Young Stars’ Histories

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 12, Issue 71, 21 July 1948, Page 3

Young Stars’ Histories

Walt Disney had been searching for a little girl to play the key role of Ginny in his full-length Technicolour musical drama, ‘Song of the South/* One evening at home, he happened to glance at the cover of a nationally famous women’s magar zine, on which Luana Patten, aged 7, was to be seen, posed with a pair of puppies. The little cover girl was brought to the Disney lot, where her aplomb and beauty won out over the hundreds of other little girl candidates. Luana was born on July 6, 1938, in Long Beach, Calif., the daughter of Alberta and H. T. Patten. One afternoon, shortly after her third birthday, her mother happened to take the child for a stroll near the Park at Long Beach. The child’s unusual beauty caught the eye of a photographer, following which she became a model for a series of colour photographs and calendars. She also became a wellknown figure on the front covers of magazines and also in advertising art. Nq one in Cedar Rapids, lowa, would have believed that an attack of sinus was responsible for young Bobby Driscoll playing the leading role in Walt Disney’s drama, “Song of the South.” The Driscoll family left Cedar Rapids in an effort to find some relief for the sinus difficulties of Bobby’s father, who settled in Pasadena, Calif. Little Bobby, then aged five, had attracted the attention of William Kadel, a Pasadena barber, whose son took Bobby to a mass interview at the M.G.M. studios as a candidate to play a bit in “Lost Angel.” Little Bobby won out, and began his screen career with a bit opposite the dynamic Margaret O’Brien. Later, at another studio, he won a role in “The Sullivans.” He then appeared in “Sunday Dinner for a .

Soldier,” ‘The Big Bonanza” and “Miss Susie Slagle’s” after that. He was put under tract to the studio, establishing a precedent, for until then, the Disney studio had never had a film player under contract. Bobby was born in Cedar Rapids, lowa, on March 3, 1937. His mother, Isabelle Kretz, was a schoolteacher, and his father, Cletus Driscoll, a roofing contractor.