"Ho-hum! I'm just wasting my life away going to school!" waxed a beautiful brown-eyed damsel as she came face to face with the grim reality - a class room! Darla Hood nonchalantly glanced at her surroundings - without the remotest idea that her remark had been overheard.
What if the school the young lady attended were located on the studio lot at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer in Culver City, that business of learning Readin' 'Ritin' and 'Rithmetic at times was a very dull business and this was one of those times. Without further anon. the former Sweetheart of "Our Gang" comedies marched into the classroom to busy herself with the "brain fodder" of the day. Entirely forgotten was the comment she had made upon her arrival. However, the man who overheard the crack didn't forget what she said. In fact, that very remark inspired him to write a song - especially for Darla. (Nice going, little lady!)
Adding final emphasis to the story comes word that Darla sings the tune in her latest picture, "Born to Sing," in which the juvenile thespian makes her debut in a feature film. The M-G-M production was released to the public on January 20.
Darla lives with her mom and pop, the J. C. Hoods, 911 North Alfred Street, Los Angeles, but even so, Sayre and Leedey both lay claims on her. Local residents figure that her grandparents, Mr. and Mrs. J. M. Danner, belong to us - and what is theirs is ours, too!
If more data on the "Born to Sing" picture is in order, it might be well stated here that Darla won for herself enthusiastic approval from the critic who reviewed the film in a January issue of "The Hollywood Reporter" - a movie periodical which keeps Hollywood informed on what's shooting and what isn't.
Says the reviewer: "Espcecially entertaining is the QUIZ KID number sung by pretty Darla Hood - " etc. Top billing is given to Virginia Weidler, Ray McDonald and Leo Gorcey, but the writer continues, "Darla Hood, Larry Nunn, Beverly Hudson and Richard Hall complete the credited juvenile standouts in the cleverly cast production."
Excitement at the studio burns bright - especially when the cameras are grinding, thinks the little lady with the peaches and cream complexion. Just the same, she is already looking forward to visiting her relatives and friends in Oklahoma this summer. "I surely hope they have a rodeo going on somewhere when I get there, grandmother," she writes the Danners. "Oh yes, I have just finished making some pictures for a magazine cover. "Calling All Girls" is the name of the magazine - so when you see the front of it, you'll know that little girl there is me!"
In addition to the subjects mentioned afore, Darla has some classes at the M-G-M school that often are not a part of the public school curriculum. The movie children study aesthetic dancing and other subjects of a cultural nature. They get a bit of training in domesticity, too. Believe it or not, after the pupils have been served tea, the refreshment course inevitably is followed by a dish washing party in which each child participates. (Enthusiasm for that sort of party varies - just as it does in all parts of the country.)
Sandwiched in between lessons, pictures and other activities on Darla's schedule are a number of public appearance assignments. Her most recent one was a defense show in which she worked with Shirley Temple and a group of other tender-aged film dignitaries.
When the child first went to the movie capital, her moniker was written on a Hal Roach contract and her main job was to be the Sweetheart of that roguish, lovable clan of fellows known as "Our Gang." Now that Darla is older she has graduated from that "kid stuff" and at the moment possesses a contract with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.
She doesn't know what her next picture will be - nor when she will make it. (That's Hollywood for you, enignma that it is!) Suffice to say that when the production does get under way the young Hood cutie will cop her share of the honors!