"After working on my memoir project, I took a walk in the rain. Today is Bobby Driscoll’s birthday, who was a friend of my parents. I don’t have a strong memory of him, due that I was a little child when he was around the household. But his presence was felt strongly. What I hear about him is mostly from my mom, who was very fond of him. It’s funny that he was the source material for Disney’s “Peter Pan” and in a sense growing up was a huge pain for him. Not as a man, but the way the entertainment industry treats its children, who work in the film world. They always want to freeze time, yet a human can’t remain what he was, he or she can only be “is.”
Bobby is one of those rare people whose blank expression is typically a sweet, good-natured one it seems - except for only a handful of photos. This is definitely one of those. I can’t tell if he’s trying to channel the character he plays from Party Crashers in this pic or if the camera happened to just catch him looking extra forlorn, but either way he does NOT seem happy here. What might have been on his mind?
This song was one I’d long forgotten about, but heard again last night, and immediately thought of Bobby. It’s directed toward a woman and getting over a breakup, of course, as most sad songs are, but I saw extra poignancy in it and thought of Bobby’s life. He hid so much of his sorrow from sight, something it seems he felt he had to do in order to get through the tough times. The fact that he died hidden away from his numerous family members and friends testifies to the fact that he was most comfortable suffering quietly. The most moving quote for me in all this is, “Someday when my cryin’s done… I’m gonna wear a smile and walk in the sun.” We can’t know at what point in time Bobby finally gave up on that happening on this side of heaven, but I like to believe that he knew he would be going to a place after his death where life would become new and beautiful for him again.
So this hat is a Stetson. Why is this important on a Bobby Driscoll page, you may ask? Well, it isn’t, really, but for my wondering if Bobby ever wore one. This hat was popular around the time Bobby would have been a working, suburban dad. We know Bobby was a dapper, well-dressed guy in all occasions, but I hate I never got to see him in a hat other than the cowboy hats he wore in Rawhide. He would have looked nice in one, yes? However, I do get this feeling that Bobby was always super proud of his hair. It’s perfectly coiffed in almost all his pictures (even in the pic of him sitting there half-shaven smoking a cigarette at the police station after he and Suzanne got popped for stealing from a vet). I noticed that he was diligent about doing different things with his hair as the eras changed, always keeping up with the latest fashions. So maybe he felt a hat would distract from that? Hmm. Anyway, random thought of the day.
You must go listen to these. They’re amazing. Allow me to elaborate on them, particularly as it’s been a little while since I’ve written a substantial post for y’all. http://www.bobbydriscoll.net/radio-broadcasts/
The Future Is Yours Probably one of my favorites. Bobby does a great job here, when he was about 11 years old.
Jamie and the Promise I had a harder time getting engaged in the storyline here, but Bobby did a great job as usual.
Mahoney’s Lucky Day This is the show Bobby actually hosted! He stumbles just a bit for wording during the introduction, but at the very end, he has sweet, poignant words to say about faith. In all likelihood, his words were scripted, but he seemed very earnest in his delivery. Knee Pants So, this is the only one I’ve yet to make it all the way through. The only copy of this one echoes a bit and the quality isn’t very good. It caused me to be unable to follow the story, or to tell his voice from the other young boy’s alot of the time.
The Throw Back This was another of my favorites. These old radio shows are adorably quirky, and I’ll never forget bursting out laughing upon hearing the background music and sound of a belt as it was supposedly being used on Bobby after he got into trouble with his parents on one occasion.
Treasure Island The story as recorded for radio. Bobby does have a small interview at the end, but I am consistently under the impression, upon hearing Bobby’s few interviews, that even they were scripted. They bear a slight stiffness to them that wouldn’t be present, I don’t think, had he been talking candidly. At the same time, we have to remember that we in the modern age are spoiled on celebrities talking more colloquially in their interviews, whereas this was a more refined time period. So that could have truly been “raw Bobby.”
The Day They Gave Babies Away You MUST listen to this for Christmas! I think it’s actually my favorite one… Comic Weekly Man “Turn your eyes and look, Miss Honey! I’ve lost my shadow, and that’s not funny.” That line warms me everytime - it’s Bobby’s first line in the middle of the radio show when he does a spot for Peter Pan. His voice sounds a bit different here, and his accent is alot more northern/midwestern than usual. I wonder if this was after he received his voice lessons for Peter Pan, and was taking on a more “ideal” accent for the time period. Either way, it is absolutely precious.
