A much needed well-check

I made those of us who like cutesy stuff a Valentine's Day background throwing together some of my favorite screenshots.

Yup, I know. How very fifth grade of me, but I felt I should do something, anything, to let y'all know I'm still here and assure you I'm working on some good posts! Valentine's Day is actually my favorite holiday, and there's nothing like anticipating a holiday to take the opportunity to use the heck out of the $55 per year PicsArt subscription I accidentally purchased last March...

I mean, what?

Until it cancels itself out, I'm getting my darn money's worth. The lesson here is, pay attention to when your free trials end!

Also, a good many young girls and women follow me, so here's to them 💗

My next post is going to tell us a little more about Suzanne Stansbury, Bobby's paramour from the early 60's whom he intended to marry at one point, but never actually did. I did some digging and am eager to share a few things I learned about her past and her fate.

It WILL transpire this month sometime.  Thank you for your patience. I've had alot going on. You know, all the things.

Young and Dapper

Our handsome young guy, on the cover of an Israeli magazine I'd never seen before. Forever love the merry crinkle at the corner of those eyes!

Bobby and Not-So-Sweet Sixteen

This is rather a random post.  But the topic presented itself when I was taking a good look at this picture, which most of us have seen at least a handful of times:

This was taken at the 25th Academy Awards on March 19, 1953.  Bobby, shortest and youngest, is the last one on the left. 

It struck me how everyone else seems to be wearing a pleasant expression, but Bobby... not so much.  So I zoomed in.

This picture seems to be in original color, which is a treat as it pertains to Bobby.  We rarely see him NOT in black and white... and this close-up does not disappoint.  We're able to gather a little more information about his coloring, all things we've heard before... that he had about medium brown hair, for instance... and it's interesting to see him wearing the ring on his left hand.  I've seen Bobby wear rings on a few different occasions, however, so the appearance of this one isn't surprising except that it's on the ring finger of his left hand, which makes him look married.  Of course, this pops up a whole new string of questions in my mind, such as, was the ring there because it's the finger it fit the best?  Was he trying to look older and thought a ring on his wedding finger might make him look twenty as opposed to just sixteen?  We know he married young, so was he already wondering about married life in his mid-teens?  Am I overthinking this much?  Probably so.  So we'll leave the ring alone for now.

What I most want to draw attention to, though, was what struck me about the expression on his face and in his eyes.  There seems to be a certain level of irritation, boredom, or tiredness.  He had been grinning pretty big for the camera during the actual awards ceremony, but the exuberance seems to have melted away by the time this photo was taken.  When I think about what Bobby's life might have been like at that point, though, I can fully imagine he might have been experiencing all three of those emotions.

From everything I've read, Bob didn't start experimenting with drugs until he was about seventeen, so if that's true, his very biggest troubles hadn't started yet.  However... he was sixteen.  He loved spending time on his hot rods, playing music, being with his friends, dating girls... all the things.  Yet, here he was at another award ceremony with these older, perhaps intimidating film stars.  Was he unhappy to be there? 

We have to also remember this would have been around the time he was let go from Disney.  I'm not sure exactly when that happened other than that it was sometime after Peter Pan was released, and Peter Pan was released in February.  If this had happened prior to the ceremony, he may still have been smarting from that rejection.

As for his social life, Bobby himself has said he "became belligerent and cocky" in high school, and we can probably blame the brunt of this on his switch to University High for tenth and eleventh grades.  It's a generally agreed-upon fact that he was bullied mercilessly at University, so I'm sure that that added to his angst. 

It made me sad, really, that the happy-go-lucky, lively, fun young man that everyone loved was probably emotionally tormented by March of 1953.  This picture may be showing us a candid moment when Bobby didn't feel like smiling for any more cameras.  He might have been tired; irritated; dreading school the next day, or after the weekend.  If that was so, did anyone notice or ask if he was okay?  Or did most people overlook it, chalking it up to the moodiness of adolescence?

I just can't help but think that if Bobby had had more emotional support during that period of his life, things might have turned out very differently.  I don't think it's anything we can really blame anybody for though, because we have to remember the time period.  The 2010's has been a great decade full of buzzwords like mindfulness, mental health days, holistic balance, etc. but none of that had societal value in the 50's.  It was about putting on a good show -- and who better to perfect that art than a young actor who had more experience at that than most his age? 

