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Shirley Jean Rickert won a baby contest in Seattle when she was about 1-1/2 and her mother relocated the entire family to Hollywood, as she was sure she had a child star. Her first movie was How's My Baby? (1930) with Monte Collins and T. Roy Barnes. Shortly after that she went on an interview at the Hal Roach studio and became a part of the "Our Gang" series. She left the Gang to go to Darmour Studios to play Tomboy Tailor with Mickey Rooney and Billy Barty. In subsequent years she worked in more than 100 movies, mostly musicals. When they stopped making major musicals in Hollywood she became a stripper in burlesque and traveled all over the US and Canada ,playing in burlesque theaters and nightclubs. Her mother took care of her daughter while she traveled and, when her mother died, she (for some reason she never figured out) moved to Buffalo, NY - you're either born in Buffalo or you're transferred there, but you don't voluntarily move to Buffalo.

Shirley Jean Rickert in The Little Rascals (1955)

Married and divorced twice and had one daughter, Melody.

After she quit burlesque, she found a diverse variety of jobs to maintain an income: bartender, secretary, theater sales director, truck driver for the Air Force, dress shop saleslady, nuts- and- bolts saleslady, marketing director, and jewelry designer/painter.

Designed and printed a Shirley Jean Memorabilia Catalog which offers
Our Gang items at a price the average Our Gang fan can afford. It is
NOT for collectors, just people who still like the Our Gang/Little
Rascals.

After her film career (early 1950s) ended, she became a blonde-maned exotic dancer who professionally went by &quot;Gilda and Her Crowning Glory&quot; and worked both in the US and Canada.

Her &quot;Our Gang&quot; spit-curled blonde character &quot;look&quot; was styled after <a class="ipc-md-link ipc-md-link--entity" href="/name/nm0784407/?ref_=nmtrv_trv">Mack Sennett</a> Bathing Beauty <a class="ipc-md-link ipc-md-link--entity" href="/name/nm0853124/?ref_=nmtrv_trv">Ruth Taylor</a> who was the star of the original &quot;Gentlemen Prefer Blondes&quot; on stage.

Died in a nursing home after a long illness.

Trivia

Shirley Jean Rickert

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