The Life and Death of Carl "Alfalfa" Switzer

in the late 50s life in the suburban neighborhood of Mission Hills far from the bustle of LA was predictable and quiet at 7:00 p.m. families living on the 10,000 block of Columbus Avenue were settling in for the evening with dinner over and the dishes washed and put away people switched on their television sets to pass the time until bed a few of the programs they had to choose from on that Wednesday evening were Edward our Murrow on KNX T reporting on the integration of schools in the South there was the short-lived Western drama Union Pacific on krca KTLA channel 5 offered art LeBeau playing the top music hits of the day and khj channel 9 was airing the old our gang comedies that had been repackaged and renamed for television as the little rascals as viewers chuckled at the off-key warbling of Carl alfalfa Switzer they were interrupted by the wail of police sirens racing up their Street residents living on Columbus Avenue would later note that while the freckle-faced little boy sang on their television sets his adult self was being shot to death in their neighbor's house and it was a single violent act that closed the book on his short life but the circumstances left behind many questions that still haunt his memory come walk with me to that night over 60 years ago and separate fact from myth surrounding the life and death of child star Carl alfalfa Switzer you Karl Dean Switzer was born in Paris Illinois on August 7th 1927 he and his older brother Harold were hometown entertainers they were known for singing and playing music at community functions when Carl was 6 the Switzer z' went to California to visit family while there he inherited an impromptu audition at Hal Roach studios in Culver City their timing couldn't have been better because the studio was searching for fresh faces to fill the lineup of its popular long-running Arden comedy series the story goes that Hal Roach was so impressed by the boys that he signed them to seven-year contracts on the spot Carl was given the name alfalfa and Harold was called slim or deadpan they joined the 1935 mix of our gang mainstays that included George Spanky mcFarland Darla hood William buckwheat Thomas and Pete the pup the first our gang film to feature the brothers is beginner's luck first number on our amateur weekly program will be Tom and Jerry Harold strums a mandolin while alfalfa gives a squeaky rendition of she'll be coming around the mountain with a signature cowlick and off-key singing voice alfalfa stood out among the other kids and became an instant favorite with moviegoers co-star Darla hood observed that when they appeared at the studio gates each day alfalfa got a more enthusiastic welcome from fans than Clark Gable alfalfa sudden popularity had the disagreeable side effect of inflating and already swollen ego look watch that talk to ya puddin Butch in the series run Carl's main rival was played by Tommy butch bond although their characters were constantly in conflict behind the scenes the boys were best friends and remained so for the rest of Karl's life in Tommy's 1994 autobiography darn right it's butch he said that the same was not true of many of his other co-stars of his rascal buddy Spanky mcFarland Karl merely tolerated him and he viewed Darla hood his on-screen sweetheart as a spoiled princess Darla was far more diplomatic in her opinion saying that working with Karl was always exciting because no one knew what he was going to do she also admitted to being a little afraid of her leading man according to Tommy Karl either loved you or hated you and would never forget a grudge and if provoked he would come at you with his fists then there was his devilish sense of humor he delighted in playing practical jokes on the cast and crew Tommy recalled a time Carl urinated on the floor lights and later when they were turned on the stench became so strong that production was halted until the soundstage could be aired out his prepubescent antics enraged director George Sydnee so much that he once threatened that he was going to look him up when he turned 21 and quote kicked the living out of him in 1938 Hal Roach sold the our gang franchise including the entire cast and crew to metro-goldwyn-mayer now falfa continued with the gang for another two years before finally outgrowing the role at age 13 his contract with Metro expired in 1942 and carl was on his own trying to reinvent himself in a thankless industry breaking free of alfalfa's ghost was not easy for the boy who had once been more popular than gable in order to distance himself from the character he began referring to as more than 60 our gang appearances as MGM short product after leaving the gang Carl worked tirelessly to remain in the limelight he visited every producer in Hollywood trying to win any role available no matter how small there would be many lean years ahead but he fared better than most of us our gang alumni in 1946 and 47 he adapted the alfalfa character for the gas house kids a short-lived comedy series inspired by the Bowery Boys the series also reunited him with his our gang nemesis and best friend Tommy butch boast of his output at this time was in B movies produced by so-called poverty rose studios however he still landed bit parts in major studio releases and worked with some of the biggest names of the day six films in which Carl appeared were nominated for Best Picture Oscars among them are It's a Wonderful Life in 1946 and the Ten Commandments in 1956 director William Wellman cast him in three pictures the last of which was track of the cat with