R.I.P., Maureen Robinson

I am late to the game, but I still wanted to honor actress June Lockhart, who went to that great freezing tube in the sky last week on the 23rd (photo above from the pilot episode of “Lost in Space”). As Dr. Maureen Robinson, she was just about the coolest TV mom that any kid could want for their own. Aerodynamic red hair, intelligence, compassion, and a rockin’ bod — she had it all!



With Guy Williams, the two portrayed an ideal set of parents that raised their three children with the perfect recipe of love, discipline, and encouragement.



Readers of this blog know that she also had a supporting role in Shirley Temple’s teen film, “Miss Annie Rooney” (1942) as Stella Bainbridge, a snooty little thing who gets tossed aside when rich boy Marty White (Dickie Moore) meets Shirley.



The face says it all…left in the dust.



Also in the movie were Noel Neill (Lois Lane in “The Adventures of Superman”) and Shirley’s stand-in, Mary Lou Isleib.



Yup…left in the dust. How can you compete with Shirley?



In the book, Lost (and Found) in Space 2, Bill Mumy had this to say about his TV mom, June:

June is a brilliant woman. Super smart. She devoured books and newspapers like I devoured cheese and crackers. June kept our fertile young minds awake by playing word games with me and Ange [Angela Cartwright] whenever there was a lull in filming and we weren’t in school. Password, Scrabble, Boggle. What people don’t really know about her is she’s a rock ‘n’ roll gal. Truly. They think of her as this perfect, traditional, family values mother on television. But June is a bold and rebellious rocker.

Angela Cartwright chimed in:

Wordsmith… game player… yoga enthusiast…extremely intelligent with a wicked sense of humor and a very distinctive laugh. Every year since I have known June she has sent birthday and Christmas card wishes to me and my family. June loved a good time. She always knew what was going on in the world and in outer space thanks to her voracious reading habits and NASA contacts. In my opinion she was a perfect Maureen Robinson. Strong, wise, smart. America’s favorite mom is a potpourri of contradictions.

This clip of June on a 1970 episode of “The Virginia Graham Show” shows June pushing back on the obnoxious Graham about homosexuality with both intelligence and wit.



A class act. You will be missed, June.

See more “Lost in Space” photos at my main website.

Monday at the Mausoleum: Holy Cross Cemetery

Located just off California State Route 94, Holy Cross Cemetery & Mausoleum had its first burial in 1919. It is the only Catholic Diocesan Cemetery currently serving San Diego County (sounds like it should have a drive-thru window, huh?). Visible from most incoming flights to San Diego, it is very well-maintained and feels safe. Unlike a neighboring cemetery (that shall remain nameless here), the mausoleums are accessible during the day without having to ask an attendant to unlock the doors. You also won’t find a plethora of buckets filled with water from leaks as a result of deferred maintenance.



The Mausoleum was added in 1939, and where a number of my relatives (from the Italian side!) are interred.



Walking through the grounds of a cemetery is like a combined tour of both art and history. I enjoy seeing the statuary and markers (some more than others) and attempting to fill in the blanks of those buried below. The saddest markers of those of the children, knowing that their parents must have been overcome with grief at such early loss.



I didn’t see too many family tombs, but the styling of this one was outstanding.



The inside of the mausoleum is tastefully done, with beautiful statues, art, and stained glass throughout.









Some of the people I recognized buried here included Willam Gargan:



Known to me because he played Shirley Temple’s father in “Miss Annie Rooney” (1942), pictured at center:



The previously mentioned actress Charlotte Henry, from “Alice in Wonderland” (1933) and “Babes in Toyland” (1934):



Andrew Cunanan, who went on a killing spree across the country in 1997 (ending in Miami Beach with the death of Gianni Versace), is also interred here. He was born in National City, not that far from Holy Cross Cemetery.



Still to find are silent screen actress Anita Page and actor Johnny Downs. Looks like a return visit is on the to-do list.

See more photos at my main website.

Happy (Belated) Birthday, June!

Yesterday was the 99th birthday of beloved actress, June Lockhart. While she had a number of memorable roles throughout her long career (starting in 1938 with “A Christmas Carol”), she will always be Maureen Robinson to me. From 1965-1968, she played everyone’s favorite space-age mother on “Lost in Space.” Unlike many of the other early TV-moms, Maureen Robinson had a career as a doctor, often challenging and pushing back (successfully!) against some of the stubborn males in the show. ALWAYS with love, though!



In the first episode, she passes out when her body is re-animated from the Jupiter 2’s freezing tubes. It would be one of the few times that her character was helpless.



