California: 3 news items today
There is never a shortage of news items in California. Today’s included a heat wave that brought a few record high temperatures, the death of former child actor Jackie Cooper, from “Our Gang,” at age 88, and a bill that would allow the California state Board of Equalization to study ways to tax and license the sale of medical marijuana was approved by a State Senate Committee.
Livermore reached a high temperature of 87 degrees F today! No, it was not a record! Among the record high temperatures was 84 F in San Francisco where temperatures exceed 75 F only 28 days each year! Tomorrow is supposed to be a little cooler (83 F in Livermore) with an increasing “sea breeze.” It has been beautiful motorcycling weather on my commute. 
Jackie Cooper, who was a child star with “Our Gang,” passed away at 88 today at a skilled nursing facility in Santa Monica. He was a successful TV star in the 1950s, TV studio executive in the 1960s and an Emmy-winning director in the 1970s. Cooper was an extra in Hollywood at age 3, and he became a star at age 8 in the title role as “Skippy,” in 1931. He earned an Academy Award nomination for best actor in a leading role for the film. Cooper also was cast four times with Wallace Beery and played the loyal son of fallen boxer Beery in “The Champ” (1931) and young Jim Hawkins opposite Beery’s Long John Silver in “Treasure Island” (1934).
Between 1929 and 1931, Cooper appeared in 15 “Our Gang” comedies after auditioning for Hal Roach and signing a $50/week contract. The time span overlaps with, in retrospect, a woman who was the FIRST Hollywood star I ever met in person (the second was Dennis Hopper – I had forgotten about meeting Dorothy when I wrote THIS), Dorothy DeBorba, a Livermore, CA native, whom my wife and I met in the old O’Malley’s restaurant downtown shortly after moving to California. DeBorba passed away in Walnut Creek in 2010 at age 85, but was still living in Livermore in 2000.
Jackie Cooper was born John Cooper Jr. in Los Angeles on Sept 15. 1922. His mother, Mabel, was a piano accompanist in vaudeville. His father was a piano player, songwriter, and music store owner who walked out on his wife and son before Jackie was 2. Jaskie was told that his father was dead. Jackie later found out that his mother had sent part of his earnings, $100/week, to his father between 1935 and 1948.
The LA Times obituary is fascinating and contains this quote from Cooper:
“But no amount of rationalization, no excuses, can make up for what a kid loses – what I lost – when a normal childhood is abandoned for an early movie career.”
A bill that would have the state Board of Equalization study ways to license and tax medical marijuana was approved by the Senate Governance and Finance Committee on a 5-2 vote, despite objections that such sales are not sanctioned by federal law. Senator Ron Calderon (D-Montebello), the author of SB 626, said:
“There is a real revenue source here that we need to tap.”
Calderon noted that California voters approved a ballot measure in 1996 that allowed sales of medical marijuana. Calderon said that California could be missing tens of millions of dollars in revenues.
(Today is the anniversary of the Kent State University shootings of unarmed students by Ohio National Guardsmen on May 4, 1970. I reminded high school students about the event today. We will never forget.)
-Bill at
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