A native of Central City Colorado Newmeyer is best known for directing a handful of films in the Our Gang series and for directing several Harold Lloyd movies With Sam Taylor Newmeyer codirected Lloyd in films including Safety Last 1923 Girl Shy 1924 and The Freshman 1925 Newmeyer also had an extensive directing and acting resume in other comedy short films He appeared as an actor in 71 films between 1914 and 1923 Prior to his film career Newmeyer played professional baseball Partial statistics exist for his time as a lefthanded pitcher in Minor League Baseball at the Class D level from 1911 to 1913 in the Southwest Texas League Michigan State League and Central Association6 He made at least 66 appearances and was the winning pitcher of at least 26 games Newmeyer was the original director of the first short in the Our Gang series also titled Our Gang his version tested poorly and producer Hal Roach scrapped most of the footage and remade the short with Robert McGowan as the director Newmeyer after directing numerous other shorts at Roach returned to the Our Gang series in 1936 to direct The Pinch Singer Arbor Day Mail and Female and the feature film General Spanky Newmeyer and his wife Berna had a son Fred W After his film career Newmeyer worked with the athletic department of University High School in Los Angeles Newmeyer died on April 24 1967 in Woodland Hills California at the age of 78
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