The Story About Me, Tinker Bell and Veronica Lake

This is me and Tinker Bell. Well, a photo of me and Margaret Kerry, the actress/dancer who was the action model for Tinker Bell in the animated Disney movie, Peter Pan. She is the closest anyone will ever come to meeting Tinker Bell and I met her ... and she was sassy.

At 82-years-old Margaret is a live-wire! I met her in the upstairs archives room at the Disney Studios in Burbank. She was there with many of her contemporaries--Disney Legends--for a photo shoot for the Disney D23 publication, Disney Twenty - Three.

After introductions I asked if I could get a photo with her. She happily complied with the caveat that I pout-it-up with her in Tinker Bell style. After the photo she turned to me and said: "Your hair is driving me crazy!"

"I noticed you outside during the group photo; flipping and pulling it away from your face," she went on as if we knew each other for ages and she was finally getting something off her chest.

"I wish I had a pin to hold it back. No one can see your face under that hair!" She makes a motion toward it and I instinctually dodge small her. 

I explained to her that is the style now. That I like it that way and though I appreciated her concern, hair flipping is kinda "my thing."

"Oh," she said in complete understanding now, nodding her head slowly. "It's just like with my friend Veronica Lake."

You see Margaret and Veronica Lake were in a movie together, years and years ago, and they became fast friends. "She was very, very funny," Margaret remembered with a smile. 

"People don't know that about her, she was a real cut-up, but she always had to play the vixen, you know..." Then Margaret threw her eyes at me to react. 

I sadly shake my head in deep understanding, as if I know exactly what it's like to be a comedian typecast as a sex kitten.

"That happens," I sympathize.

"She had that same hair as you (She squints and glares at my one long bang as she talks) , except hers was just one piece that came straight down the the middle of her face and she'd peek out from under it, very seductive," Margaret tries her best to demonstrate for me that look as we stand there in the bustle of the archives. God bless her.

Then she says she remembered one particular day like yesterday; Veronica Lake stretched out on chaise lounge next to a pool, her hair all up in a towel. They sat and talked and laughed and laughed. Then Margaret told me again how funny she was and how sad it was that she never got to play in comedies.

"It is very sad, dang studios!" I chime in, almost livid at the crime of it.

"You think you're very funny, don't you?" Margaret asked me with a twinkle in her eye, thinning her lips at me.

"I do," I admit quickly. 

"I sure wish I had pin to hold your hair back..." Margaret said as she walked away shaking her head. 

 I'm Margaret Kerry's biggest fan now. 

....and then Richard Sherman sat down at the piano and played this song for us, cut from the movie Mary Poppins. He and his brother wrote it for "Julie" to sing, but it never made it to the movie ... and then my head exploded in sheer delight. 

 

 For more info on Disney D23, go to my blog "Disneyland Locals" at OC Family.

Comments

[Admirer]

I think you do know what it's like to be a comedian typecast as a vixen. Funny story.

[Alyssa Ray]

This is so awesome. :)

[Elaina]

Love it.

[Ieshy S]

The classic looks melts me away!