My First Meeting with Dorothy – Hollywood ’80
Thursday, July 19th, 2007
Unfortunately, it has been five years since I have actually been able to see former Our Gang star Dorothy deBorba. Because of health reasons, namely that she requires an oxygen tank, she has been unable to travel from her home in Livermore, California for the last several years. Our association goes way back to this particular day at the Hollywood ’80 convention. I had already met Dorothy earlier that afternoon while she was being interviewed before the Culver City parade. It was there that I plunked myself down between her and Butch Bond to tune into what they were saying. Read the rest of this entry »
Ex-Beatles, while often sharing songwriting credit with a partner, usually didn’t need to share lead vocal duties with anyone. John had his Yoko…and Paul had Denny Laine. Denny sang lead vocals on no less than six songs on various Paul McCartney and Wings albums, including one of my favorites, The Note You Never Wrote on Wings at the Speed of Sound. In all, Denny Laine played guitar on seven Wings records and two of Paul’s other solo albums, Tug of War and Pipes of Peace. Outside of Paul himself and his wife Linda, Denny Laine was certainly the most recognizable of the Wings band members. 
I first fell in love with actress Crystal Bernard when I saw her in the cult-classic TV movie High School U.S.A. She was virtually unknown at that time, but subsequently became famous for her role as Helen Chapel in the sit-com Wings. I had always liked Wings too, but it somehow became the entire theme of my wedding weekend in 2003 when Jimmy visited to both lend support and videotape the ceremony and reception. It was a spontaneous thing – quoting Wings – and as much as we’ve tried to re-live it since, it never had the same comedic impact as it did on that wacky weekend that I got married to Carolyn. 
She lucked into eternal film fame when her sister, who was slated to play the part, became too old-looking by the time her scenes in Gone with the Wind were ready to be filmed. So Cammie King ended up with the role of a lifetime, that of Bonnie Blue Butler, beloved but doomed daughter of Rhett and Scarlett in the Academy Award winning film from 1939. Incidentally, she also played the young Faline in the Disney classic Bambi. 
Although Sidney Kibrick would go on to make a few further appearances at other Way Out West Tent functions, Hollywood ’80 was his one-and-only convention appearance. And thereby, it was the only opportunity I have had to date to meet him. Mr. Kibrick played the freckle-faced, red-headed sidekick to Tommy “Butch” Bond in the Our Gang series. Kibrick’s character name in the films was “The Woim.” He didn’t have a slew of lines in the films, but his menacing presence left an impression on me in his 26 film appearances. I remember specifically being very excited to meet “Woim”, whose name (I had no idea at the time) was derived from a Brooklyn-esque pronunciation of “Worm.”