Robert Mitchum where he played a 100-year old Native American in the early 1950s Carl was seen on television in such programs as science fiction Theatre and the Burns and Allen show hello mr. Bern hello yeah yeah I got two snapshots we developed for you however his most steady work on TV was with Roy Rogers and Dale Evans the Roy Rogers show come on Bob no pen horn careful gotta tell me what to do go for your gun Rogers over six seasons Carl made as many appearances but more importantly he became close personal friends with Roy and Dale it was a relationship that put the struggling actor on a fate flex reject me get even with you Roger you wait and see you know that kids headed for a quick grade the next guy he draws on Mike taking serious through a business associate of Roy Rogers Carl was set up on a blind date with Diane Collingwood she was a 23 year old heiress to the Collingwood grain elevator company in Kansas the couple hit it off immediately and in May 1953 they were married in Las Vegas but the honeymoon had barely ended when problems began to emerge Diane was a balanced college-educated young woman hailing from a prominent Midwest family Carl on the other hand was capricious and had shunned formal education his whole life by some accounts he was functionally illiterate moreover it was obvious that the big Hollywood career he imagined was never going to happen their different backgrounds played on Carl's feelings of failure and inadequacy his young wife was unable to quell his inner demons that once brought havoc to the our gang sets now instead of childish pranks Carl sank into alcohol fueled rages that were too much for Diane the couple separated after little over three months of marriage however they made several attempts to reconcile at which time Diane became pregnant but when she lost the baby through miscarriage it was the last straw Diane filed for divorce in October 1954 on grounds of cruelty she later withdrew the divorce suit and for the next three years the Switzer --zz tried in vain to piece together their marriage while all this was going on Carl was balancing his acting with a second career as a dog breeder and hunting guide in Northern California Roy Rogers staked him seed money to get his business off the ground some of his first clients were Hollywood heavy hitters like William Wellman and actor Henry Fonda and it was then that a new character entered Carl Switzer story the rocky foothills of the Santa Susana Mountains in Simi Valley was once the home of Corrigan ville movie ranch it was owned by former actor and stuntman ray Corrigan known to everyone is crash from the 1940s until the 1960s the two thousand acre ranch served as a Western tourist attraction and filming location while shooting a guest appearance on the Roy Rogers show Carl Switzer became acquainted with ranch foreman bud stilts stilts was a larger-than-life character who was perfectly suited to the rugged terrain where he worked he was a navy veteran of World War two and had a reputation for being a tough guy who got things done stilts was exactly the kind of man that Carl wished he could be when Carl learned that stilt spread hunting dogs he worked out an arrangement where he would rent animals from him to take on his hunting parties the meeting couldn't have come at a better time for stilts whose tenure at Corrigan Ville was about to end he had been carrying on an affair with Crash's wife Rita and it would become the focal point in Corrigan's messy divorce that took so many twists and turns it might well have been a roller coaster sparks flew On June 2nd 1954 when crash along with three hired thugs raided his wife's motel room and found her in the company of his ex Foreman a brawl ensued that resulted in stilts pressing assault and battery charges against crash three days later stilts caught Corrigan spying on his house when confronted Corrigan waved a gun before fleeing in his car still chased after him through the streets of the San Fernando Valley it ended with both men placing one another under citizen's arrest the legal mess that followed kept lawyers and tabloid journalists busy for months both sides filed lawsuits and counter lawsuits there was a heated custody battle over the Corrigan's three children later still San Rita were charged with perjury for lying about their affair during the divorce trial they pled guilty and were sentenced to three years probation after the dust settled Stiltz moved into the cozy house on Columbus Avenue in Mission Hills that Rita was awarded in the divorce the state of California later granted Rita custody of her three children with a ready-made family and quiet suburban home any man would be content to settle into a quiet life but where bud Stiltz was concerned things didn't stay quiet for long in 1955 the editors of TV Guide brought together seven members of the our gang cast for a photo shoot among them were Tommy butch bond Darla hood and the best-known of the group alfalfa Switzer the photos accompanied an article that filled in its readers on what the gang was up to now the writer was careful to put the best possible spin on the stories of those who had fallen on hard times by then their old films were airing on television as the Little Rascals and were hugely popular producer Hal Roach had negotiated with MGM to buy back the rights to the sound films his studio made from 1928 to 1938 and was netting big profits however not one of his former child stars was paid a cent in residuals in 1955 money was at the top of Carl's growing list of concerns at the time he was back together with his wife Diane who