The Peter Pans We’ve all seen Peter Pan, and if you’ve seen it, you’ve pretty much heard these. Just I can definitely notice Bobby’s syllables and how he sounds out his words being quite a bit different from how they were in previous broadcasts.
The Big Sophomore - I can honestly say there that had Bobby’s name not been announced on this radio show, I would never have thought the boy talking was him. His whole voice sounded different to me, not just the accent. Listen to it and see what you think.
The Courtship of John Dennis This one was absolutely adorable, and what I loved the best was the short spot Bobby did right after the broadcast where he and the other actors were discussing the story. He doesn’t have too many lines, but those he says are poignant. The Penalty This one was pretty good! Bobby was older here, I think 18. Fair Exchange I think out of all the broadcasts Bobby did as an older teen/early 20-something, this was my favorite. Not really sure why, I just loved his dynamic here. A Shot in the Dark This had a really sweet story, and of course Bobby did his usual awesome. However, this was another one where I had trouble from time to time - particularly early on - discerning his voice from the other young man’s, especially as they were talking low.
There we go! My commentary on Bobby's broadcasts. Hope everyone’s Christmas season is going well! Thanks for continuing to read me!
Here’s our boy in what is frankly my favorite picture of him as an adult I think. Ignoring those bars in the background, of course, and despite the fact that we know he was here because he swatted a heckler with a pistol like a Billy Badass… He looks healthy, handsome, and best yet, grown. You’ve heard me discuss plenty how we don’t have many adult pictures of Bobby to celebrate.
This song was released during Bobby’s very last Christmas on this earth – Christmas of 1967. We wonder what he was doing then, and what Christmas must have been like for him alone in New York? Could he have ever imagined that, at Christmas of 2016, there would still be people thinking about him?
If you have not read this letter yet on the Bobby Driscoll website (www.bobbydriscoll.net), you absolutely must. I am choosing this to be our focus this week because I love delving into how Bobby thought and felt about things as an adult. This particular letter is rich with mysticism (which he turned to for a time) and art discussion. It’s definitely clear to see that his artistic pursuits were of paramount importance to him at this point in his life. I also love to see what a loyal and loving friend he was through his writing – specifically, the kind things he said in encouragement to George Herms regarding his friend’s own art and his family. It was absolutely precious to see his fond remarks regarding Nalota, George Herms’ two-year-old daughter, whom he asked George to give “big smacks on the nose – kiss smacks” to, as well as his declarations that she was “a fine, pretty girl, even while splotched” after he had been sent a picture of her with the measles. If he was this affectionate toward his friend’s child, we can only imagine the affection he was full of for his own daughters, with whom his contact was probably limited at this point. A little part of me wonders if that’s why Nalota was possibly so special to him? Bobby’s heart was full of affection, depth, sensitivity, and beauty. There is nothing truer than a letter to make alot of things about a person’s soul evident.
Here we have it, my timeline: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B6pQNLAKIgADSlhNcHRwWUxWYW8/view Music and nostalgia are key forces in my life. With a certain song, I can be carried across time and space to places unimaginable… and into the life of someone I maybe never got to know. It was with this in mind that I undertook this project for Bobby. I took a timeline that I did not comprise – the credit for that goes to a man on the Bobby Driscoll Yahoo Group – and did some editing and adding. Firstly, I did abridge it slightly to remove alot of the legal aspects (such as when Bobby’s contracts started and stopped, etc.), interview dates, and public appearance dates. There were alot of these, particularly in the late 40′s and most specifically in 1950, and it made reading a bit tedious to the average viewer. If you ever want to see the unabridged version, however, contact me and I’ll give it to you. Secondly, I reformatted and added some font effects, the pictures, and the heading and afterward. Thirdly, I added the names of songs for every few events that were number one on the billboard charts at the time. It is this part that I hope some of you who are like myself will enjoy – the chance to hear a little of the cultural atmosphere that enveloped Bobby during his lifetime, perhaps pulling you into the thick of the action. For each song I put in here, I had a mental image of what Bobby might have been doing while listening to it on the radio or in his car. Sappy much? Probably, but I am a sappy person, and I thought this would be sweet. I loved doing it, and now I’m sharing it with you. Btw you can find ALL these songs on youtube.
