Upstaged

Released
October 8, 1923

Starring

 * Andy
 * Ernie
 * Farina
 * Jack
 * Jackie
 * Joe
 * Mickey

Story
The gang is operating their mule-powered homemade bus, but doesn’t make a lot of money since Mickey keeps letting the neighborhood girls ride for free. They stop in town at a gas station so Dinah the Mule can be refilled with water. While there, the leader of a vaudeville troupe, desperate for help since most of his group quit over not being paid, sees the gang clad in grass skirts and figures they’d be willing to work cheap.

The gang has no qualms about going along with a stranger and accepts his offer. The show, however, does not go smoothly. Two real dancers are insulted when they discover the audience is applauding Jackie and Joe doing a hula dance in the background, and quit on the spot. Then the vaudevillian does his strongman routine with fake weights, but Farina steals this part of the show. While the performer pretends to struggle with the weights, Farina flexes his muscles in an exaggerated manner and lifts phony weights over his head before carrying and pushing them offstage. Then the vaudevillian does his magic act, but with Ernie, Mickey, and Jackie as assistants his tricks go awry. The kids pass him the wrong objects or animals, and are seen retrieving stray bunnies.

Flustered and incensed, the troupe leader decides on a final trick with trick handcuffs. He lets himself be handcuffed, and spins around, and by twisting his hands in the correct manner is free within five seconds. Seeing this, the gang willingly lets him handcuff them all, but they don’t know the trick and are stuck with their hands locked behind their backs.

“Hey, we can’t get out!” complains Jack.

The audience gets concerned, but the vaudevillian announces, “It’s all part of the act.” To the gang he says, “Good job, keep it up. Act like you’re really stuck.”

“We are really stuck!” shouts Andy, but the more he and the others yell, the more the audience is convinced the kids are faking it. The audience gives a large round of applause and leaves, and in the commotion the troupe leader disappears. A few minutes later the gang walks home in the handcuffs, and still can’t convince anyone they aren’t acting. They remained in the cuffs for two days before an anonymous letter arrives giving instructions on how the handcuffs work.