Bobby As Imagined in 2022... Plus some recommended Instagram accounts!

 So today I have something awesome to show off! This is courtesy of a fan called Tanga, who was kind enough to make me aware of this youtube video: 

Child Actors that Died Young: How Would They Look If They'd Lived Longer

Needless to say, when she sent me this link, I RAN. 

This absolutely blessed my socks off, y'all. I can't tell you how many times I think about what Bobby would be like as an old man. Why, you ask, does it matter so much to me? 

I might have said this before, but I'm the activity director for a memory care facility (think Alzheimer's and other forms of dementia), and almost all of the residents I serve are somewhere within a two year of when Bobby was born. These were his peers, the people he would have grown old with. So I'm constantly wondering things like, would Bobby be one of the men I have to constantly remind to stay sitting in his wheelchair so he wouldn't take off down the hall and fall? Would he fight tooth and nail when the PCA's tried to change his clothes? Would he make suggestive remarks to every woman who passed him? Now keep in mind, before you yell "Bobby would NEVER do that!" that, when senility takes hold on a person's mind, it can change them at worst and cause their inhibitions to drop at best. 

Maybe he would never suffer from dementia at all, and would instead live over on the other side of the building with the "assisted living" folks. That's what I would hope for. 

Anyway, we do know he would have been SMALL. He was already short at 5'7, but then when you remember the inches people lose anyway in old age, he might have shrunk to 5'2 or so. I really like how these people have his nose as wider and no longer upturned as it had been in his youth, as that's something that happens in elderhood too. I found out not long ago that our noses never stop growing. 

I think I've said this before, and that is that if ever a Peter Pan documentary was made (and there have already been a couple of short versions) with Margaret Kerry, Kathryn Beaumont, etc. in an alternate reality when Bobby was still living, he would doubtlessly be the center of all the interview questions. In such a case, I view him being informative in his answers, intelligent in how he provided them, and very, very witty. It was said to be part of his charm that he had a good sense of humor and could be quite charismatic. What I see the most, though, is that at the very end of the production, he would look into the camera and give a merry wink. 

I know a lot of people say, and I agree, that Bobby didn't necessarily relish his involvement with Peter Pan in his adulthood. It's what he is best remembered for now, and we all like to add charm to him by quoting little things from the movie and all that. I know I definitely do it, because Peter Pan is an acknowledged fandom. Where we can't find memorabilia of Bobby Driscoll, we can find plenty for Peter Pan. However, it's safe to say that that's probably not what he would want to be known for. Chances are, it would have been the things he was keen to embark on in adulthood--his art, his poetry, and sure, maybe his acting, but probably in the other projects he hoped to be associated with if he ever made a comeback. 

But I also tend to think that, as an older man, he would have come back around to embrace Peter Pan and the fact that so many fans fondly remember him in that role. For that reason, I one hundred percent see him being involved in the interviews, documentaries, tributes, and so on. 

As it stands, though, Bobby will never be able to do that. It makes me sad sometimes to see things like this and be reminded of what he never had, all the memories he never got to make with his family and friends--and what he couldn't accomplish. It brings to mind the lyrics of the hauntingly beautiful song at the end of Jordan Allender's commentary on YouTube sung by Alex Sherman.

Say you love me
Say you do
'Cause there are so many things in this world that I couldn't do.

But we as his fans love him despite what he couldn't do. We love him instead for who he was. 

So! Let's focus on that, and let me change the melancholic ending of this post to a lighter one by telling you guys who to follow on Instagram if you want some quality Bobby content. Of course I want people to ALWAYS follow me, but I'm aware these good ol' blogs of the aughts and teens are dying out to make way for the newer tributes of TikTok and Insta. So, particularly for younger fans, here are some accounts worth following!

bobbydriscollcomfort
This person just did some really excellent, lifelike colorized photos of Bobby. These have been done before, but I feel like they were really nailed this time.

f0rbobby
Another really good account, this one containing good commentary and thoughts behind the things posted. 

xolostgirlxo
If you're more into the Peter Pan end of Bobby's career, this is a good one to follow. This person's content is made up mostly of the film/franchise, but they also have some good Bobby pictures and sentiments posted. 

Know of anyone else I should feature here? Let me know! 

"Mean Dean" Doesn’t Have the Last Word

 

So many of you are probably already aware, by the fact that it's going viral, about the Disney+ new Chip 'n Dale film that was just released on the platform a few days ago...

...And how it seems to have totally exploited and downright mocked Bobby's own harrowing story. 

You can read article after article about it almost anywhere on the internet right now, but here is a good one, complete with Twitter links, if you want the full story.

By now we all know my devotion to Bobby's memory--hence my starting this blog--but I consider myself a pretty objective person, probably to a fault. If anything, I tend to always assume people have the best and purest of intentions when they often don't. But I seriously took issue with this. 

