Kathryn Irby

The greatest movie ever made!!!

One of the greatest Christmas movies ever--and starring Natalie Wood as a child star is an added bonus!!

I love this nonfictional movie!!!

One of my favorite Al Pacino movies!!

I am fascinated by the Mafia, and how they know how to "lose" their victim(s) whenever feel the need to do so. The best part of "The Godfather" was seeing Al Pacino, although he is more handsome as he ages than he was in that movie. Outstanding movie!!

When I was eight years old, my dear mother and I flew (looking back, on an antiquated version of American Airlines) to Manhattan from Arcadia, Florida, where we lived at that time, so that I could appear on the Howdy Doody Show; this was in the 50's, of course. She had become a Professional Photographer, and had taken my picture so that she could enter it in a Smile Contest, which the Howdy Doody Show was holding to celebrate the tenth Anniversary of their program. Only ten kids could be selected, and it just so happened that I was one of them. Although I didn't win the Contest, I did win a set of Britannica Encyclopedia; a $1000 savings bond; and a toy version of the UPS postal truck could seat two kids and was battery-operated. I will never forget having seen Howdy Doody, Buffalo Bob, Clarabelle the Clown, and Mr. Bluster. As soon as we arrived in Manhattan, I went to meet Howdy Doody, Buffalo Bob, and Clarabelle the Clown (will never forget when Clarabelle the Clown moved in very close to my freckled face, and winked at me! Refreshments consisted of milk and cookies. Before the Contest, we visited the Bronx Zoo, Rockefeller Center, the Empire State Building which took us all the way to the very top, as well as the Statue of Liberty on Staten Island. It all seems like yesterday! Will never forget the drum roll, which signaled for all ten of us kids to come out behind the partition, one by one, and climb up onto the stool so that Buffalo Bob could interview each of us in front of the entire Country; of course, that too was on a Saturday morning. I didn't have a shy bone in my entire body! In fact, the little boy, who always dressed like a cowboy, with his hat and boots on, had begun to cry just before it would be his turn to come out from behind that partition and be interviewed by Buffalo Bob. I remembered asking him, "Oh, Brad, what's the matter?" He replied, "I'm scared!" And then I proceeded to try to offer him encouragement by saying back to him, "Oh, it'll be all right!" Tammy Marahue was a redhead from California, who ultimately won that Smile Contest. She was always so flirtatious with this other little boy, who was from Texas (who also eternally wore a cowboy hat and cowboy boots with a red bandana around his neck). They would walk down the streets of Manhattan, holding hands, as if they were high school students going steady. Lest I forget, the ten of us kids also appeared on "The Today Show," when Frank Blair and Jack Lescoule (who had flaming red hair and freckles!) worked on that program five days a week. Frank Blair always reported the morning news on that program. Again, all ten of us kids were interviewed on that show as well. We girls had to wear dresses with those itchy petticoats underneath!! (Today, at the age of 70, I don't even own a dress!) Those were such good, wholesome memories, and ones that I will never forget as long as I live. I sometimes wonder if the other nine "former kids," now adults, are still living, and if not, which ones died; where the remaining ones live today, etc. How wonderful it would be to be able to get in touch with as many of them as I could so we could all reminisce about those former days!! Kathryn Irby 730 Tegarden Rd. Gulfport, MS 39507