Pay As You Exit

Production Notes[]

Length: One Reel
Producer: Hal Roach
Director: Gordon Douglas
Photography: Walter Lunden
Editor: William Ziegler
Titles: None
Writer: Unrevealed
Released: October 24, 1936
Studio: Hal Roach Studios/MGM

Main Cast[]

Supporting Cast[]

The Short[]

Plot: Spanky and the gang are putting on a matinee based on William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet with Alfalfa and Darla in the title roles, but the neighborhood kids just aren't interested. Alfalfa promises the kids that they can pay on the way out after they have seen the show. Spanky doesn't like the idea. To complicate things more, Alfalfa has been chewing on onions and Darla walks out in the middle of the show, leaving Spanky to put on a small brief side act of lifting weights. The weights as well as the sound of them hitting the stage are fake as Porky reveals. Darla meanwhile has been replaced by Buckwheat, who everyone from the area seems to know. As things start looking optimistic, Alfalfa loses his balance on the ladder which starts wobbling. Leaning from the balcony, Buckwheat just manages to grab Alfalfa's outstretched hand and pull him to safety temporarily. They continue the scene with Buckwheat holding onto the ladder, but soon he is also overcome by Alfalfa's onion breath and lets go, which causes Alfalfa to wobble some more and then finally fall through the curtain which Spanky lowered. Spanky is upset as everyone gets up and heads out thinking they haven't made any money, but Alfalfa smiles triumphantly because everyone did pay in that split second before leaving.
Quotes:

"Have you been eating onions?" - Darla Hood
"O-Tay!" - Porky, later erroneously attributed to Buckwheat

Notes/Trivia:

Last seen in the series in 1933, former Little Rascal Joseph Cobb returns in this episode as one of the kids in the front row.
A sign says "Romyo and Jullet" was written by "Spanky and Shakspeer."
Spanky addresses Buckwheat as "Professor" in the beginning of the short.
Spanky plays Juliet's father, and Buckwheat plays an anachronistic African servant before standing in as Juliet. Porky isn't in the play, instead playing records with appropriate music in addition to making sound effects by dropping cannonballs in sync with Spanky dropping the weights.
Spanky gets up to take a bow after his character is killed by Alfalfa's, then lies down again.
The gag of Porky lifting and walking offstage with fake heavy weights had previously been done by Farina in Back Stage.

Sequence[]

Previous Short: Two Too Young
Next Short: Spooky Hooky