Unfortunately, it has been five years since I have actually been able to see former Our Gang star Dorothy deBorba. Because of health reasons, namely that she requires an oxygen tank, she has been unable to travel from her home in Livermore, California for the last several years. Our association goes way back to this particular day at the Hollywood ’80 convention. I had already met Dorothy earlier that afternoon while she was being interviewed before the Culver City parade. It was there that I plunked myself down between her and Butch Bond to tune into what they were saying.
I remember that when I encountered her again later that evening of Thursday, July 31 at the Our Gang meet-and-greet, she said something to the effect of “here’s my new boyfriend,” before inscribing my little blue autograph album while commenting on my big blue eyes. This delighted me. Upon my return to school life in the third grade, I can distinctly recall telling other kids on the swingset during recess that I, being a man of the world, had a girlfriend. A long-distance relationship, it seems, with a former member of the Our Gang Comedies.
Guarding the ashtray as Dorothy signs for me
Autographs from the Our Gang session will continue…
Oxygen tank? Guess she shouldn’t have smoked.
Yank
August 31st, 2007