During the midst of my autograph collecting spree, there was no question that I was still the biggest Laurel and Hardy and Our Gang fan in the world. So naturally, it was on my agenda to collect not only autographs of world-famous actors and actresses, but also anyone who worked in either of these series. Since I had not yet met Bob at this point, I relied on Carl Ahlm to get me the addresses of such folks. I had been present at Hollywood ’80, the incredible Sons of the Desert convention at which more than twenty Our Gang members had assembled for the biggest reunion in history, and picked up quite a few autographs there.
The requests for autographs that I sent out on July 10 and July 11 of 1985 went, respectively, to Dickie Moore and Johnny Downs from the Our Gang series, both of whom were absent from the 1980 festivities. Dickie starred in just eight of the talkies, but played a leading role in each of them. His performances were so admired, in fact, that he soon graduated into bigger motion pictures and continued to act into the 1950’s (giving Shirley Temple her first screen kiss along the way). The photo at left is a publicity shot for his 1984 book Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star (But Don’t Have Sex or Take the Car).
Johnny Downs was the silent Our Gang’s All-American boy. He starred in 24 of the films, and he too continued to act into the 1950’s. Later, he became a television host for a local television show, as pictured at top.
Although at the time of these first requests, I didn’t have any photos to send these former child stars, they each provided me with a small signed photo of themselves as adults (as displayed at top) – in addtion to signing the notecards I enclosed. Later on I was able to get some Our Gang photos signed by both and couple of them are displayed here as well. After Johnny signed a different print of the photo shown below, I mailed it off to Joe Cobb and it was never returned. Fortunately, I was able to get an additional copy of the same photo and sent it to Johnny again to be signed. Joe Cobb eventually signed it later in person.
More autographs from 1985 later…
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