Who was Gladden Pryor

[daatsalaats]

Looking for information about a young actress from the 1922 Our Gang. Her name was Gladden Pryor. I was tearing down and old barn and found two autographed pictures from her. They said "Our Gang '22" with her autograph. Anyone have any information about her? Was she an extra or something? I figured someone has to have heard of her. Thank you

[dchord568]

I'm not at all an expert on these matters, but it would help to know something about the photos you found.

Do they show other Our Gang members along with Gladden Pryor? And if so, in what context?

Knowing this might help determine the film(s) she was in.

Any chance you could scan these photos and upload them online somewhere so we could take a look?

[dchord568]

The only thing a Google search yields is this reference to a 1932 newspaper article from Bakersfield, California.

You would have to pay to actually see its contents, although the slug in the Google search says "reading by Gladden Pryor, and selections by the guitar club." So it must have been some kind of public event that Ms. Pryor appeared at.

[daatsalaats]

She is alone in both photos.... One had her in country/hillbilly clothes and the other has her dressed up like a harem model covered in jewelry. I wish I could post the photos on here

[dchord568]

Dec 23, 2020 2:25:13 GMT -5 daatsalaats said:

She is alone in both photos.... One had her in country/hillbilly clothes and the other has her dressed up like a harem model covered in jewelry. I wish I could post the photos on here

She wouldn't be the first to push a non-existent or extremely tenuous connection to Our Gang into being a "member" of the Gang.

I recall visiting a souvenir shop in New York City in the late 70s/early 80s and seeing an entire wall of autographed photos of Joy Wurgaft (aka Joy Lane), loudly touting her as an Our Gang member. If I recall correctly, some of them had her photo rather crudely pasted into genuine Our Gang photos she wasn't actually present for.

In fact, Joy Wurgaft appeared in only two Our Gang films, and in neither was she a member of the Gang.

She sang "My Little Grass Shack" as one of the annoying "professional" kids auditioning in Mike Fright, and she was the girl who sang the introduction to "The Object of My Affection" in Our Gang Follies of 1936 before being spurned by Alfalfa in favor of "Cookie" (Darla).

It was really kind of pathetic — but Our Gang impersonators always are.


EDITED TO ADD: It turns out it's actually worse than this. According to The Lucky Corner website's page on Mike Fright:

Publicity photos reveal that she was present at some point during this production, wearing a hula outfit. In fact, one of these photos was used for a lobby card for this film. Contrary to her own recent publicity, she isn't the girl singing "My Little Grass Shack." However, it's highly possible that she's the curly-haired blonde doing the backwards flip at the beginning of the film.