Dorothy Dandridge’s First On-Screen Appearance
The famed singer, Dorothy Dandridge, started her career on a 1935 Our Gang short film. While her role was relatively minor, the experience helped build her resume and lead to more acting jobs. During that time, there were very limited roles for black actors. Not to mention, they were all very stereotypical. Also, it was against the Motion Picture Code to show interracial dating in movies, limiting roles even more. Still, Dandridge didn’t give up and eventually, she became the first black woman to be nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress. She also became the first black woman to grace the cover of Life magazine. In 1957, she sued the tabloid paper, Confidential, for libel and ended up earning an out-of-court settlement of $10,000. Unfortunately, Dandridge died under mysterious circumstances in 1965 at age 42. A lot of people claim her death was suicide, but the official report claimed that her death was caused by an embolism that resulted from a dancing accident.
Dorothy Dandridge’s First On-Screen Appearance
Mary Ann Jackson
Jackson played one of the most adored female characters on the show. She joined the show while it transitioned from silent to “talkie” in 1928. Mary Ann played Wheezer’s older sister, the girl with the bob haircut who was a bit of a tomboy. In 1931, at age 8, she left the series. After she left the show, she wasn’t able to find work playing the kind of characters she liked. Even though “Girly-girls” were in high demand, she didn’t fit the image. Instead of changing her style, she begged her mother to let her quit acting. Even though she had a negative experience with acting, she looked back on her time in Our Gang fondly. She ended up outliving a lot of the cast members, having died of a heart attack at age 80 in 2003.
Mary Ann Jackson