This melancholy yet edgy song makes me think of what might have been going on in Bobby’s mind and heart as he wasted away on the streets of New York, particularly after his third major relationship, Didi, had ended. He knew he was dying in all likelihood; he was tired, and sick; and who can even begin to fathom what kinds of thoughts he was having about his life at that point. I heard it today, and it was undeniably a “Bobby song” to me.
…Is.an episode on the 50′s TV show The Millionaire in which a millionaire gives a million dollars a week to someone he feels is deserving. The object of his charity here happens to be Norman Conover, a man who is wrestling to raise his teenage son who was abandoned by his mother at a young age. Bobby is Lew Conover, and as always, he does a bang-up job in this role. Favorite moments: just about the entire thing. Bobby does a wonderful job, looks sweet and clean-cut, and when we compare it to his timeline, had just become a father for the second time to his first baby girl. We can still bank on the stress of sleepless nights and trying to find work to support his family affecting him here as well, but you’d never know it. Here is a collage I made of some great screenshots I got from this: This, because I really just feel like these from this particular show are some of the handsomest and happiest pictures we see of Bobby as an adult, and I love them. Btw for those of you who are nostalgic about music, I’m going to be working on putting a timeline of Bobby’s life alongside some songs that were big during the listed times, and that remind me of where he might have been in his mind and heart during those points. In essence, it will be a musical walk through his life. I’ll get this up soon! I want to also take this time to thank all of my followers for still showing up =) This blog has proven to be a really great way for me to express all my feelings and show my great respect for Bobby since he has come to mean so very much to me this past year. I’m glad to know he means this much to others, too!
This is absolutely precious, no two ways about it. I have a feeling Bobby had great fun in particular filming the part where he tosses the lasso onto Luana Patten. Mischievous boy… Am I the only person who wonders if Luana harbored any tender feelings toward Bobby for their childhood spent together? Luana died quite a few years ago, so we can’t find out now, but I find it so hard to believe she never talked about him during her life. Maybe, like I hear so many people – particularly young actors say – she just really doesn’t remember alot about that time in her life. Anyway, enjoy!
Hope everyone can see these btw! They’re from a magazine I got on ebay. Aren’t they sweet? Bobby was about 17 here. My favorites here were the skating pics ^^ Lil Bobby looked so dapper in his white shirt and vest, and he was quite the gentleman holding onto Natalie that way while she “supposedly” learned to skate (yeah, so alot of this was staged I’m sure, but who cares, it’s adorable). Let’s get a close up of that! Sleep well on that note!
So. Even tho I don’t fancy Bobby in the romantic way here since he was just like 15, I find that these are two of my favorite pics of him at this age in The Happy Time. The precocious expression he wears in the top pic is unparalleled, and the bottom one just really illustrates his profile well. Any of the rest of you wish there were half as many pics of him as a grown man as there are of him as a kid?
Either way… if you haven’t seen this movie, go watch it too.
If you’ve not yet watched The Party Crashers, you must. Despite it being considered a low-budget film with a bad script, Bobby works wonders with what he’s been given. He plays a rather serious guy who gets sucked into being a “bad boy” to please his girlfriend and keep her interested in him over his competition. Oh, and Connie Stevens’ character (Bobby’s onscreen girlfriend) is the very definition of an entitled brat. If you can make it through the movie without wanting to knock her kneecaps in, you’re a better woman than me, just by the way... Favorite Moment: Bobby has lots of great teeth-smiles in this movie, which we don’t get to see as much out of him in pictures and onscreen as he gets older. Pay special attention to the conversation he and his dad have about the sports car, and again when his girlfriend’s dad is talking to him about the dance competition trophy. It’s very sweet. All in all, this movie still makes me feel sad. I’m sure it’s not in small part due to the knowledge this was Bobby’s last full-length film, and likely made at a time of high stress in his life. He would have been still newly married with one baby and another on the way, struggling to make money to support his family while battling his addiction. The character he plays is slightly morose, and I can’t help but see the tiniest reflection of Bobby’s real-life angst in his eyes.