My initial impression, when first introduced to the character of "Mean Dean" one morning when I was scrolling through my news feed, was that it was pretty careless of Disney to create a character intended to be a grown-up Peter Pan whose life had gone sour--a "nod", if you will, to Bobby's own fate. I didn't necessarily think it was a complete attempt to be mean-spirited, simply that it was careless. I was disappointed in the whole thing, and more than a little annoyed.

Then, we learn that the character is not only a drug-lord, he was apparently kicked to the curb by "the studio" because he developed acne as he grew up. 

Okay--that is no coincidence. 

Do I think the writers were trying to be Grade A jackasses? Not necessarily. They didn't know Bobby personally, and there would have been no reason for them to be spiteful and vindictive. But I do think they must have thought the whole thing to be clever and funny, and maybe even thought that if they used Bobby's story in this tacky way, nobody would care. 'Cause, you know, it's been seventy years. Right? To boot, this was all done by people who haven't even bothered to list their first live-action star in the Disney Hall of Fame. 

Well, newsflash: there are fans. 

And guys, I cannot tell you how proud I was of the Bobby Driscoll fan base, which may have even included some of you, who stood up for Bobby on social media and let the world know this wasn't going to fly under the radar. Up until now, I honestly thought Bobby's fans were few and far between. But now I know better. Bobby's pain was very real, and has clearly reverberated through time to strike through the heart of some of us living decades later. His profound suffering may not have been realized during his lifetime, but it is now. And I believe that counts for something very big.

So, a few thoughts here:

I was asking myself this morning, feeling heartbroken over the whole thing, what would Bobby have thought about all this? How would he react if, over time and space, he was able to know the extent to which Disney has disrespected his legacy? 

The first thing I feel would happen is, he would hang his head in shame. Bobby never intended to lead the life he ended up with. Yes, he made his own choices--that's true. I tend to give a lot of grace here, however, because you guys have got to remember, we cannot look at addiction in the 1950's through the lens of what we know now. It was a totally different world back then, and programs like AA--which was pretty much all there was--were just gaining momentum. There are systems set up now, however flawed they may be, to help people caught in the throes of addiction to get clean and stay clean. But back then? Drugs, to Bobby, were an escape. And by the time he realized they were killing him, he probably had no idea how to stop. Yes, there was Chino, but in the early days of substance abuse treatment, how effective was it?

I guess all that to say, I think Bobby might have been harder on himself than anybody else ever was on him. And realizing that his life went up in blazes due to a few bad choices must have hurt him deeply when he had moments lucid enough, through the haze of heroin, to think about it. Bobby was known to have been very sensitive, in constant search of purpose. Knowing what others ended up making of his life, reducing it only to his bad decisions and eventual demise, I tend to think would cause him grief to no end because he isn't here to explain to them, "This is my story--this is how it all happened. The fact that this is all that's left of me to talk about isn't the way it was supposed to be." Therefore, I think his posture would be one more of sorrow than of anger.

Something I think would make him angry, however, is the fact that this is all incredibly disrespectful to his family. As we know, his daughter Aaren died recently, but he still has two more living children. And grandchildren, who never knew him and might be a little farther removed from the situation, but are probably still sensitive to their parents' pain. Bobby may have made some poor decisions regarding his family during the height of his drug use, but I believe he loved his children and would not want them hurt by the cruelty of people mocking him. His fatherly instincts, I think, can best be shown by the way a magazine (or newspaper) article published after Dan's birth but right before Aaren's quoted him as saying, "[His children] would NOT be child actors." This shows his protective spirit in regards to his kids. They've been through plenty, having gone a lifetime unable to relish the comfort of having both their parents with them. If anything would cause Bobby to lash out over all of this, I think it would be concern for his children's emotions. 

But, in the end, this: 

I think he would feel incredibly honored--not by the depiction of his life, issued him by Disney in this new movie, but by the fact that so many people DO see his value, enough to take up for him...love him in spite of his mistakes...

...remember him. 

Time is passing, and the flame of Bobby's memory is flickering. Most who knew him well have died, and people nowadays seem to have shelved his story to the archives of history--a sad legend from long ago, but one that has no bearing today. And we can't change that. But in speaking up despite it all, and reminding people that Bobby lived once, that he was an actual human being with a story we can never truly know the depth of, we can counteract all the negative impressions of him that are probably not finished being given. 

And I know that, wherever he is, that would give him something to smile about. 

Aaren Hope

You guys, I just found out Aaren, Bobby's second child and oldest daughter, has passed away from cancer. I know from having watched her Facebook page in recent years that she battled cancer hard and fearlessly. She loved both of her parents and even though she had very few memories of her dad, she honored his legacy the best way she knew how.

I was saddened earlier to think how I'm not sure she ever made it to Hart Island to see his grave. But that would only have been the next best thing to what she's seeing now--him in person. I truly believe he and Marilyn were there to welcome her, and maybe she had the chance to feel what it was like to be that little girl again, running into their arms.

