Darla Hood

 Darla Hood was born in a small rural Oklahoma town, and grew up as a dark-banged cute girl, Her father, James Claude Hood, Jr., a banker, and especially her mother, Elizabeth (nee Davner), prodded Darla's innate musical talents with singing and dancing lessons in Oklahoma City. Little Darla made an unscheduled, impromptu singing debut at Edison Hotel in Times Square when the band-leader invited her onto the stage, and the crowd roared in appreciation. By sheerest coincidence, Joe Rivkin, (an agent of Hal Roach) spotted the four year old scene stealer, screen tested her & signed her to a long-term (7 year) contract at $75 weekly.

Darla went on to perform as "leading rascal actress" in 51 of the popular short films. As the solo staff member of the motley Rascals' crew, she recalled finding her off-camera times on the set as being rather lonely as the boys tended to group together and play 'boy' games, especially baseball and football. Toward the beginning of this lucrative association, she also managed to appear opposite Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy with the title character & leading role, in one of their handful of feature films "The Bohemian Girl" (1936). Hood's tenure as most popular "Little Rascal" actress began in 1935 with "Our Gang Follies of 1936" (1935) , and ended with her finale, "Wedding Worries" (1941).

While very few of the "Our Gang" shorts were made during World War II because of the scarcity of film (a majority of them were saved for feature-length films), by the time the series was to be finally revived in 1945, Darla had already outgrown her popular character role. Following her exit, she had trouble dealing with the inevitable transitioning into a teen actor and her career faltered badly. After returning to school (Fairfax High School in Hollywood), she graduated as an honor student. She was able to find some work with Ken Murray's popular "Blackbirds" variety show on the Los Angeles stage as well as some behind-the-scenes work in the post-war years. With her first husband, Robert W. Decker, she married him when she was 17, she formed the vocal group "Darla Hood and the Enchanters," which provided incidental background music for such classic films as "A Letter to Three Wives" (1949).

Happy Birthday, Darla Hood!