I finally had the chance to watch Bobby in “Pete Loves Mary,” an episode from the late 50′s/early 60′s show M Squad. I was SUPER excited to find this on youtube, because alot of Bobby’s TV work can be so hard to find. It looks like he may have filmed this around the time he shot “Ordeal of the S-38″, give or take a couple months. He would have been a new dad, trying to keep steady work for his family. I have this theory that MAYBE Bobby didn’t like taking his wedding band off while filming in his early days of marriage (Beware: entering sheer speculation zone). I noticed he wore it during the “S-38″ episode, as well as in this one. For the other character, he could have been married just as likely as he could not have been, but in his role of Steve here, it can certainly be inferred that he isn’t. All the same, he wears a ring on his left hand – although in “Pete Loves Mary,” it doesn’t seem to be an actual wedding band despite it being on his ring finger. I wonder if he disliked going without his band so much that they offered him another ring to “place hold” without it looking to audiences like a wedding ring? I can’t remember whether or not he wore one in Party Crashers, where the character was most certainly not married… Of course, again, that could totally be just me making something into more than what it is. Favorite moment: Bobby once again treats us to some great facial expressions here, particularly during his first conversation with the cop. He does a great job of being sarcastic toward the officer, and defensive of his brother, a prison escapee.
I should wait until Christmas to post this, but since when do I have that much patience? I loved this so much. Anybody else notice those guns Bobby has on him for still being just a kid? That stood out to me because I didn’t really know if guys “worked out” back then the same way they do now, particularly so young. Evidently so, or he had just spent quite alot of time involved in sports, etc. I also have to say, Kathy Beaumont has the very sweetest face every time I see her ^^ I would love to know if she ever had a crush on Bobby.
I think we’ve all wondered alot what Bobby’s life would have been like had he lived past 31. Would he have remarried? Once, twice, maybe more times as many celebrities do? Would he have opted not to go back to acting at all, and instead choose a different career path? Next Spring would have been Bobby’s 80th birthday. To many of us in the younger set, that can seem positively ancient, though there are plenty of octogenarians who maintain active lifestyles and still contribute regularly to life and art! Out of curiosity, I wanted to see who we know that would have been Bobby’s age to maybe give us a picture of the life he might still be living if he were here. It was fascinating to think about….
Also born in 1937...
Jack Nicholson Morgan Freeman Vanessa Redgrave Ned Beatty Warren Beatty Colin Powell Merle Haggard Saddam Hussein (HAD to throw that one in there for effect…. but it’s true!) Madeleine Albright Richard Petty Bill Cosby Dustin Hoffman Anthony Hopkins Jane Fonda
There are a couple Bobby pics I have that I have never yet been able to trace the source of…. and I’m open for an education, if any of his other fans can provide it! So I am assuming this is from a movie or TV show – anyone know which one it was? Okay, so my question here is, when was this? Notice the Peter Pan costume here is alot different than the one he wore in the other live action model pictures we see. I’m wondering if this was an earlier version they decided not to go with? I also think Bobby looks a little younger here than he does in his other Peter Pan pics…. So these are my mystery Bobby images! Anyone care to shed light?
I have been doing some thinking about other film roles that – had the stars aligned differently – Bobby would have probably taken by storm if he’d had the opportunity.
This isn’t to say that the actors who had these roles didn’t make them amazing. But, had they not been available/alive, I feel Bobby would have been a shoe-in.
1) Jack Dawson
This is my ULTIMATE headcanon for a role Bobby was born to play. Love or hate Titanic (and I happen to love it, thank you very much), there’s no denying his ability to play the sweet, quirky and scrawny third-class love interest in this movie. It has been remarked upon before that Leo and Bobby’s brow lines have their similarities, but I’m not really even talking about any physical resemblance here. I just feel that this entire part could have taken a life all its own if it had met Bobby.
I also think he would have relished such a romantic lead, given the romantic spirit he seems to have possessed. Gah, but it would have been almost too much to see him sinking beneath the black water in the end….
2) Robin (Batman)
I had actually not thought about this one, but a friend of mine had, and I had to agree with her. His small stature alone could have made Bobby a real contender for this part.
