Biography
Character: Darla Hood
Birthday: November 4, 1930
Place of Birth: Leedey, Oklahoma
Date of Death: June 13, 1979
Place of Death: North Hollywood, California
First Short: Our Gang Follies Of 1936
Last Short: Wedding Worries
Number of Shorts: 42
History: Darla Hood was the sweetheart heart throb for boys from five to nine years old and still is for over fifty years. She had a great big beaming smile that made everyone happy. Her likeness in some form of another can be found in practically every form of Our Gang merchandize.
Her mother very nearly named her "Dorla," but one misspelling was all it took to cement her as the one true darling. Her father was a banker, but her mother encouraged her with singing and dancing lessons in Oklahoma City. Casting agent Joe Rivkin discovered her after the conductor of the Edison Hotel in New York City's Time Square put her on stage to sing. Darla was soon whisked off to California with a seven-year contract and quickly written into Our Gang Follies Of 1936 already in production. In that short, Darla had blonde hair during a few of her early appearances because she had dyed her hair for another movie role when the Our Gang films were being filmed.
During her Our Gang years, Darla was often lent out to other studios. She handled being famous well, but she found it hard dealing with those not in the business after she left. As a teenager, she was part of a vocal group called "Darla Hood and the Enchanters" with her first husband, mostly doing background and off-scene music for films. This work got her into Ken Murray's Blackouts, a long running stage play. At 26, she got to work and appear with Grouch Marx on TV and even pay an comic homage to Darla in a Our Gang with Jack Benny. She was also a regular on Merv Griffin's radio show, wrote song lyrics and made several recordings. In addition to her nightclub act, she made a few movies, but never reached the same stardom she had in Our Gang.
In 1957, she married Jose Granson and soon had a daughter, Darla Jo. Her voice work included TV, movies and commercials. She was the original voice of the mermaid in the first "Chicken of the Sea" commercials. Along the way, she was troubled and embarrassed by Our Gang imposters with weak knowledge of the behind the scenes workings. One Darla imposter researched her life so well that she was giving reporters names of Darla's parents and grand mother before she was busted. After the Our Gang TV revival, the real Darla was soon deluged with fan mail she recieved from young boys who thought she was forever eight-years-old.
Darla loved her time in the series very well and cherished all her memories. Despite their on-screen romance, she recalled being afraid of Alfalfa at times, but she did have a bit of a crush on Spanky for being wonderful. She also knew Hal Roach as extremely generous, granting her a playhouse she could play in when all she wanted was a dollhouse. For the NBC Little Rascals Christmas Special in 1979, she got to voice Miss Crabtree, and Spanky and Porky's mom. She also did a lot of work to get Our Gang accepted into the Sons of the Desert, but before she could appear in the first reunion, she was hospitalized with hepatitis in 1979 and passed away under what Leonard Maltin called "suspicious circumstances," attributing to some sort of urban legend known as "The Little Rascals Curse."
List of Shorts
- Our Gang Follies Of 1936
- Divot Diggers
- The Pinch Singer
- Second Childhood
- Arbor Day
- Bored Of Education
- Pay As You Exit
Reunion In Rhythm
Glove Taps
Hearts Are Thumps
Three Smart Boys
Rushin' Ballet
Roamin' Holiday
Night 'N' Gales
Fishy Tales
Framing Youth
The Pigskin Palooka
Mail And Female
Our Gang Follies Of 1938
Bear Facts
Three Men In A Tub
Came The Brawn
Feed 'Em And Weep
Hide And Shriek
The Little Ranger
Party Fever
Aladdin's Lantern
Men In Fright
Football Romeo
Practical Jokers
Tiny Troubles
Duel Personalities
Clown Princes
Cousin Wilbur
Dog Daze
Auto Antics
Captain Spanky's Show Boat
Time Out For Lessons
Alfalfa's Double
Bubbling Troubles
The Big Premiere
All About Hash
The New Pupil
Waldo's Last Stand
Kiddie Kure
Ye Olde Minstrels
Come Back, Miss Pipps
Robot Wrecks
Helping Hands
Wedding Worries
Other Projects
- Neighborhood House (1936) - with Rosina Lawrence
- The Bohemian Girl - with Stan Laurel
- A Letter To Three Wives (1948) (voice only)
- Bill And Coo (voice only)
- The Bat (1959) - with Vincent Price
- The Towering Inferno (1975) (voice only)