was expecting a child meanwhile his film and television work had fallen off sharply and the income he got from hunting expeditions was not enough to support them for this reason the couple relocated to pretty Prairie Kansas where Carl went to work on Diane's family farm as the couple celebrated the birth of their only child Diane allowed herself to imagine a hopeful future because after three rocky years together Carl finally seemed to embrace his role as a husband and new father one day in the summer of 1957 he opened the newspaper and saw a face from his past George Spanky mcFarland the darling of the our gang series was on a personal appearance tour of the Midwest out of a sense of nostalgia or an attempt to show off Carl reached out to his old co-star and set up a meeting years later in an interview with film historian Leonard Maltin spanky recalled the short reunion we hadn't seen each other since we left the gang so he had lunch and talked about all the things you'd expect he looked pretty much the same he was just Carl Switzer kind of cocky a little antsy and still talking big he told me he was working on a farm but had to put a radio in the tractor while he was out there plowing knowing Carl I knew that it wasn't going to last he may have come from Paris Illinois but he wasn't a farmer after that I never saw him again [Music] George MacFarlane was right it didn't last Carl had grown weary of farming and began to see his life in Kansas as a form of Exile when an offer came his way to appear in a movie he jumped at it leaving his family he went back to LA and made a low-budget teenage melodrama called motorcycle gang Dayan realized that the future she'd hoped for was never going to happen after Carl's work on the movie wrapped she filed for divorce for the second time and there would be no reconciliation now there was nothing standing in the way of Carl Switzer slow descent turning into freefall three and you take your last breath [Music] you On January 26th 1958 Carl was getting into his car on Ventura Boulevard in Studio City when a bullet crashed through the window and grazed his arm the injury was superficial and he was treated and released from the hospital within a few hours when asked if he knew anyone who might wish him harm he said that he didn't the next day police arrested a 30 year old real estate agent as a suspect in the shooting he denied any involvement but it so happened that Carl had been dating the man's ex-wife it was a dramatic beginning to what turned out to be the last 12 months of his life a month later Carl began work on Stanley Kramer's the Defiant ones with Sidney Poitier and Tony Curtis he played a member of a search party who are tracking down two escaped convicts although he only has one line of dialogue his part is memorable for the portable radio he carries that blares loud music throughout the whole movie it is well known that Carl had a history of alcohol abuse but there is speculation that by 1958 he was dabbling in stronger drugs such as cocaine some have pointed to the unusual gestures he makes in the Defiant ones as evidence whether or not the rumors are true there is no doubt that during his last few months on earth his behavior became more erratic filming of the Defiant ones wrapped in March and it would be Carl's final appearance in a movie afterward he returned to LA where he tended bar while focusing on his hunting business in April he borrowed $7000 from a Hermosa Beach woman claiming that it was to buy and train hunting dogs then in late November Carl was arrested by Park Rangers in the Sequoia National Forest for cutting down 15 pine trees without a permit he was planning to sell them as Christmas trees he pled guilty and was given a suspended 30 day jail sentence put on one-year probation and fined two hundred and twenty-five dollars it was money that Carl could ill afford by then it had been months since he had any real work plus he had defaulted on the loan from the Hermosa Beach woman and was being sued for breach of contract while this was happening Carl's old friend and sometimes business partner bud stilts comes back into the picture while karl was sorting out his legal mess with the Forestry Service he managed to step into another sticky situation this time it was over a dog late in 1958 he agreed to train one of Bud stilts as new dogs for bear hunting but before he got into the mountains the pup ran away stilts gave him two options return his property or pay up for it already in a deep financial hole Karl saw no other choice than to try and locate the animal he posted notices and took out ads in the paper offering a reward for the dogs safe return for once luck was on his side when a man called saying he found the dog the man arranged to bring it to the bar where Karl worked and there according to legend he collected a $35 reward plus $15 and free drinks most people in Karl's situation would drink a toast to their good fortune but carl switzer was not most people and he had a talent for turning a blessing into a curse embittered by divorce and trapped by an impending lawsuit and finds that he had no means to pay the $50 he shelled out for a dog belonging to someone he was doing a favor for began to fester like an open wound in his mind he believed that stilts should have paid the reward and made repeated requests to get his money back stilts however did not see it that way and with Carl being a man on accustomed to taking no for an answer it set the stage for a fight in the afternoon of January 21st 1959 Carl met up with a new friend named Jack Pia he was a 37 year old part-time