3) Peter Parker
I think Bobby would have excelled at playing the average guy caught up in extraordinary circumstances, and he possessed all the gentleness and chivalry – not to mention the “boy next door” look – of someone like Peter Parker, aka Spiderman.
4) Mad Hatter on Once Upon a Time
This one was iffy at first in my mind, but I landed on the conclusion that Bobby could certainly have carried this off. Quirk and passion tinted the bulk of his performances, and I think the wide array of emotion we see in the Mad Hatter on OuaT would be something Bobby would excel at
– and enjoy – acting out
.5) Peter Pan (2003)
Okay so obviously, since Bobby was Peter Pan once (and the first male, in fact), he could probably manage to be Peter Pan in about every setting. But I particularly think he would have loved the beautifully poignant, haunting script of the story maybe even beyond the one he actually did. I relish the idea of him and Kathryn Beaumont being all like….
I was looking up some names tonight, and decided to look up Bobby’s full name on behindthename.com. It’s a really great site that goes back to the absolute root of all names, both first and last.
Here’s what I found:
Robert - bright fame (what an irony…)
Cletus - invoked (descended from “Anacletus”)
Driscoll - descendent of the messenger
When I read his first and middle names together, it feels so symbolic to me. “Invoked into bright fame.” He was called into it, pulled into it from a young age whether he was ready, willing, and emotionally able to handle it or not.
Here is our Bobby at the 1953 Oscar Reunion <3 I’m so glad he got this opportunity to come back. It’s interesting how big of a gap there on stage between him and the woman in front of him! I’m pretty sure there’s no significance to it, I’m just bound to notice these little things. It’s adorable how, when we first see him, he’s giving a sort of “token” smile, but while the camera is panning past, his face slightly alters into a more genuine, flattered beam, probably because of the applause he garnered. The experience of watching this was a haunting one for me. The picture quality is pretty darn bad, given the fact that television effects were anyway during the 50′s, but seeing Bobby in his own element – not as playing anyone, but just being himself – for even a few seconds felt so wonderful. We have so little of him left, just being who he was. No filmed interviews, no preserved personal appearances (aside from the handful-of-seconds Disneyland stint of 1955). In this sequence, I can feel the force of his personality pressing to reach out of the old, worn-out film that captures him.
Occasionally on here I’m going to commentate on various songs Benjy Ferree wrote in his Bobby Driscoll concept album called Come Back to the Five and Dime, Bobby Dee.
I was absolutely delighted to find out that someone had created their own art based on Bobby’s life, so I gave this album a listen. I’ll be honest, it’s not the type of stuff I usually like, and some songs I couldn’t get into at all. But it was a worthy effort, and I think Bobby would be proud of it! So I’m going to elaborate some about it here….
The first song on the album is called “Tired of Being Good.”
The truth comes out when living the straight and narrow
Gossip queens better keep those eyes down low
Take them right off me and put them back on the preacher
As good as it ever will be a freeloader floating at sea
It doesn’t matter if they need me
A house divided
My conscience is a cricket every time I curse you know he writes me a ticket
No one can be free when tied and bound and moved by strings
I cut them down the preacher screams heavy weighs the burden of Brother Dee
I swear at him, the cricket sings
Heavy weighs the shoulders of Brother Dee
Oh brother come back home
Oh brother come back home
I’m tired of being good you know I want to be bad
But I cry when Jiminy won’t call my name
In the name of Lost Boys everywhere and Marilyn Jean
I don’t care if they don’t like me
But they’re still the very best
I don’t care if they don’t like me
But they’re still the very best
My conscience has experience every time I cut myself he stops the bleeding
And what good is freedom when rebellion becomes legal
I cut it down the eagle screams falling to its tomb in the bloody sea
Wendy Darling praying on her knees heavy weighs the burden of Brother Dee
Oh brother come back home
This song seems pretty self-explanatory – those of us who know Bobby’s history know he warred with being good vs. being bad as he got older. Personally, I feel it’s never as black and white as a “good vs. bad” person, and I don’t feel Bobby was a bad person, ever. He might have made some bad life choices, but there was still a light that seemed to emanate from Bobby’s spirit that apparently caused him not to want to stay “bad” indefinitely (he had been off drugs at least six months when he died, and coming off of opiates – particularly alone – is not for the faint of heart).
