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Movies Forum Index » International Movies Forum » Bobby Driscoll won an Oscar when he was 12, but now lies bur
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| Brian Keith O'Hara |
 Posted: Tue Feb 24, 2004 5:52 pm |
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Hart Island/New York's Prison for the Dead
In 1949, when he was 12-years-old, Bobby Driscoll won an Oscar for his
roles as "Jeremiah Kincaid" in the sentimental story about a boy and
his pet lamb in Disney's "So Dear To My Heart" and as "Tommy Woodry"
in the RKO thriller "The Window"(Best Mystery/The Writers Guild).
But most people, if they remember Bobby at all, remember him for dying
destitute and alone of a heart attack at age 31 in an abandoned
tenement at 371 East 10th Street in New York City on March 30, 1968.
The irony is that an abandoned tenement in New York was also the
setting for the exciting dénouement of his film "The Window".
Bobby was one of the most successful actors in the history of
Hollywood. Between the ages of six and sixteen, Bobby made 18 movies
in nine years. Even before he won the role of "Johnny" in Disney's
"Song of the South" in 1945, Bobby's acting attracted attention. Bobby
appeared in the WWII story "Identity Unknown" for about 10 minutes.
Leonard Maltin wrote that seven-year-old Bobby's performance was the
best thing in the film even though he was listed fourth in the
credits. As Fox Director Lloyd Bacon said after directing Bobby in
"The Sullivans" when he was six, "Bobby was a natural, a born actor."
Walt Disney fired Bobby when he was 16 after he developed a severe
case of acne. Bobby had worked for Walt Disney for almost 10 years,
since he won the audition for the role of "Johnny" in "Song of the
South" in 1945. "Song of the South" was the #1 movie at the Box Office
in 1946. Bobby was considered the best male child star in Hollywood in
the late 1940's and early 1950's. His last movie for Disney was Peter
Pan, which was a huge blockbuster. It was the #1 movie of 1953 and the
second highest grossing movie at the box-office for the entire 1950's.
After he was fired, Bobby's life collapsed. Everyone who knew him was
stunned by how quickly Bobby went downhill. He was 16 when Walt Disney
fired because he had pimples and 17 when he injected heroin for the
first time.
Bobby Driscoll now lies buried in an unmarked pauper's grave on Hart
Island in New York.
"Some men see things as they are and ask 'Why?' I dream things that
never were and ask 'Why not?'" Robert F. Kennedy
New York's Pauper's Cemetery is run by the New York Department of
Corrections: It is a Prison for the dead.
New York's Pauper's Cemetery is called Potter's Field and is located
on Hart Island in New York. Between 500,000 and a million people are
buried there, no one is quite sure. Hart Island lies along Long Island
Sound within yards of the millions of people who populate New York
City, but the New York Department of Corrections does not allow
visitors to its poor people's cemetery. Hart Island is a lonely,
forlorn place, a final resting place for the abandoned, the unloved
and the forgotten. Their only crime was being poor and for that the
Department of Corrections has given these poor a lonely, unmourned
death; a sentence which is to be served for eternity. It truly is a
prison for the dead.
A few years ago the New York newspapers had a story about a poor
woman in her 80's who got on a bus to New Jersey looking for a place
to die. She was terrified of being buried in Potter's Field on Hart
Island. To most New Yorkers, Hart Island is seen as New York's "human
garbage dump," a place for the unloved and the unwanted to be thrown
away and forgotten.
Hart Island's Pauper's Cemetery is run by the New York
Department of Corrections and staffed with prison guards and
prisoners. Prisoners are used to bury Hart Island's "inmates". The
prisoners are ferried in to bury the unwanted dead and then taken back
"home" to the Rikers Island Jail. Hart Island is now an abandoned
derelict island with no permanent residents. Some effort is made to
maintain the grounds, but vandals have left their mark too. Many of
the buildings bear graffiti. More than that, a feeling of loneliness
hangs over Hart Island like a shroud because there is no love there.
And at the end of the day, everyone goes home except the poor.
Honoring the Dead
In 1946, the prisoners took it upon themselves to build a monument to
remember the honorable dead buried there. The prisoners erected a
monument with the one word inscribed on it: Peace. It is one of the
few times that anyone has ever shown love for the people buried there.
But the prisoners did more than that. Against the opposition of the
Department of Corrections they undertook a fund drive for the building
materials and only used their own labor to complete their monument.
They viewed these poor lost souls, as having finished serving their
life-sentences of poverty, loneliness and unhappiness, and deserving
of love and respect in death. And it was the right thing to do.
Sometimes it is hard to tell the good from the bad, and sometimes it
isn't.
The New York Department of Corrections doesn't allow visitors or
mourners to Hart Island except under extraordinary circumstances.
If I could have my way, I would turn Hart Island into a park. I would
run a ferry there every day and never charge anyone to go there. I
would welcome all who are willing to come and visit. Having never
gotten enough love during their lifetimes, the people buried there
should receive all the love we have to share. And all of our love
would still not be enough. Like Oliver Twist, they deserve more...
They deserve paradise, because they have already been to hell.
My opinion is irrelevant because I don't count; The Department of
Corrections opinion is irrelevant because they don't care; and The
State of New York is irrelevant because to them it is a question of
money.
It should be a question of love. I believe that the only people who
have earned the right to decide the fate of the people buried on Hart
Island are the people who loved them. Bobby deserves that much, anyone
does.........everyone does.
Bobby's family and friends want him brought back home and buried next
to his Dad at the Eternal Hills Memorial Park Cemetery in Oceanside,
California or next to his wife, Marilyn. Either choice is the right
choice. What they want is the only thing that matters. It should be
done because it is the right thing to do.
