The people in Ithaca are full of junk sometimes man. I went to dinner at a friends house this weekend and had a great time. But during the after dinner conversation one of the locals told me that Ithaca was the ‘orginial hollywood’ during the silent film era. WHAT? Is that right? Hmm.. Maybe …Ever since I got here people have told me that a scene (scenes) from the Little Rascals was filmed on hilly Buffalo St here in Ithaca.
I know Ithaca is always trying to claim something – remember the Sundae story?? Yeah. So, I said to the lady… ‘wow, I’ll have to google that and write about it on my blog.‘
She said ever so confidenly ..if you look up ‘The Perils of Pauline’ you’ll find out all about Ithaca’s film days. Uhmm Hmm…. here’s what my little investigation turned up.
There was a film studio in Ithaca in the early 1900’s called Wharton Studios. They made a bunch of silent films – but I didn’t see any Perils of Pauline listed. Wikipedia’s posting about Perils gives credit to New Jersey and New Hope Pennsylvania for the scenes in series. Again no mention of Ithaca.
The Little Rascals were not filmed in Ithaca either. Apparently this myth is so wide spread it actually appears on the Little Rascals frequently asked questions list.
Q.I have a friend who lives in New York. He insists that many Our Gang films were shot in Ithaca. He has even shown me the hill the kids drove their homemade fire engine down. I thought they were shot in Hollywood. Who is right? A. The Ithaca story is another old myth about Our Gang. I have no idea how it got started. All the Rascals films were shot in or around Roach studios in Culver City, California. Count how many palm trees there are in Ithaca!
To top it all off, this from Ithaca’s most known historian… (Click the image to read the article)
My Simple Life in Ithaca 
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