The IMDb trivia page for Hal Roach states that the lot included a commissary open to the public, the “Our Gang” Café. The same note says a pocket park on Washington Boulevard was dedicated in 1980 where that café had stood, and that Roach, then 88, attended the ceremony. It names neither staff nor a menu.
The UCLA Library Special Collections catalog describes a Los Angeles Times photograph of 1 July 1963: actor Chill Wills sits on a flatcar under the Our Gang Cafe while the Hal Roach studio is being demolished. The catalog names the café. It names neither staff nor a menu.
Two sentences from the Wikipedia article “Carl ‘Alfalfa’ Switzer,” CC BY-SA:
Following a public tour, eight-year-old Harold and six-year-old Carl entered the Hal Roach Studio's open-to-the-public cafeteria, the Our Gang Café, and began an impromptu performance.
Producer Hal Roach was present and was impressed.
Marc Wanamaker’s April 1920 account for the Culver City Historical Society lists the administration building, stages, a set storage building, a laboratory, and department bungalows at 8822 West Washington Boulevard. That list does not name a dining room. Hal Roach Studios.
In the same article Wanamaker writes that in 1980 the studio site was marked with a historical plaque as one of the city’s most famous studios. He does not use that sentence to describe the pocket park or a dining room.
Sources
- IMDb, trivia for Hal Roach (nm0730018).
- Wikipedia contributors, “Carl ‘Alfalfa’ Switzer,” CC BY-SA 4.0. CC BY-SA 4.0.
- Marc Wanamaker, “Remembering the Hal Roach Studios,” Culver City Historical Society, 1 April 2006.
- Los Angeles Times, 1 July 1963, UCLA Library Special Collections catalog. License CC BY 4.0.