OLLIE TO STAN: 'At last you are using my brain!'
Wednesday, August 24, 2005
THIS DAY: Jean Darling is born
Today, 83 years ago, Jean Darling was born in Santa Monica, California. She now lives in Ireland, after a busy carreer in show business. Between 1926 and 1929 Jean was a regular at Hal Roach Studios, the home of Laurel & Hardy. She appeared in at least 35 Our Gang/Little Rascal films. After Our Gang her career was far from over. She played the role of Carrie Pipperidge in the original Broadway production of Carousel (800+ performances) and hosted her own television show for NBC in New York City, ‘A Date With Jean Darling’. Her daily TV show for women, ‘The Singing Knit-Witch’, was aired on KHJ-TV in Hollywood. She toured the world singing with her husband Kajar the Magician’s magic show. In 1974 she settled in Dublin, Ireland, with her son and began writing short stories for magazines like ‘Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine’ and ‘Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine’. In 1980 she returned to radio and television in Ireland as ‘Aunty Poppy’, telling her own children’s stories for RTE.
In recent years Jean Darling was a celebrity guest at most European Conventions of the Sons of the Desert. Her next Convention will be the one in Itzehoe/Hamburg, next month!
Jean Darling’s personal memoirs were published by Blotto Press, Hilversum, Netherlands in 2003. Title ‘A Peek at the Past’ - ISBN 90-8075591-5.
Jean Darling’s website: indigo.ie/~jdarling/index.htm.
