Description: Exploring the hometowns and legacies of Hollywood's Golden Age stars.
“Children in my day were either cornfed or milk-fed. I was both.” –Joe Cobb
Joseph “Joe” Frank Cobb was among the many children cast in the early iteration of Our Gang , spending his tenure in the hit comedies from 1922 to 1929. He was born in Shawnee, Oklahoma, on November 7, 1916, to James Cobb and Florence “Flossie” Jewel McComas Cobb. By age five, he was discovered as a new talent when vacationing with his father in Los Angeles, California. There, his father sent him to audition for Hal Roach’s Our Gang , leading him to appear in some of the earliest shorts, including The Champ
By age 12, he was phasing out of the series. Essentially, his replacement would be Norman Chaney as “Chubby,” with both Chaney and Cobb appearing in Boxing Gloves (1929). His final appearance as a regular in the series was in Lazy Days (1929), though he did make three additional cameo appearances in the years to come.