I didn't really know Aaren, and admittedly didn't always understand her perspective on her dad's fans. It seemed very difficult for her to trust any of us. I think she and her family just had some very hurtful experiences over the years in regards to her dad's legacy and she felt very protective of his memory. The only way I was ever able to relate to it was knowing how I felt about my own daddy, who died five years ago. Fathers, for good or for bad, are so often a girl's first love. And I don't think it was any coincidence that she breathed her last around the very same time Bobby breathed his. 

Aaren, this is to you. Rest happily ever after.

Bobby's 85th

Well, it's 10:25p on March 3rd, so suffice it to say I've not posted this a minute too soon for Bobby's birthday. I was going to just wait until I have time to do the thing I wanted to do for this day to say anything at all, but never in five years have I missed posting on Bobby's actual birthday. I wasn't going to let it by me today, either, even though it was late when I got here. 

I also kept my annual tradition of baking a birthday cake. In '16, when I first became a fan, I hadn't had the idea of the cakes soon enough to bake one, so I didn't get started with that until '17, when I made a Southern Caramel cake (I try to go with the theme of vintage or old-fashioned cakes). In '18 I made a really good lemon cream cake, and I get '19 and '20 backwards: one of those years I did a chocolate cake, and the other I did a yellow cake with chocolate icing. Last year I did the best red velvet cake you would ever have had in your life, and this year I thought I'd beat the awesomeness track record and make a cake from a magazine that was published during his actual lifetime. What I found was a Coconut 'n Coffee Cake. 

This was from 1955, the year of Bobby's graduation from high school.

And let me just say this: epic fail. If only I had the entertaining pictures to tell the story. I really wanted a redo desperately, especially as every single year up til now, I have really nailed it with cakes. But this year has already been a tough one for me, so if ever there was a year when my cake would flop, it would totally be this one. Oh well, enough with the self-pity.

So the best I can do for this year and this late in the evening is to share my list--one I began keeping six years ago--of things I love about Bobby. Some of these may echo your own thoughts, and some may be new ideas for you. On the anniversary of the day he made his appearance in the world, I thought it only appropriate to ponder the ways in which he made the world a better place. Some of these are very specific, and if you would like me to cite reasons I "know" this about him, I'll provide you my sources. 

Oh, and anybody who thinks they're going to give me a hard time in the comments about being of a fluffy, sappy fangirl enough to start an actual list of favorite Bobby qualities, let me just say, you shouldn't bother because the world nowadays is a lot friendlier to people who have a passion for something/someone. And Bobby is my person, like it or lump it. Obviously he's at least a little yours too, or you wouldn't be reading a blog about him.

So here they are, in no particular order: 

• His supposed gentleness and sensitivity
• His passion for art and the spiritual
• His friendliness and love for people (though did you guys know he called himself an introvert? Pretty impressive for him to have some personality knowledge in the not-so-self-aware 50's and 60's)
• His voice
• His soulful eyes and the lines around them that formed crinkles when he smiled
• His honest reflection
• The ways he always did his hair
• His intelligence
• His hands
• How good he was with his coworkers, including those younger than him
• His positivity 
• His love for his parents, deserving or no
• Desire for love and normalcy
• His expressiveness
• His affection and warmth
• His good sense of humor
• How he numbered his pages when writing letters and formed his "p's" (the latter of which was pointed out to me by somebody else.

I actually had quite a few more, but decided to spare us for now.

I've said this time and time again, but mostly what we hear about Bobby in the media is how wretched and sad his story was. But I think we honor his memory much better by focusing on the fact that he wasn't what happened to him in the end. He was a person fondly regarded by about all who remember him during his short life. 

This past year, we lost Dean Stockwell. It seems as though, by the day, we lose yet another person who knew Bobby and can tell us his stories. So it's important for us to keep the good stuff alive. 

Finally, along this vein, I'm going to show you guys two mixed media pieces I made out of 8x10's of Bobby from a couple of his lowest times: during his interview with Fred Brown in 1961 and a post-court pose he gave the camera earlier that year. By the way, I show these not to illustrate my amazing artistic talent, because I mainly like to make art in order to process my inner thoughts and feelings, not because I think I have some great, unique gift to show the world. 

I used pieces of an old necklace and a quote I found to illustrate how even the experience of legal trouble wasn't enough to keep Bobby's bright light from shining through, whether people could see that at the time or not.

(Sorry these are not awesome quality, I'm far from a gifted photographer and couldn't get a good angle no matter what I did)

This was kind of the same idea--broken jewelry, along with some other stuff I found, to symbolize his beauty instead of his brokenness. 

Just some concepts to think about. Happy 85th, Bobby. You are, now, where you might be by this time anyway--wrapped in eternity. We honor you today and the person you were, not the sum of bad circumstances that you are not. 

You all have a safe and happy March.