Dante’s Info #1
Tuesday, May 31st, 2011
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I had created four issues of the newsletter titled Told in the Whole, the publication for the Springfield Towed in a Hole tent of the Sons of the Desert, between 1986 and 1987. My momentum only stopped because the tent stopped actually having any meetings. Of course, many things in my life happened that would have precluded me from putting too much emphasis on this aspect of my life anyway – namely spending lots of time with my first girlfriend Christi and the birth of my daughter Ashleigh. Nevertheless, by Fall of 1990, I was hoping to resume publication of this fine newsletter. In fact, I even wrote a tribute to my friend, actress Virginia Karns who had starred with Laurel and Hardy in Babes in Toyland. Read the rest of this entry »
The city of Escalante, Utah may have a population under 1000, but it just so happens that one of my favorite people lives there. Former Our Gang member Mildred Kornman has been residing there with her son Steve for about five years now. Obviously the region is tiny, but it has a very quaint charm. Upon entering the area, Bob and I gave Mildred a call and asked her where she’d like us to meet her. Bob had made arrangements before our trip and she was excited that we were coming for a visit on Sunday, March 27, as we made our way northwest traveling through Utah. 
Clearly Bob and I were exhausted after our week-long car trek through parts of Nevada, Utah, and Arizona – but that didn’t stop us from getting up at 5:00am on the morning of Saturday, April 2, 2011, with the hope of one lone celebrity encounter. But this wasn’t just any celebrity, it was former Our Gang member Jackie Cooper – a gentleman whom I had always hoped to meet. In order to not be too anti-climactic, I’ll tell you now that I did not get to meet him. 
The original plans were to go back to Bob’s house in San Bernardino after Disneyland and then head out early Saturday morning toward our Utah destinations, stopping in Las Vegas for breakfast that morning. Then we had even talked about skipping Disney and just spending the whole day Friday in Vegas. What we ended up was an amalgam of both. After we had finished eating dinner at the Blue Bayou, Bob and I headed out from Disneyland directly toward Las Vegas on Friday, March 25, 2011. 
Perhaps you’re wondering how a real life actress can get the credit as playing Tinkerbell in the 1953 Walt Disney animated classic Peter Pan, especially since Tinkerbell didn’t talk in the film. Well here’s how: In the early days of Disney animation, live actors were hired to pantomime the movements of their on-screen counterparts. Margaret Kerry was the actress who was tapped to be old Tink. But to solidify her presence in the actual film, she also provided the voice of one of the red-headed mermaid in the Neverland lagoon. But when I first met Margaret Kerry, I didn’t really know much about her involvement with Peter Pan.