bartender and freelance photographer who had dreams of breaking into the movies the pair spent most of the day bar hopping and getting drunk brimming with resentment Carl told his new pal all about how he'd been screwed over by his former business partner as evening arrived he convinced Jack to go with him to stilts his house posing as a cop Carl just happened to have a prop badge handy for the occasion he reckoned that if he could convince stilts that he had the law on his side he would hand over the money without an argument at a few minutes before 7 Carl and Jack arrived at stilts his home on Columbus Avenue in his blurry State of Mind the plan seemed foolproof and worthy of any caper that he had pulled off in the movies as a little rascal at approximately 7:30 the first police sirens were heard racing up Columbus Avenue residents peered through front windows and gathered on the sidewalk to find out what had happened in there ordinarily quiet neighborhood inside the stilts home Carl alfalfa Switzer lay mortally wounded after having been shot by Bud stilts an ambulance rushed him to the hospital but the former child star who charmed audiences with a squeaky voice freckled face and cowlick was dead on arrival he was 32 years old meanwhile a sobbing and battered bud stilts was arrested for the shooting and by morning the story was front page news and papers across the country it was reported that shortly after Switzer and piata arrived at stilts his home an argument over the fifty dollar debt erupted into a brawl and Stiltz was hit over the head with a clock or lamp injuring his right eye reports varied as to who hit him but it was right after that he got his 38 revolver Switzer immediately tried to wrestle the gun out of stilts his hand at which point a shot was fired that narrowly missed Tommie Corrigan stilts his 14 year old stepson it was alleged that Switzer then pulled a knife on his former partner and screamed I'm going to kill you this forced Stokes to fire a second shot that struck him in the groin the bullet nicked an artery resulting in massive internal bleeding when Switzer was taken away by ambulance police found a folded 3-inch pocketknife on the floor where he'd been lying the evidence conflicted with stilts his claim that the blade was out when he fired the gun when asked about this stilt said that alfie must have closed the knife as he fell to the floor following a police investigation the LA district attorney filed a murder complaint against stilts with formal charges pending the outcome of the coroner's inquest the inquest was held at the Van Nuys courthouse on Monday January 26th testimony was heard from the investigating officers as well as Jack P OTT but the testimony everyone wanted to hear came from bud stilts he broke down twice as he recalled a life-and-death struggle he had with the former child star alfie gave me no choice he said I knew he would kill me for sure that's when I pulled the trigger one of the spectators in the courtroom was alfalfa's father Fred Switzer on the same day the coroner ruled that Moses Samuel Budd stilts and acted in self-defense the DA dropped its murder complaint and the man who once pled guilty to perjury was set free on the strength of his testimony at least one savvy journalist picked up on the two conflicting accounts of what happened Jack P OTT testified that Switzer hadn't pulled a knife and that they were both about to leave the house when the fatal shot was fired it was on the weight of this account that police filed their complaint but in the end investigators were eager to close the case and decades would pass before someone stepped forward to tell their side of what happened on the night alfalfa Switzer traded his life over a simple matter of principle [Music] carl switzer funeral took place the day after his killer was set free a small gathering of mourners attended the memorial service at Pierce brothers chapel afterwards his body was taken to Hollywood Forever Cemetery where he was laid to rest among some of his industry's most celebrated names among them as director Cecil B DeMille for whom he once worked and who died on the same day as he it has often been repeated that dimille's death overshadowed Schweitzer's and relegated it to nothing more than a mere mention in the newspapers but nothing was further from the truth for over a week the sensational nature of alfalfa's demise made bold headlines across the country journalists reported it as a cautionary tale about the dark side of Fame however one newspaper ran a picture of Spanky mcFarland by mistake now alfalfa's grave can be found in section 6 at the base of three evergreen trees his headstone is marked with the compass and square symbol of the Freemasons Switzer was introduced to the order through Roy Rogers who was a 33rd degree Mason another image is that of a dog some believe it is Pete the pup of Little Rascals Fame but in actuality it alludes to his work with hunting dogs but perhaps there is a deeper meaning hidden here and the dog is a representation of the one that alfalfa paid the reward for which sparked the feud that cut his life short the circumstances of his life and death did nothing to impact the popularity of the little rascals over time the childhood image of the freckled face off-key crooner was all that anyone cared to see today his gravesite is one of the most visited in the cemetery fans both young and old come to pay respects to the memory of what was and to wonder about the life that might have been Carl Switzer rests beside his father Fred who died of a sudden heart attack while on a