One con man impersonated McGowan, traveling from town to town with carloads of scenery and plenty of advance ballyhoo on the pretense of filming "Our Gang" comedies in that locale. He promised regional merchants, theaters sponsoring talent contests and gullible parents long-term contracts and transportation to Hal Roach Studios in Hollywood. Meanwhile, back in Culver City,
Hal Roach was tracking the activities of this fraud, always a few days behind such itinerant chicanery.