Pert and pretty Darla Hood went a long way to get her start in show business; she's come even farther since. When she was only 2½, Darla traveled 150 miles each week-end from Leedy, Okla., her home town, to Oklahoma City for dancing lessons with Katherine Duffy, now a choreographer in New York City. After six months of lessons, the dancing teacher took her baby-faced student for a vacation trip to New York City; before they'd been in the big town a week, Darla had been tested for the "Our Gang" film comedies, and had been signed by Hal Roach.
After nine years in the "Our Gang" series, Darla outgrew the role and, at 12, was on the verge of being a has-been. She returned to public school, and concentrated on making friends of her own age, something she had missed when she was attending studio schools. While she was studying at Fairfax High in Los Angeles, Darla met Bob Decker, who was singing with Mel Torme's vocal group, the Mel-Tones. Darla and Bob spent many a date evening singing duets and listening to records. Eventually they formed their own vocal group, the Enchanters, which sang at school dances.
During Darla's last year of high school, the group auditioned for Twentieth Century-Fox, and subsequently provided the background music for such films as "Apartment for Peggy," "Street With No Name," and "Mother Was a Freshman." The work wasn't steady, however, so all the members of the group took day time jobs. In November 1948, things began to look up for Darla Hood and the Enchanters; they sang for Ken Murray, and were given a spot in his stage show, "Blackoutd." In January, Darla and Bob, then 18 and 24, were married. Last September they went to New York with "Blackouts," sang for 13 weeks on the Paul Whiteman show, and were a feature on the bi-weekly Ken Murray television show from January to June. This fall, the show went on a weekly schedule, and Darla and the Enchanters again are in the cast.