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Shirley Jean Rickert
Shirley Jean Rickert
	Rickert, c. 1930
Born	March 25, 1926; Seattle, Washington, U.S.
Died	February 6, 2009 (aged 82); Saratoga Springs, New York, U.S.
Occupation(s)	Child actress; Exotic Dancer
Years active	1927–1973

Shirley Jean Rickert (March 25, 1926 – February 6, 2009) was an American child actress who was briefly the "blonde girl" for the Our Gang series in 1931, during the Hal Roach early talkie period.

Career

At 18 months of age, Rickert won a local baby beauty contest, which emboldened her mother to move the family to Hollywood.^[1] She made her screen debut at the age of four in the short How's My Baby (1930), soon followed by her Our Gang debut, Helping Grandma in 1931.^[2] Rickert's most notable appearances were in the films Love Business and Bargain Day, in which her spit-curls, inspired by those of Ruth Taylor's in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes,^[3] were the centerpiece of her precocious performance.

After Rickert left the Our Gang series, she had a brief movie career, including starring roles as Tomboy Teri Taylor alongside Mickey Rooney in eight Mickey McGuire comedies,^[4] followed by a string of jobs including driving trucks for the U.S. Army Air Corps during World War II. She later worked in burlesque as an exotic dancer, billed as Gilda and Her Crowning Glory (after her long blonde hair),^[4]^[5]^[6] retiring from burlesque in 1959.^[2]

People are so amazed to hear I went from movies into burlesque. Well, I'll tell you, I prefer burlesque because it's not so immoral as the movie business.
— Shirley Jean Rickert, 1955 news article^[5]

In the mid-1970s, she became a traveling saleswoman for industrial hardware, surprising potential clients with her starring roles in Our Gang.^[4] Later, she performed in local theater productions, helped to maintain a Web fansite, and made occasional public appearances. She also sold her crafts at a local shop with her daughter's family.^[4]

Death

Rickert died in a nursing home on February 6, 2009, after a long illness.^[4] She was 82.

Filmography

Year	Title	Role	Series
1930	How's My Baby	The Baby
	Night Work	uncredited orphan
	Follow Thru	uncredited child
1931	Helping Grandma	Shirley	Our Gang
	Love Business
	Little Daddy
	The Stolen Jools
	Bargain Day	Shirley	Our Gang
	Fly My Kite	Shirley	Our Gang
1932	Love Pains	uncredited girl
1932	Once in a Lifetime	uncredited girl
1933	Mickey's Touchdown	Tomboy Taylor	Mickey McGuire
	Mickey's Tent Show
	Mickey's Covered Wagon
1934	Mickey's Minstrels
	Mickey's Rescue
	Mickey's Medicine Man
	The Scarlet Letter	Humility Crakstone
	I'll Fix It	uncredited girl
	'Neath the Arizona Skies	Nina
	One Hour Late	uncredited girl
1935	Straight from the Heart	uncredited girl
	The Drunkard	Julia
	I Live My Life	uncredited child
1936	Crash Donovan	uncredited child
1940	Five Little Peppers in Trouble	Kiki	Five Little Peppers
1942	The Major and the Minor	uncredited student
1942	Get Hep to Love	uncredited student
1943	Best Foot Forward	uncredited dancer
1943	In Old Oklahoma aka War of the Wildcats
1944	Meet the People
1946	If I'm Lucky
1947	Good News
1951	Royal Wedding
1952	The Pace That Thrills	uncredited girl
1952	Singin' in the Rain	uncredited dancer
1953	The A-B-Cs of Love	Gilda
1954	The Human Jungle	uncredited stripper

References

^ Shirley Jean Rickert ls. "An Interview With ..." (Interview). Interviewed by Mike Fitzgerald. Western Clippings. Retrieved 24 March 2017.
^ ^a ^b "Shirley Jean Rickert". The Telegraph. 19 February 2009. Retrieved 24 March 2017.
^ York, Cal (November 1930). "Let's Drop In and Gossip With Old Cal York!". Photoplay. 308 (6): 98. Retrieved 9 January 2023. Pseudonym, see Cal York.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e "Shirley Jean Rickert, 82, 'Our Gang' Star, Dies". The New York Times. The Associated Press. 12 February 2009. Retrieved 24 March 2017.
^ ^a ^b Mosby, Aline (23 July 1955). "Children's 'New' TV Favorite Is 1930 Antique Movie Series". Madera Tribune. UP. Retrieved 24 March 2017.
^ McLellan, Dennis (12 February 2009). "Shirley Jean Rickert dies at 82; child star of 'Our Gang' comedies". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 24 March 2017.