She brought a warmth, strength, and dash of comedy to all her roles. It was somewhat disappointing that the campy Dr. Smith (Jonathan Harris) overshadowed the central heart of the show, Maureen and John Robinson (Guy Williams). When that occurred, a promising drama about the space family Robinson descended into a silly hour of having to listen to Harris’ character mug, moan, and eventually have to be rescued. My caption for the photo below would be Harris telling Lockhart and Williams:

OK, here’s how it’s going to be. I’m going to ad lib my role and endear myself to producer Irwin Allen, while you two will end up in the background. Got it?



Below is a behind the scenes shot from the Shirley Temple movie, “Miss Annie Rooney” (1942).



Seated at the table, you can see the back of June’s head at left, then Shirley, and Dickie Moore. Gloria Holden and Jonathan Hale are in back.



June’s character, Stella Bainbridge, is a snotty young rich girl and rival to Shirley. Dickie Moore’s character, Marty White, refers to her as “an old drizzle puss!” Here she is in a screenshot from the movie (far left), looking disapprovingly at Shirley’s wrong-side-of-the-tracks character, Annie Rooney.



Miss Annie Rooney wins out in the end. Marty’s parents, played by Hale and Holden, are won over by Annie’s dance moves. The drizzle puss is left out.



Before June and Shirley made “Rooney,” they attended school together. As June recalled in a Time article written when Shirley died in 2014:

I was at Westlake School for Girls in Los Angeles and in 1941, Shirley joined as a freshman. It was her first school experience with other students because up until that time she’d been tutored on the set at Fox. Her contract had run out, so she had the opportunity to go to a real school and interact with the girls. We wore uniforms at Westlake and she integrated very easily into the student body once she learned about uniform compliance. It turned out that I being a junior at the time was one of the people on the committee that had to watch them all go into morning assembly and I had to make sure that the skirts weren’t too short, and that there was absolutely no lipstick and no rouge. So once Shirley got the hang of having to take off her lipstick and rouge every morning, she was fine. But of course, this is something she’d been so used to all her life. She was very charming about it though. I joined the military drill team at Westlake and was a captain, so she joined too and we both agreed it was really great fun—we’re talking early war here, 1941. We agreed that it was really rhythmic movement, with dance steps, to a military tempo. So she had no problem getting the hang of that. The next year, we made a movie together, Miss Annie Rooney. I played the snotty girl and she was, of course, the leading lady. And Dickie Moore was in it, and he gave her her first on-screen kiss—a most chaste kiss. We were the only two Guild Members at school and to have a chance to work together that way was really nice. But she was a good student, I remember the principal telling me about her—she was working when we were taking our chemistry tests, so she had to do them later, and she graduated with her class but my memory of it is that she had to come in alone and take her chemistry test in the lab—which she passed with flying colors.

June also had a minor role in the Judy Garland film, “Meet Me In St. Louis” (1944). Her character, Lucille Ballard, was an off-screen villain for most of the movie. Once she is introduced, we realized it was all a figment of sisters Esther (Judy) and Rose Smith’s (Lucille Bremer) imaginations.



It is Lucille who plays matchmaker and selflessly gives up her date so that Rose can be with the one she loves.



In real life, June was hardly a drizzle puss or a doormat. Bill Mumy, who played her son Will on “Lost in Space,” called her a “rock and roll goddess.” You can see what he has to say about her at the 40 minute mark of this video:



I hope that June had an incredible birthday yesterday!

See more “Lost in Space” photos at my main website.

Temple Tuesday: Lois Lane and Maureen Robinson

In the 1942 film “Miss Annie Rooney,” Shirley Temple plays a teen from the wrong side of the tracks who catches the interest of a young man (Dickie Moore) who comes from money. Lots of money. He decides to go against his parent’s wishes (Gloria Holden and Jonathan Hale) and invite her to his birthday party. When she arrives, Mother is not pleased that the arrangements for twelve will now have to squeeze in another. AWKWARD! The snooty girls at the party look down on poor Shirley until she teaches the old drizzle-pusses how to dance.



Recognize anyone in these photos?



On the far left is Noel Neill, best known as Lois Lane from the 1950’s “Superman” TV series. The girl on the right in this shot is Shirley’s stand-in, Mary Lou Isleib, who finally got a few seconds of screentime.



Noel with George Reeves, as we best remember her:



On the far right of the previous shot is June Lockhart, wearing a somewhat ill-fitting dress and looking extremely bored.



Some twenty years later, June would play the smartest sexiest space mom ever, Dr. Maureen Robinson, in “Lost in Space,” shown here with TV husband Guy Williams.



