Darla Hood

Darla Hood was one of Hollywood's most unlikely leading ladies. Plucked from obscurity at age three to test for Hal Roach in Hollywood, the Oklahoma native won a spot in Roach's "Our Gang" repertory, a troupe of kid performers whose comic two-reelers lifted the spirits of American moviegoers during the Great Depression. With her dimples and expressive Betty Boop eyes, Hood asserted herself as the darling of Our Gang, holding her own against established castmates George "Spanky" McFarland, Carl "Alfalfa" Switzer, and Billie "Buckwheat" Thomas. Coquettishly batting her lashes as she sang and danced through many a production number, Hood was an object of affection for a generation of pre-adolescent boys, onscreen and off. Her appeal spread to features, where she partnered with Laurel and Hardy and Charley Chase. With the dissolution of Our Gang in 1942, the teenager transitioned to work as a singer, recording artist and nightclub headliner. Hood, who later gave voice to such popular advertising mascots as the Chicken of the Sea Mermaid and the Campbell Soup Kids, was active on the nostalgia circuit when hospitalization in 1979 for routine surgery resulted in unexpected death at age 49. Though she did not live long enough to enjoy to its fullest the adoration of her growing fanbase, Hood's efforts to preserve the Our Gang legacy survived her and left her enshrined as one of Hollywood's most beloved child stars, a pop culture icon short in stature but long on accomplishment.