a bit, sings a little, and, unfortunately, tells a joke or two.

“Scooter” turned sixteen at the end of that year, and there’s no evidence of him working in show business again.

COMING UP: Family troubles.