NOBODY made science (and silver lame) look as appealing as June!



See more teenage Shirley Temple photos at my main website.

Temple Tuesday: Guy Goes Dress Shopping

In the 1936 movie “Captain January,” Guy Kibbee’s character takes Shirley shopping for a new dress so that she can look her best for her school examination. However, the poor guy has no money and has to borrow it from the local widow to pay for it.



How’d he do? Obviously not too bad, as you can see in this publicity still where Shirley is wearing the dress. FYI: of course she passed the exam with flying colors, too!



The dress was also copied by the Ideal Toy Company and sold with the ever popular 1930’s Shirley Temple dolls.



Six years later in “Miss Annie Rooney,” Kibbee plays Shirley’s grandfather. It’s like déjà vu all over again. Shirley needs a dress for her society debut at her boyfriend’s birthday party, and poor Guy...hardly any money. He has to pay for the dress with money from his pension fund. Was it worth it?



Of course! Shirley is a hit and lands herself a rich boyfriend who probably put Guy up in a rich folk’s retirement community!



Another six years go by and Shirley and Guy costar in a third film together: John Ford’s “Fort Apache.” I’ll just bet you there was a deleted scene where Guy took Shirley shopping for this blue striped number!



Thumbs up for Guy Kibbee; his characters may have been poor, but they were certainly rich in fashion taste!

See more Shirley photos at my main website.

Temple Tuesday: Shirley, Dickie, and Disney

At the time this August 1933 photo was taken, Dickie Moore was a much bigger child star than Shirley. He’d already made movies with some of the greats: Spencer Tracy, Marlene Dietrich, and Barbara Stanwyck. He did a one year stint with “Our Gang” in 1933 and then portrayed the title role in “Oliver Twist.” The publicity blurb on this charming still says:

“Dickie Moore, cunning child motion picture actor, and adorable Shirley Temple, child actress, are, respectively, manager and director of the Mickey Mouse Puppet show now playing to capacity crowds in the Hollywood Assistance League nursery. The crew is pictured playing Mickey and Minnie with cookies and tea back-stage between acts of the show. Photo shows Dickie Moore and little Shirley Temple, serving tea to Mickey and Minnie Mouse back-stage at the puppet show the youngsters are giving at the Hollywood Assistance League, leading charitable organization.”

The Assistance League was established in 1919 by Anne Banning and Ada Edwards Laughlin. Recognize the Laughlin name? She was the daughter-in-law of Homer Laughlin, whose art deco dishes fill my cabinets! But that’s another story. The first Assistance League raised money for Day Nursery, Girl’s Club, and other philanthropic programs. Many Hollywood celebrities participated in the league’s charitable events, including Jean Harlow. Shirley’s own involvement ran much longer than just this publicity shot opportunity; according to a San Diego Union-Tribune article published shortly after Shirley’s death:

“She was delightful,” recalled Marilyn Knowlden. That was 80 years ago when both had been cast in the 1934 film, “As the Earth Turns.” In the end, a schedule conflict prevented Temple from doing the movie, but they acted together four years later in the film, “Just Around the Corner.” She admired and respected her fellow actress. “Shirley was very intelligent and very committed to acting,” Knowlden recalled. “She worked hard. She always knew her lines. Plus, she was a very skilled dancer and always sang on pitch.” The last time Knowlden ran into Temple, she had transformed into Mrs. Charles Black and was working behind the sales counter in an Assistance League gift shop in the couple’s hometown of Atherton as a volunteer — another of Shirley’s passions.

Back to Dickie, Minnie, and Minnie! As fate would have it, I found one of the Mickey Mouse marionettes pictured with Shirley and Dickie online.





The torn paper tag on the bottom of Mickey’s foot says: “Manufactured for Bullocks Wilshire by license arrangement with Walter E. Disney, creator of Mickey Mouse.” Bullocks was a luxury department store located on Wilshire Boulevard in Los Angeles and was the flagship of the Bullock’s store chain. In 1933, Bullock's commissioned the Hestwood Marionette Studio of Glendale, California and Henri Gordon to create marionettes featuring Disney characters, such as the Mickey & Minnie pictured above. They were made of composition, wood, and cloth: the ears felt and Minnie’s hat was velvet. They were approximately 12" tall.



Nine years later, the careers of both Dickie and Shirley were on the skids. They were teamed together for “Miss Annie Rooney,” where Shirley received her first screen kiss.



Barely a chaste peck on the cheek, it received worldwide press attention.

See more Shirley photos at my main website.