Of course, this conjecture could just as possibly be false.  Bobby may have simply been between smiles when this specific picture was taken.  Obviously, that's the explanation I would prefer.  But I still feel haunted by the flat look in his usually-soulful eyes.  I really do think he was hiding deep hurt.

Talking Hart Island Podcast

Hi, Guys!

This isn't entirely a Bobby-specific announcement, necessarily, but it is exciting to me, because of the special place Hart Island holds in my heart since learning it is where Bobby rests.

There's going to be a new podcast coming out on September 15th called "Talking Hart Island."  The host is history author Michael Keene, and co-hosting will be voice actress Norma Jean Gradsky.  What the podcast intends to do is tell the personal stories of Hart Island -- those who ended up buried in the potter's field in New York.  There will be a spotlight on Bobby, as well as other people who rest there, so it should be a pretty educational and heartfelt tribute.

If you don't know much about Hart Island, or if you do know about it but are eager to learn more, be sure to tune in!  The hosts will be interviewing a whole panel of people with relevant perspectives on the island and those who are buried there.

Here's the promo video!  Go watch!

Lost Boy: The Bobby Driscoll Story -- My Thoughts

So it's been a week and a half since the release of Jordan Allender's documentary that I have so been looking forward to, "The Lost Boy."  And finally, after taking a bit to collect my thoughts, here I am to discuss it!  As we know, I may not post alot of exclusive content on this blog, but I do love discussing Bobby's life about better than anything.

Overall, I think Jordan did well.  Given the fact that he'd been working on this project for years and gathering as much as possible, I have to admit I had hoped for 1) a longer feature length, and 2) more exclusive pictures and facts.  The fact that we didn't get that, however, probably has nothing to do with the producer not trying his best.  I have a yen that, due to licensing and copyright issues maybe not going as smoothly expected, alot had to be cut out.  Mind you, I have no proof of this, nor has Jordan alluded to anything of the sort.  I'm just wondering, and maybe some of you were, too.  Perhaps knowing this, Jordan ended up having to abandon plans to shop to more elite networks such as PBS, etc. (which he had previously mentioned considering on the film's Facebook page) and just releasing it on YouTube.

BUT.  It was a noble, wonderful effort, especially given the fact that he might not have been well-compensated.  This was a young man fresh out of film school who could have done a documentary about anybody else, including persons who are better known and would have raked in more of an audience -- but he chose to focus on Bobby, and that means something to me.  By the way, I don't know Jordan from Adam's housecat, as they say here in the South, so I'm not saying any of this out of loyalty.  I just truly do believe he did his best.

Also:  the point behind this project, he's always said, was to get Bobby enshrined in the Disney Hall of Fame.  This means telling his overall story to people who might not know it, and generating more awareness.  Those of us who are hardcore admirers probably ought to look somewhere else for the little personal details, new pictures, etc.  At this point I'm not sure when and if this will ever come, but oh well.  Thus is the plight of being a Bobby Driscoll aficionado.  The unpleasantness of his story coupled with his fall from fame, adding in the aging out of most of his peers, means alot will always be left to our imaginations.

Things I LOVED about this film:

• The re-enactment footage, though I wish it could have been utilized even more.  It added some much-needed personalization, as we have no actual footage of Bobby living his life as it was toward the end.
• The artwork of Bobby's we got to see that we'd never seen before!  Now folks, I've got to be honest here and say, I don't necessarily "get" Bobby's art.  I'd love to say I do, for that and his poetry also... but they go a little over my head, and I even love symbolism.  But what made me the happiest was hearing no less than George Herms comment that by the standards of the time, Bobby's collages are as good as it gets.  
• Connie Stevens' interview clips were my favorite.  I would have loved to have heard more about her working on the set with Bobby, but it was still good to know she seemed to genuinely care for him and look out for him when they worked together.  What I adored, though, was her last segment, talking to us fans and expressing how meaningful the love of "other people" is in the lives of stars.  As we all know, being a fan is something not often understood.  Alot of people don't understand being so invested in the life of someone you've never met, particular when the person has passed away.  It's something I find I cannot easily explain when others ask me what Bobby means to me and why.  It was refreshing to hear from someone who seemed to understand.  Equally poignant to me were her final remarks, telling us that Bobby was most definitely a "wonderful person," despite the turn his life took.
• Hearing from Dan, Bobby's son.  Even though I would have loved to have heard any stories he did have about his dad from when he was a child (if he remembered any), I enjoyed hearing about Marilyn.  She had a truly difficult time of it, and I'm glad she was memorialized well by one of her children.
• Finally, my favorite thing ever was the song during the ending credits.  It was absolutely perfect for Bobby and his life, the lyrics sounding for all the world like something he might actually say.  "Say you love me... say you do. 'Cause there are so many things in this world that I couldn't do."  

