As we speak right now, if you were to look on Wikipedia at the “List of Surviving Silent Film Actors,” you would find only 13 confirmed names. This list is of course dynamic, so it is going to change for some readers of this posting, but at the current moment you would find right smack in the middle of this list Lassie Lou Ahern. Lassie appeared in six of the earliest Our Gang comedies in 1923 and 1924, returning for a brief appearance in their 1926 short Thundering Fleas, which also starred Oliver Hardy.
Lassie’s older sister Peggy had starred in eight of the Our Gang film in larger roles as the leading lady. They later went on as a team in a vaudeville song-and-dance act, and in their capacity as dancers appeared in the short film Hollywood Party with Charley Chase. Lassie Lou had previously appeared with Chase in His Wooden Wedding. Lassie subsequently retired from show business in the mid-forties, although she returned for some brief appearances in shows such as The Odd Couple and Love, American Style.
You may recall that I attended the memorial service for Lassie’s sister Peggy Ahern back in 2013, following her death in October of 2012. I had met Peggy for the first time at Hollywood ’80 and then again in 1997 at the Way Out West Tent’s 30th anniversary banquet. At the banquet Peggy had her younger sister Lassie Lou with her. Since Lassie Lou’s roles were more unsung than her older sister, I actually wasn’t familiar with her. However I did have them both sign a great photo of them with Will Rogers at that time. In one of the great mistakes of my life, I didn’t get a photo taken with them, and thus never got one with Peggy Ahern.
I was bound and determined not to make the same mistake with Lassie Lou… but it seemed the cards always fell in the wrong favor. I had gotten plenty of autographs from Lassie over the years, but I really wanted to get a picture with her. Bob and I had planned to visit her at her Arizona home when we took our great Utah road trip back in 2011, but a mis-communication placed us there on the wrong day, and thus a great opportunity slipped by. Then I though for sure I’d get to meet her again at the memorial service for her sister in 2013, but alas she was forced to cancel the trip to California on that occasion as well. So you can’t measure my gratefulness when Lassie Lou was able to attend the Sons of the Desert Laurel and Hardywood convention in 2014. The third (or maybe fourth) time was the charm apparently.
This time around, I not only got to meet her and get a picture, but I actually tended to her on several occasions throughout the convention, and through that got to know her quite well. I found her to be sharp and spunky, sweet and funny, and if I had to sum her up in one word, it would be a delight.
Bob asked me to simply accompany her to banquet at the Hollywood Museum on July 3, 2014. It seemed easy enough, but when my friend David and I showed up at her room and greeted her and her son and daughter-in-law, we realized that she needed a wheelchair to make the journey from the hotel to the museum. We didn’t have one. So how did we resolve this? I pushed her all the way from the hotel, across Hollywood Boulevard, and down Highland Avenue in her four-wheeled walker. After this, we were best of friends for the duration of the convention. It was tons of fun to have dinner with her and her family that night at the museum and just listen to her talk about life.
Getting to know Lassie Lou Ahern after so many times just missing her was one of the highlights of the convention.
Continue with the celebrities of Laurel and Hardywood ’14 here…
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