fishing trip Carl's mother Pamela later said that her husband wasn't the same after their son's death eventually the weight of the loss was too much for Fred who died 15 months after his son that would not be the last tragedy to befall the Schweitzer family there was a third grave in this plot of Carl's older brother and our gang cast mate Harold Harold turned away from Hollywood once he left the series and would eventually manage a laundromat on April 14 1967 Harold got into a heated dispute with his business partner and shot him to death he then drove to a secluded area and turned the gun on himself he was 42 years old after the coroner's ruling no one questioned that bud stilts had acted in self-defense when he killed Carl Switzer but that didn't mean there weren't doubters Carl's parents both went to their graves convinced that their son's killer had gotten away with murder there was little interest among historians to look deeper into the case especially when in their mind the tale would still be that of a washed-up child star who had a date with destiny then on the 42nd anniversary of Schweitzer --zz death reporter Colleen Casson published an interview with Tom Corrigan the son of crash and Rita Corrigan by then he was a 56 year-old restaurant tour who had adopted his father's Western persona he remembered vividly the night that Switzer whom he knew as alfie came to the house with Jack Pia he also remembered that Bud stilts greeted them with his 38 in hand according to Tom his stepfather was not a man you wanted to cross he was just mean he said at first alfie demanded his money but once he saw the gun the brawling began Switzer tried to wrestle it away just as he had seen his hero Roy Rogers do countless times on TV then Jack Piazza massed a glass-domed clock over stilts his head and the gun went off the bullet hit the wall launching a chunk of plaster that struck young Tom in the leg the room became instantly quiet Tom recalled then in his first moment of clarity that day Alfie said we shot Tommy enough of this Switzer and Piatt then started to leave Tom who was facing toward the front door heard the gun go off behind him he looked around to see Alfie sliding down the wall with a pale look of shock on his face stilts then turned the gun on Jack P OTT backing him into the kitchen piata for his life but it was Rita Corrigan who convinced stilts not to shoot later when Tom heard stilts tell detectives that Alfie came at him with a knife he knew he was lying despite being afraid of his stepfather Tom told investigators what he saw and that he was willing to testify in court but to his surprise he was not called as a witness at the coroner's inquest still haunted by what happened 42 years earlier Tom Corrigan told his interviewer but didn't have to shoot him it was more like murder after the inquest bud Stiltz returned to his life with Rita and her kids in their modest home on Columbus Avenue he managed to stay out of trouble and the press for the next quarter-century before death found him he was laid to rest at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Hollywood Hills weather stilts acted in self-defense or out of rage there is evidence that he too was haunted by that night according to Tom Corrigan each December for the rest of his life stilts received a card in the mail signed Merry Christmas from Alfea [Music] our exploration into the life and death of carl switzer ends here at the former site of Corrigan Ville Movie Ranch other than the crumbling foundations of the Western town very little remains of what was seeing it like this it's hard to imagine the excitement that this place once inspired hundreds of film and television westerns were made here and on the weekends the public was invited to come dream about adventure in a time when righteousness and justice always won in the end in many ways the Corrigan Ville of today is a metaphor for what carl switzer 'he's life looked like in january 1959 the man he had grown into bore little resemblance of what he used to be he was not the only little rascal to meet a tragic fate but his story stands out because of the many versions and theories that go with it only some of which were touched upon in this video Corrigan Ville also figures in is one of the most important settings and Switzer short life it was here below the stoic gaze of gorilla rock that he met bud stilts the instrument of his ultimate destruction however the seeds of that end were not planted here Carl sewed them himself at a time when stardom dissolved into disillusion and fame became failure no one will ever know for sure whether or not Bud stilts acted with malice when he pulled the trigger but one thing we do know for certain is that he didn't go out looking to murder Carl Switzer Carl Switzer came to him it paints a picture of a man desperate to free himself from the wreckage of a broken life and who chose another to be the method of his suicide but the exact motive that sent him to bud stilts is also something we will never know but it does lead to another certainty if on the night of January 21st 1959 Carl alfalfa Switzer had gone home to sleep off his afternoon drunk he would have awoken the next morning hungover but alive to greet the new day with all of its endless possibilities [Music] [Music] you [Music]

Channel: Grave Explorations

Views: 3,830,860

Rating: 4.8271737 out of 5

Keywords: Little Rascals, Our Gang, Spanky McFarland, Darla Hood, Hal Roach, Corriganville, Grave, Cemetery, Exploration, Hollywood, Bud Stiltz

Id: S6hPDUMzRWA

Length: 38min 46sec (2326 seconds)

Published: Thu Jul 02 2020