No one should be remembered for the way they died; they should only be
remembered for the way they lived.
In 2005, The Santa Monica Museum of Art, in association with The Getty
Museum, will have a retrospective of the works of Modern Artist
Wallace Berman. Mr. Berman's collected works and letters are in The
Smithsonian Institution. The exhibition at The Santa Monica Museum of
Art will include works by his colleagues and protégés. Among the
paintings exhibited will be three paintings by Bobby Driscoll. Mr.
Berman was a Mentor to Bobby. Bobby also studied under Andy Warhol and
was a frequent visitor to his studio, The Factory, on 47th Street in
New York City. Bobby took his art as seriously as he took his acting:
one of Bobby's paintings is in The Smithsonian Museum of Modern Art.
I never met Bobby though I have met some of his friends. Through
them and their stories about Bobby, I have come to know him, and to
like him, and I know that I would have been lucky to have had Bobby as
a friend, anyone would have been.
People should remember Bobby as an actor, an artist and a poet, but
most of all as a friend. Bobby's friends always begin any
conversation about him by talking about what a great friend he was.
That is not a bad legacy.
Bobby Driscoll was a Straight A student. He was also a Boy Scout who
played Little League. He just happened to make movies on the side.
Bobby had an IQ of over 140. He was also, perhaps, the most unaffected
star to ever come out of Hollywood. He had no ego and was always
polite and respectful. He always tried to please the adults who
populated his life. Adults thought he was an angel. Even though he won
an Oscar when he was 12-years-old, he never lauded it over anyone's
head. He remained very popular with the kids at The Hollywood
Professional School where he was a student. When he wasn't working, he
wore jeans and t-shirts. He was hardly ever recognized and seemed to
prefer it that way. If you did recognize Bobby, he would gladly give
you his autograph and a smile.
Until Walt Disney fired him, there was nothing wrong with Bobby, but
in five minutes his life fell apart. And it isn't so much what Walt
Disney did as the way he did it. Walt Disney had a secretary fire
Bobby after eight years of working at the Disney and then had the
crying, distraught teenager ejected from the studio escorted by a
security guard. It would be hard to imagine a more cruel way to handle
the situation.
I have gotten to know Bobby's best friend from the neighborhood in
which he grew up. Bobby's parents were from Cedar Rapids, Iowa. The
family never lived in Bel Air, Malibu or Beverly Hills; they lived in
a nice middle class neighborhood in West LA. His best friend still
chokes up talking about Bobby: he misses Bobby to this day. Everyone
that knew Bobby liked him. The people who knew him best loved him:
that isn't a bad legacy either... If you remember Bobby at all, I
think that is the right way to remember him.
Remember Me
Remember me with smiles and laughter;
Because that is the way I will remember you all.
If you can only remember me with tears,
Then don't remember me at all.
An Irish Poem of Remembrance
I promised Bobby's best friend, whom I now consider my friend, that I
will fight to have Bobby brought home to be buried next to his Dad.
That is my first quest. Then I intend to fight to turn Hart Island
into a park. I owe all the people buried there at least that much
because "I am a man, nothing human is alien to me" (Terence)
Many Thanks,
Brian Keith O'Hara Email: bkohatl@hotmail.com
PO Box 6021
Marietta, Georgia 30065
Several commentators from New York, most of whom are far better
informed and far wiser than I am, describe Hart Island as New York's
Human Garbage Dump, because that is what the New York Department of
Corrections has turned Potter's Field into. And that is a shame. If we
allow it to continue, then the sin is ours and we are as guilty as
they are. In the magnificent play "A Man For All Seasons," playwright
Robert Bolt wrote a great, thoughtful and wonderful line:
"Silence gives consent!"
I do not consent to the way the poor and the dead are treated on Hart
Island and I refuse to remain silent about it. I hope and pray that
other people agree with me. I hope and pray that they will not remain
silent either. Together we can change things.
Bureaucrats run the New York Department of Corrections. Forbidding
visitors to Hart Island and using prison inmates to bury the poor is
exactly what you would expect from them. The first step in giving
justice to these poor is to take the Hart Island away from the
Department of Corrections and turn it over to human beings who care
about the people buried there. Then Hart Island can be turned into a
park. It may take a long time to accomplish this, but at least let us
say that we have begun.
The best way to remember anyone is found in John Gunther's book "Death
Be Not Proud". In his book, John Gunther wrote about the death of his
son Johnny at age 17 from a brain tumor on June 30, 1947. Johnny was
an extraordinary boy. Once, when he was working on a physics problem
for school, he wrote Albert Einstein for help in finding the answer.
Dr. Einstein was so impressed with his letter that he wrote back with
the answer. Johnny's great dream was to go to Harvard.
While at Deerfield School, Johnny starting experiencing headaches and
was hospitalized. His divorced parents rushed to his side to comfort
him. In his eloquent narrative, John speaks about how it was Johnny
who comforted them, instead of the other way around, as people would
expect. Johnny achieved his greatest dream: a few weeks before his
death Johnny received an acceptance letter from Harvard University.
Johnny was a man who filled "the unforgiving minute with sixty seconds
of distance run."
His example is the example we should follow. Read his book and you
will understand why I am fighting for the cause for which I am
fighting: Justice.
No man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the
continent, a part of the main… any man's death diminishes me, because
I am involved in mankind, and therefore never send to know for whom
the bell tolls; it tolls for thee. (John Donne)
A web page with about 400 photos of and about Bobby Driscoll is
located at:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/BobbyDriscoll/
You will need to create a Yahoo Account and become a member of the
group to see the photos. |
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