Anyway, I digress. To a young person such as he was at the time he made his decision to go “bad,” it probably was pretty black and white to him. He had been a “good boy” for so long, and I think Ferree reminds us through the lines about Jiminy that Bobby’s conscience probably didn’t leave him alone the entire time he was behaving rebelliously.
I also love the references Ferree gives to Bobby’s movie career (Wendy Darling and the Lost Boys) and also his personal life (Marilyn Jean). I do wonder if the lyrics "It doesn't matter if they need me / A house divided" is meant to allude to his divorce...
This song perfectly sums up, I feel, the emotions that may have been present in Bobby’s mind and heart when he was a very young man.
Here is a television show Bobby appeared on in 1957! It has to do with submarines in WWII.
I really enjoyed watching Bobby in this show. Of his adult roles so far that I’ve seen, he presented himself here as lighthearted and expressive, which mirrors what I believe Bobby was probably like in person.
He plays a “Bob Fletcher” here, one of the navigators for a submarine that’s come to peril in enemy waters. He does so with conviction.
In regards to Bobby’s personal life when he made this film, he is wearing a wedding band so we can deduce he was married at the time of filming (he married in March of 1957, so it makes sense). Marilyn would also have been pregnant (they had Dan in August of 1957) or had already had the baby, so I imagine this might have been a relatively happy time for Bobby. He certainly had few enough of those periods as an adult, so it’s nice to think about those times when he probably was content.
Favorite Moment: When Bobby and the captain are playing cards, and he looks up and winks, the corners of his mouth lifting in that adorably impish smile.
It sounds as though Bobby really loved music. He was able to sing on an amateur level and, according to an interview in 1954, was interested in playing progressive jazz – the musical direction of the time.
There are two songs Bobby alluded to liking in a letter to his teenage girlfriend in 1951: “Them There Eyes” and “I’m in Love Again”. It’s hard to know which version of “Them There Eyes” he was referring to, as – with so many of the songs back then – it was covered by tons of different people. He might have meant the most famous version by Billie Holiday, but that seems unlikely as that one came out in the 30′s. However, we do have to remember that a younger person’s stigma about listening to older music in the 50′s probably wasn’t what ours is today. The other thought is that Doris Drew did cover it in 1951, which was the year the letter to Pat was written. So who knows!
I’m really not sure about “I’m in Love Again.” I can’t find much other than to say that Fats Domino popularized it in 1956 which would have obviously not been the version Bobby was talking about here. It does seem like he listened to alot of records, so many of the songs he liked COULD have been lesser known songs like this as opposed to any “Top Hits” he might have heard on the radio.
It's said that his favorite song was "Earth Angel" by the Platters, according to Brian Keith O'Hara, who stated The Platters was his favorite band. He made a point of saying that Bobby liked the version The Platters did as opposed to The Penguins' version (the actual hit song), but after doing some research, I don't think The Platters ever did Earth Angel. I can not only find the actual song on youtube (the one that had once described itself as being The Platters was discovered to have been the Back to the Future version), but I can't seem to find a record that the band recorded the song at all. So I don't really know what this means, if Bobby's favorite song was still Earth Angel, and it was cited to have been by the Platters since that was his favorite band...?
Anyway, I have come up with my own list of songs that remind me of him.
“Second Chance” - Shinedown
I have to be honest, I kind of hate that most of the songs I’m listing here do have to do with the more tragic part of Bobby’s story. I guess it’s because those are the moments of his life that tug on our heart strings the most. This song specifically reminds me of what Bobby might have wanted to say to his parents when he left home for New York in the mid-60′s – that it wasn’t their fault, that he was his own person who had to take his own chances. I admit, I cried when I heard it anew after learning Bobby’s story.
“Dock of the Bay” - Otis Redding
By all accounts, Bobby did alot of drifting around New York in his final years, and this song reminds me of that very thing – him sitting still in a park, walking down an alley, or hey, maybe sitting on a dock, watching life go on around him and wondering how to move forward. The terrible irony is, this song was Number 1 in the U.S. the week he was found in the abandoned tenement.
