Darla Hood is enroute home after a three-week record and motion picture promotion tour to Detroit, Cleveland, Youngstown, Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Louis and Oklahoma City. With her husband, music publisher Jose Granson, she drove through to visit with relatives in local areas.
They visited Tuesday and Wednesday (the 6th and 7th) in Oklahoma City where she appeared on the Tom Paxton show over WKY-TV and visited an aunt and uncle, Dr. and Mrs. F. Redding Hood. She visited her paternal grandmother, Mrs. Nora Hood and aunt, Mrs. Eddie Norton in Erick, and visited in Sayre with her maternal grandmother, Mrs. J. M. Danner.
An aunt and uncle, Mr. and Mrs. Mel Danner, Waynoka, and cousin, Mrs. Calvin Keller, Thomas, and daughter, Cara Layne, visited her at Sayre.
On the promotion tour she appeared on over 20 TV shows and other radio and public appearances in the seven cities visited.
Mrs. Danner returned over the weekend to Hollywood, California, with Mr. and Mrs. Granson to visit her daughter and son-in-law, Mr. and Mrs. J. C. Hood and also to see the great-grandchildren, Robin and Brett Granson, age 9 and 11 months, for the first time.
Leedey born Darla Hood, Oklahoma's "Our Gang" comedy star, blew back in town Wednesday (the 7th) along with a chilly, wind-swept drizzle - but it didn't dampen her spirits a bit.
Now a pert red-head, she's weathered one of the toughest transitions in show business, coming from the child star's hey-day of the 1930's to an adult career. She'll be 28 in November.
Married to Jose Granson, her former manager, she's now mother of 2 children and is launched in a movie and recording career.
The Gransons were in Oklahoma City Wednesday winding up a three week promotion tour for her first straight dramatic role in the movies and her first musical composition.
The movie is "The Bat," booked October 28 at the Center theatre with Vincent Price and Agnes Moorehead. First recording of a song she's written is titled "Silent Island," done as a follow-up to the recent "Quiet Village." Her most recent record is the Raynote record "Only Yours."
Darla, who plays a compeetent piano, was invited to collaborate with another writer on the recording. She worked out the song during a single afternoon while her 11-month-old son, Brett, was napping.
Musical talent was one of the main reasons she was hired in 1935 as sole girl star in the "Our Gang" shows, then switching from regular comedy routines to variety shows. Coming on at the age of 3, she stayed with the show for nine years - "Actually, a whole childhood," she said.
At first, "It was difficult directing the show," she giggled. "Nobody could read.
"The only way to learn lines was to have them read over and over - and if somebody missed a line, it threw the other kids off completely."
The whole venture was "just a glorious game" to Darla. "You know how kids love to dress up, and I had the whole wardrobe of the Hal Roach studios to do it in."
The middle years, after Darla outgrew the "Our Gang" show, weren't too difficult, after the first big bump of adjusting to public school in Hollywood.
Out in 1943 from a regiment of studio schools, she'd had glowing accounts of regular school life from an Oklahoma cousin - and plunged into it head first.
"I wanted so badly to be one of the gang that I tried too hard," she said, "but the minute I relaxed and stopped chasing the kids I was in. I bet I went in for every club and every office in the school."
She was an honor society member and an A student, too.
After school, she went back to show business, starting as leading lady on the Ken Murray radio show in New York when she was 18. Then came a spot on the Paul Whiteman show, some adult movies and work on the night club circuit, but now "I'm rather stay home. You just can't see the kids as often once you get on the night club circuit."
She's now signed for three more movies - one of them a comedy - with the producer of "The Bat."
On the west coast, she'll meet some members of the original "Our Gang" cast to do three follow-up shows. She and her husband stayed with her uncle, Dr. F. Redding Hood, Oklahoma City heart specialist, and planned a visit to relatives in Sayre Thursday (the 8th).
They'll take her maternal grandmother from Sayre to Hollywood, where her parents, Mr. and Mrs. J. C. Hood, are living. A former bank employee in Leedey, her father is now with the Bank of America.
All things considered, Darla wouldn't object if her kids entered show business - as long as they had a trade to fall back on in later years - "if that's what they want to do."
Her son Brett had a chance for a part in the Ozzie and Harriet show, but got turned down because he was 2 months too young. He was four months old at the time, and the legal limit's 6 months.
Robin, a 9-year-old stepdaughter, is promising in art, and her mama is hoping she'll study art or interior decoration in later years.
She's reliving the old years with Robin, in a way. Like most kids, Robin's a fan of the "Our Gang" re-runs on TV, and from time to time she'll holler, "Mama, you're on! You haven't seen this one before."