I had no appreciation really for who Peggy Ahern was when I met her at the Hollywood ’80 convention, but was eager to have any of the former-child stars whom I encountered sign my little blue autograph book. Later I found out exactly who Peggy was…one of the short-term leading ladies of the Our Gang series from 1924 to 1927. Over this span of time she only appeared in seven of the silent films. Of utmost distinction was that she signed my autograph page, and then Woim Kibrick signed on the same page right under her as seen here.
After I became friends with Bob Satterfield, he would later supply me with several different nice photos from the Little Rascals series that she had signed. One such photo is seen below, which has also been signed by Joe Cobb. She would also be a prominent interviewee on a great video documentary that Bob sent to me entitled Our Gang: Behind the Clubhouse. It would be seventeen years before I would re-connect with Peggy Ahern, again during a Way Out West tent function in California, and that time along with her sister Lassie Lou Ahern, another child star from the Our Gang.
The Our Gang stars of Hollywood ’80 will continue…
It is absolutely amazing that you were fortunate enough to meet all of these Our Gang alumni when you did. It is even more amazing that you had the presence of mind to get their autographs and have pictures taken with many of them at such a young age! About how many different Our Gang members have you managed to secure autographs from? I would be interested to know. I have managed to collect about 30 or so. Keep on writing these wonderful stories. They might need to be collected into a book someday!
Dave Chasteen
August 25th, 2007