“All the Right Moves” - One Republic
There is a specific line that definitely reminds me of Bobby in this song, and how he must have struggled for recognition during those career fadeout years of his teens: Do you think I’m special… do you think I’m nice? Am I bright enough to shine in your spaces? In reading about his early career, it does seem that Bobby DID make all the right moves in all the right spaces, and have all the right friends and all the right faces – only for him to be taken down later.
Let me preface this by saying, this info is mostly acquired on the Bobby Driscoll Yahoo Group, which has now slowed to a snail’s pace, but has some incredible archives to look through. I’ve taken some of the articles I’ve read there and comments posted by Brian Keith O’Hara, would-be-biographer of Bobby (and a very reliable source!) and comprised this list of “the little things” about him.
Enjoy!
This image came from the group as well, I do not own it.
Bobby liked….
Marilyn Monroe Being barefoot Animals The movie Operation Mad BallThe Platters (his favorite song was their version of Earth Angel) Cars Camping Being in the mountains Writing poetry
When he “grew up”, Bobby always said as a child he would like to maybe be…
A G-man (FBI)
A marine A veterinarian An engineer A graduate of Occidental College A rancher
Other than acting, he kept busy as a kid…
Playing with other kids Building forts Playing football and baseball Being a Boy Scout Playing practical jokes
People who knew Bobby used these words to describe him…
Gentle Friendly Sensitive Good-spirited Religious Befriending the underdog Active Smart (he could memorize pages of movie lines, yet be flexible for change when it was asked of him) Deep-thinking
And because we ladies especially always "gotta know", here are the romantic connections he had that I could find...
Patricia Nolan Marilyn Jean Rush (married) Susan Strasberg Suzanne Stansbury Sharon “DiDi” Morrill Louise Kane
My own deductions…
From what I’ve read, Bobby seems to have been pretty forthcoming and honest about who he was, what he was doing, and how he felt about things. He did have good sense regarding overshare, however, and was smart enough not to share where and when his wedding ceremony was going to be.
As far as his faith was concerned, Bobby was likely to have been Presbyterian. He wanted to attend what was framed as “his church’s college,” Occidental College, which is of Presbyterian roots. He also gave two years in a row to Annual United Appeal, which best I can find is a Presbyterian mission fund. His mother cited him as having been very attentive to sermons in church, which the family attended faithfully… and he sculpted a bust of Jesus when he was 17 years old. I believe Bobby was at peace with God when he died, due to the faith-based pamphlets and brochures he had been reading.
I also believe Bobby was a romantic soul. You can tell this by reading the letters he had sent to his teen girlfriend, Pat Nolan, while he was away camping one summer. As old as he was able to, he married Marilyn Jean Rush, and had three children. I did read somewhere that Bobby was incredibly proud of them when they were born, so by all accounts, he might have been a tremendous family man had the drugs not intervened in that.
From the minute I first saw him hopping across couches on the Disney Christmas Show of 1951, holding his arms up in bravado and giving Peter Pan’s signature crow, I knew there was something there.
But it wasn’t until February of this year that he crossed my mind again, and I decided I wanted to learn his story.
What I learned has caused me to sob big tears… to giggle like a schoolgirl… to clench my fists in anger… but, mostly, to pray – thanksgiving for his brief life and for who he was, and for the family he left behind.
There’s still so much about Bobby we don’t know. Most of the people who knew him back then are gone now. Footage has been destroyed, magazines gone out-of-print, and radio shows silenced. We don’t really have a great picture of what he looked like in color but for the unrealistic technicolor methods used in Treasure Island. He seems to remain, forever, trapped inside the herky-jerky black-and-white motions we can sometimes capture on YouTube or in DVD’s/VHS’s we manage to find on ebay for unprecedented amounts.
But he’s very much alive in my mind and in my heart, and I believe he is very much alive in heaven. However, since I can’t be there to talk about what I see, I will use this blog instead to talk about what I see in what was left behind.
I hope I get people to follow me, and most of all, dialogue with me about Bobby. His fanbase seems to be either shrinking or silent. But I guess more than anything, I’m doing this for me, for my own tribute to the larger than life spirit that was Bobby Driscoll’s.
enjoy – acting out
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