I think in the end, Bob wanted to be loved and admired for who he was as a person -- not necessarily for what he'd accomplished as a kid.  He seemed to seek this admiration in his artwork and through other means, but it was hard to come by because he was steeped in addiction.  I speak as someone who worked with those suffering from substance abuse for eight years, and let me assure you -- the life of an addict isn't pretty, and it isn't glamorous.  When it was spoken in the documentary that Bobby in New York was "a very difficult person," I could well imagine this.  At that point, Bobby's natural sweetness, optimism and fun nature were consumed by the need for a fix, which equaled, to him, a need for survival.  We weren't told exactly what this meant by way of anecdotes, but imagine the worst.  I imagine Bobby could have shown up to a few Broadway auditions badly in need of a shower, perhaps even attempting to hide it with loud, cheap cologne, ending the whole ordeal by asking whomever would listen if he could borrow money... then becoming angry when it was denied him.  It might have gone this way, or worse.  He could have dozed off every few minutes in the middle of conversations.  By no means was he his true self, and might even have been unrecognizable to those he'd known previously.  Connie Stevens alludes to this fact by saying that when she saw him once after an Ed Sullivan show she starred on, he was a very different person.

But he was sick, and alone.  The things we might learn about Bobby in his final years should not be a measuring stick of who he was as a man.  He was known as a good, loyal friend by the friends he left behind in California.  He was obviously a great romantic.  He was intelligent.  He was kind -- it was cited in an article by Fred Brown that his friends had told of times he would help neighbors clean their yards and help them move for free.  I believe that underneath the layers of heartache and illness, Bob never stopped being that man.

And that's why I love him -- and respect him.  I believe this documentary did a good job of being honest about Bobby's life, yet also keeping it kind.  If you haven't seen it yet, please do.  I highly recommend it.

Now, I'd love to make this post interactive!  If you've seen the film and would like to comment, please tell us the following:

• What did you learn about Bobby's life that you didn't already know?
• What would you have wanted to know if any part could have been added?
• What part of the film do you feel was executed the best?
• If anyone else could have been interviewed, who would you have liked to hear from?
• Overall, what did you think of this film?

Please keep in mind that any post that carries hateful remarks or slamming of anyone will be deleted.  Honesty is always welcome, but keep it classy!

Petition for Bobby to be Enshrined in the Disney Hall of Fame

Go go go!

The goal is 100. Let's try to make this happen during our lifetime, Guys. Bobby deserves it.

Change.org Petition for Bobby Driscoll

Next, go see Lost Boy: the Bobby Driscoll on YouTube on August 1st!  The time has finally come!  Kudos to Jordan for staying committed and gettin' it done.

Check In

Hi you all!

Just wanted to say, for those of you who don't know, that Aaren (Bob's daughter) has a page out on Facebook specifically dedicated to her writing and her parents.  She hasn't posted since sometime in April, but she's put some really great poetry on there about her Mom, plus tells the story of finding out about her dad's death.  It's really very poignant.

I'd love to know more about Marilyn.  She sounds like a lively, fun, and loving woman who was plagued by mental illness.  In our generation, just about every other person is in some form or another, from depression to anxiety to PTSD to all kinds of things in between.... but back in Marilyn's day, it would have carried a far worse stigma.  Furthermore, she was apparently institutionalized most of her life.  It makes me very sad, both for her and for her children.

Anyway, you can find Aaren's public page here.

I don't really have anything else to share at the moment about Bobby -- no news I'm afraid.  :(  I'm constantly combing for it, but haven't unearthed much.  This pic was on ebay not too long ago, and I'll repost it here!  I love his quirky, impish smile for these stills from The Happy Time.