Farina Hoskins

Profile

Name: Allen (Morrison) (Hoskins)
Nickname: Farina, Maple (in Saturday Morning)
Played By: Allen Hoskins
Born: 1920
Relatives: Ernie Sr. (father), Mother (name unknown), Mrs. Jackson (aunt), Tom (uncle), Ernie Jr. (aka Sunshine Sammy), Booker T. (Bacon), Pineapple, Hector, Thermos, Trellis (brothers), Mango, Pleurisy (sisters)
Clubs: Cluck Cluck Klams, 4th Ave. Athalatick Club, Junior Police Squad, Junior Fire Squad 2, Manhattan Club
First Short: Fire Fighters
Last Short: (official) Fly My Kite, (cameo) Fish Hooky

Character

Bio: Farina is the little brother of Sunshine Sammy Morrison, although due to his unswept pigtails and ragamuffin clothes as a kid, many thought he was actually a girl, and at times, the gang would forget and refer to him as "her." Farina follows his brother along in delivering the laundry that their mother does and is sometimes called "Maple" in Saturday Morning as his brother is called "Sorghum." He, like his brother, has several ways of earning extra money from shining shoes in A Pleasant Journey and Big Business, posing for dolls in Mary, Queen of Tots, working as a bellboy at the Ritz-Biltmore Hotel in Barnum & Ringling, Inc., working as a page at the City Dog Show in Pups Is Pups and getting the gang to pay two bits to watch a boxing match between Joe Cobb and Chubby Chaney in Boxing Gloves.
Farina is first seen attending Adams Street Grammar School in Seeing The World with Mr. Finlayson as his teacher and later Miss MacGillicuddy and Miss Crabtree. Initially, Farina and the kids get so upset at losing Miss MacGillicuddy that they plan practical jokes to drive away Miss Crabtree in order to get their teacher back. Farina brings sneezing powder, but their schemes fail when Jackie unwittingly confesses their pranks to Miss Crabtree on the way to school. Despite this hazardous start, Farina and the rest of class get to appreciate their new teacher. Farina also appears for some reason at Mother Malone's Boarding School in Boys To Board and Happyland Home Orphanage in Bring Home The Turkey. Whenever he has the urge to play hooky, he rides the train to wherever it takes him in Fast Freight, once ending up with the gang in New York City in The Big Town. (In most accounts, they actually live on the West Coast near Los Angeles.) He and the gang sometimes play baseball and football and ride Johnny's engine-less taxi in One Wild Ride, stopping only after running into a watermelon stand. Farina loves watermelon (The Cobbler), but he has weird dreams when he eats too much. In Seein' Things, he has a nightmare that giant versions of his brother and friends are chasing him.
At times, the gang pretends they have jobs. Farina joins them in as junior police officers in Official Officers and becomes a part of Joe Cobb's fire department in The Fourth Alarm!. After Ernie goes to high school, Farina basically tags along with the other kids, sometimes pairing up with a certain kid. For instance, Farina is frequently paired up with Joe. They both team up to run the local bully, Toughey out of town in Telling Whoppers, later claiming they dumped him in Coogan Lake, which is all the more embarrassing when Tuffy later returns to town. Farina is also sometimes paired up with Jackie Condon. Beginning with the film Thundering Fleas, Farina is paired up with the new kid in town, Scooter Lowry. After Scooter moves to yet another town, Farina sometimes pairs up with Harry Spear.
Farina loves animals and has several of them during his childhood. He has a dog named Magnolia in Thundering Fleas, a dog named Pansy who eats fireworks in The Glorious Fourth and later adopts a fighting monkey in Monkey Business. Twice in his childhood, he confuses skunks as kittens in Big Business and Ten Years Old. His favorite pet is probably Pete The Pup. Farina is also highly superstitious, making him prone to practical jokes in Spook-Spoofing and getting scared by Chubby, Jean, and Harry (all of who are dressed up in spooky Halloween cosutmes) in Bouncing Babies. He thinks an automated house in Shootin' Injuns is haunted and when Jackie Cooper appears at his window in When The Wind Blows, he thinks he's a ghost. His superstitious proclivity could be connected to the fact that when he was riding in train cars, he once gets locked in one containing skeletons and medical cadavers in Fast Freight.
Although he gets to be a bit lazy in Lazy Days, Farina says he wants to grow up to be a street sweeper in Fast Freight. He's got a big heart and helps out Grandmother Mack at her market in Helping Grandma and watches over Stymie when he shows up in town in Little Daddy. Years later though, Farina and Joe Cobb are still fishing together in Fish Hooky.
Quotes:

• "I wanna work in th' movies, an' earn fi' bucks." - Farina in Dogs Of War!
• "Ah eat mush from now on!" - Farina in Seein' Things
  
• "Yo' all time followin' us men--" Farina to Powder-Puff in The Sun Down Limited
  
• "Now see - You almost got run over!" - Andy to Farina
  • "Almos'? Ah' did!" - Farina to Andy in The Sun Down Limited
    
• "--Y' didn't break my watch - It's still cluckin'!"- Farina in Official Officers
  
• "Whassa matter - Yo' horse get a punkture?" - Farina in One Wild Ride
  
• "Ah did own him - But Ah decided to go out o' the monkey business." - Farina in Monkey Business
  
• "How I know they was yo'r pants - They was loose." - Farina to Police Officer played by Oliver Hardy in Thundering Fleas
  
• "- I'm gonna save my noze -" - Joe Cobb to Farina
  • "- Ah wanna save mah head - Ah need it -" - Farina to Joe Cobb in Telling Whoppers
    
• "I think he's a Airdale - He's been livin' on air." - Farina in Love My Dog
  
• "Ah've known babies to go fo' years an' years without washin' " - Farina in Baby Brother
  
• "Home, Humidor!" - Farina to his chauffeur in The Smile Wins
  
• "Ah saw him tryin' to commit sideways - We better hurry -" - Farina in Dog Heaven
  
• "Ah'll rub this Mumbo-Jumbo charm on yo', an' yo'll wake up dead!" - Farina in Spook-Spoofing
  
• "Doggone, someone's always messin' me up!" - Farina in Shivering Shakespeare
  
• "Boy, you sure don't smell like no violet!" - Farina to Wheezer in Bear Shooters
  
• "Somebody going to get something they ain't expecting." - Farina in Bear Shooters
  
• "Believe me, married life is tough!" - Farina in School's Out
  
• "I'm never gonna get married, and I'm going to bring my children up the same way." - Farina in School's Out
  
• "You all's just love sick, that's all. - Farina in Love Business
  
• "He's all right, Grandma! I got him by the hand!" - Farina, chest deep in muddy water on the whereabouts of Stymie in Fly My Kite
  

Notes/Trivia

• Farina appeared in 107 Our Gang shorts (including Fish Hooky and The Stolen Jools), more than any other Little Rascal in the series.
  
• Both Farina and Buckwheat were named after types of cereal.
• Farina was also featured in Dell's Little Rascals comic book series of the late 50's and early 60's. Oddly enough, in earlier issues of this series, Buckwheat was referred to as 'Farina', while Farina was left nameless. It wasn't until later on that this was changed to give the two characters their proper names.
  
• Farina's last name is never mentioned in the series, except for the inference that it is "Bacon" by means of his being Booker T. Bacon's little brother in Fire Fighters, if that toddler is the same character as in Allen Hoskins' other appearances.
  

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