Sunbeam Home Children played baseball with a movie star Thursday.
It was the first game of baseball that Gordon Eugene Lee, Hollywood child star, ever played, but he learns fast. He also makes friends fast, and the thirty-six Sunbeam Home children can hardly wait until next week, when he will come for another visit and a swim with them.
Master Lee won't be six until next October, but he is a veteran of dozens of movie shorts. From his debut with Hal Roach's "Our Gang" at the age of nineteen months, until last May, when he and his mother started on an extended vacation, he never missed a single "Our Gang" comedy.
But four years of stardom didn't give Gordon Eugene Lee a Hollywood temperament. Although he meets strangers boldly and is unusually perceptive for his years, he is a courteous fellow and pays strict attention to what Mama (Mrs. Eva Lee) says.
Movies Have a Name for Him
In the movies Gordon Eugene Lee is known by a nickname, but the mysterious intricacies of his contract prevent its use in print except in connection with the picture in which he appears. Nevertheless when he arrived at Sunbeam Home, all thirty-six Sunbeams recognized him and gasped in unison that famous nickname which we must not print.
Sunbeam Home is one of the seventeen social agencies supported by the Oklahoma City Community Fund, and Gordon Eugene Lee liked it so well that before he and his mother end their Oklahoma City visit they hope to visit four more Community Fund children's agencies: Children's Welfare League Home, U. P. A. white day nursery, U. P. A. colored day nursery, St. Joseph's orphanage, and the Neighborhood Club center at St. Mark's Methodist church.
The Lees are visiting at the home of Mrs. Lee's sister, Mrs. Nelle Hunter, northwest of the city. They probably will remain until September, when the Our Gang star must start his first year of school and prepare to work in feature pictures.
True to Type
Only one Hollywood cliche popped out of Master Lee's mouth during his Sunbeam Home visit. Asked about the repective merits of Oklahoma City and Hollywood, he replied:
"I like Oklahoma City pretty nice. I like Hollywood pretty nice, too."
Aside from that Hollywood bromide, he was just a happy American boy. Right now he is feeling mighty proud of a Sunday School promotion, and mighty excited over the prospect of school.
Thursday (the 27th) he saw his first June bug. At the Hunter home he is making all sorts of animal, insect, and bird acquaintances. Mrs. Lee explains that he has been so busy making movies that he hasn't had time for much of the fun that a normal boy has.
He likes movies, but has difficulty producing tears when necessary, he revealed. Mrs. Lee said that the only sure way to make him cry is to threaten to cut off his ice cream supply.