Waldo

Waldo

Profile

Name: Waldo (Kaye) (in The Little Rascals, his full name is Waldo Aloysius Johnston III )
Nickname: None
Played By: Darwood Kaye
Born: 1929
Relatives: father (name unrevealed), Frank (uncle)
Clubs: None
First Short: Glove Taps
Last Short: Waldo's Last Stand

Character

Bio: Waldo is the Anti-Rascal. He's one of them, but he comes from wealthy parents with enough money to buy him a small motorboat in Three Men In A Tub, but he's not an obnoxious rich kid like Jerry Tucker. He's actually a very well-behaved and studious student who enjoys reading poetry to Darla, but he is not very street smart. If he comes off as obnoxious at all, it is not because of arrogance but because he is often coldly rational and oblivious to the resourcefulness of the gang. When his craft gets a hole in it during a race with Spanky and Alfalfa's amateurist creation at Toluca Lake, he refers to the owner's manual to solve the problem unaware that Darla is getting rescued by Alfalfa as he studies the book.
Waldo is a student at Adams Street Grammar School. Darla often uses him without his knowledge to make Alfalfa jealous, and he in turn tries to make her into a lady by reading to her from his favorite poets. In Party Fever, he asks her to the Strawberry Festival and later gets to be junior mayor with little effort through his Uncle Frank, the mayor. In The Big Premiere, Waldo uses a home movie camera to make a movie called "The Mysteerus Mystery," but Alfalfa's song doesn't make the cut. Not because Waldo edited him out, but because he ran out of film.
Still, there is never any hard feelings between Waldo and the gang. When Waldo puts up a lemonade stand and gets no customers, the gang puts together an act to attract them. Just why Waldo tries selling lemonade is unrevealed; possibly he gets too proud to ask his parents for extra money or he just wants to become self-reliant. The plan doesn't work because all the kids who would buy lemonade end up in the show!
Quotes: None

Notes/Trivia

• During the series, Waldo is the studious and cultured member of the Rascals, but starting with the cartoon series and the later movies, he was turned into more of a rich snobbish villain more like Percy in Hi'-Neighbor!. See also: Waldo As Seen In Other Media.
• Waldo is one of the only main 1940s characters (the other being Spanky) to not get replaced after their absence.
• Waldo is usually seen wearing glasses, but his film counterpart doesn't wear one in The Little Rascals Save The Day.
• Waldo, Spanky, Alfalfa, Buckwheat, Porky, Darla, Butch, Woim and Big Shot Jones are the only Hal Roach characters to appear in the MGM films.
• Waldo, Spanky, Pete and Alfalfa are the only characters to have their names in the title.
  • Waldo has his name in Waldo's Last Stand.
     

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