|
Randy Cassingham's BlogHistorical Details and Author's Notes from This is True®
|
Honorary Unsubscribe Choices
Two weeks ago I ran out of time to research and write the Honorary Unsubscribe -- and then forgot to note that in the issue. The H.U. runs the following Monday in the Premium edition, and I had time to research it over the weekend, so there was an H.U. entry that week -- free edition readers just didn't see it. But it's in the archive, if you like to keep track of such things. To catch up see Hans Beck.
Weekly Weird News
This week's honoree is a gem: someone who I know helped a lot of you or your family members stay alive, yet you likely have never heard his name. Perfect!
But sometimes I get a heartwarming laugh when I'm looking for someone to honor. This week, it was Shirley Jean Rickert, who was a cute curly-blonde child actress in five "Our Gang" comedy films in 1931 (which was the pre-Alfalfa and Spanky era) and in five "Mickey McGuire" comedy films, a competing series starring Mickey Rooney, as "Tomboy Taylor".
She said she had a lot of fun making movies as a child: "just kids playing together," she said in a 1999 interview. "We had fun. The mothers on the other hand, were awful. Stage mothers are just vile women, including my own."
Being a movie star, she said, was her mother's dream, "but it wasn't mine."
And indeed, Rickert never was successful as an actress as an adult ...so she turned to burlesque. Her blonde hair was still her trademark: by then, it was down to her waist. It inspired her manager to give her a stage name: Gilda and Her Crowning Glory -- and it stuck!
She acknowledged that she was a stripper, but things were different in her day. "I see more flesh in television commercials today than I used to see in burlesque," she said.
Rickert retired from show business in 1959, and died in a nursing home on February 6 at 82. So yeah, someone else was the official honoree this week, but I still got to tell you about the little gem I found too.
Her web site has more info and (itty bitty) photos.
RSS
2 Comments on This Entry
All comments in this blog are reviewed prior to being published. Spammers: don't waste your time. The posting criteria are simple: if a comment is worth visitors' time to read, it's approved. If not, it's not.
Posted by John in Lexington, SC on February 14, 2009:
No one can deny she was quite a beautiful lady. The pictures of her taken later in her life, she was still quite a looker. It's a rare thing to find someone so pretty who is (was) a witty person. Her pages give a hint. May she rest in peace.
Posted by paula in NH on February 15, 2009:
Thank you for this particular posting. Shirley was my older brother's mother-in-law (former). I had only met her at the wedding, but I do remember that she was indeed a nice lady.