That Murderin’ Rascal!
Tuesday, March 25th, 2008
It is ironic that one of the worst child actors in the history of motion pictures – one Mickey Gubitosi – would grow up to be one of the most successful actors of all of the Our Gang kids. And notorious as well. My attempts at getting Robert Blake’s autograph through the mail began long before he went to trial for the murder of his wife Bonnie Bakley. I was actually rather surprised to receive my first attempt, which I sent on February 23, 1987, back with a legitimate autograph (seen at right). This came back along with two signed notecards on March 9. Blake had been known to use secretaries in the past – and ones who didn’t even attempt to get his signature right. My friend Bob had one of these added to a photo on which he had already acquired other signatures. Read the rest of this entry »
On May 20, 1986, as I stood there dressed to the nines in my white sportjacket and yellow slacks in preparation of attending the Ankeney Junior High School Banquet of Excellence, my Mom remarked to me that at that very moment, she was noticing how much weight I had lost. My transformation was complete. I had blossomed from the awkward fat kid into a gangly teenager. That evening I accepted my award certificate for achieving one of the top ten scores in the school on the Language Art Olympiad – an event of which I have no recollection. Eighth grade was about to come to an end and I was heading into the Summer with a new lease on life. 
No chronology of my life would be complete without a few representative examples from my short-lived and largely unfunny ‘publication’ entitled Trash. This was the successor to the hugely politically incorrect 
Having had great success with previous attemps at getting autographs from the two surviving members of the Three Stooges (seen