My Real Memoir
Friendships shuffled during my freshman year in high school. My two childhood BFFs were still around, of course, and new friendships were popping up like Iowa corn. But my most unlikely friend that year was a bonafide movie star named Roger Mobley. Heck, I knew girls who had his picture on their locker doors! I met Roger through a wannabe friend named Mike. I’d always been a little uncomfortable around Mike, but couldn’t quite figure out why. But when he told me he’d somehow managed to arrange a meeting with the star of Disney’s Emmy-nominated Wonderful World of Color mini-series The Adventures of Gallagher, I said, “I’m in, my friend!” The plan was to interview Roger for an article in our school paper.
To my surprise, Roger lived in a run-down suburb of nearby Whittier. Child actor protection laws required his veritable fortune, earned from well over a hundred film and TV appearances, be kept in a trust fund until his eighteenth birthday. And so, although he was technically wealthy, Roger and his family of ten lived in a smaller house than I did.
I’ve never met a humbler person. Frankly, I was far more vain about my little gaggle of high school drama devotees than Roger was about his millions of fans, most of them female. I wanted to shout, “Dude, if you don’t want ‘em, send ‘em to me!”
He’d been discovered as a cute-but-untrained eight-year-old and cast in a lead role in Fury, a Saturday morning TV series I’d grown up with. “Uncle Walt” thought the world of this unassuming, natural talent. In fact, the last thing Disney ever wrote was a memo about what to cast Roger in next.
But Roger wanted to be a truck driver. That’s right, while I dreamed of being, well, him, he fantasized about buying a big rig and hauling loads of manure to Bakersfield! Mismatched aspirations notwithstanding, we got on famously, and kept in touch for a time. Mike seemed thrilled to know both of us.
The following fall, Roger came to our first play of the school year. No one could believe I was friends with a “real actor” like movie star Roger Mobley! But afterward, Roger took me aside and said, “Mitch, I just pretend to act. You’re the real actor.”
Two years later, he was drafted, eventually becoming a Green Beret. But when he returned home, his fortune had mysteriously disappeared. Undaunted, Roger married his high school sweetheart, started a large family, and served a long and distinguished career in law enforcement. Meanwhile, I, of course, became the living legend I am today.
And Mike? In the front of my yearbook that spring he wrote, “To a ferry sweet girlfriend of mind [‘mine?’]. I know you have a sense of humor and may think it a joke, but it isn’t.” At the time, I thought it was simply an odd quip. But now? Well, it seems I never really understood Mike, or the things he was wrestling with. I can only hope that he, like our mutual friend Roger and I, found his way…
To a happy and meaningful life.
My Real Memoir is a series. To read the next one, click here.
Mitch Teemley 
A great story! What a horrible thing for Roger to get ripped-off like that!
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Yes! I don’t know the details, Colin, but Wikipedia says there was only $6,000 left in his trust fund.
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Gahh, I appreciate that his folks were likely having a hard tome but how can you just steal from your own child? He would likely have bought their house for them anyway! 😔
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I share your sentiment, Colin, although it’s possible that wasn’t what happened.
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What a great compliment on your acting, Mitch! And Roger is a testament to resilience – beautiful and inspirational!
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He is indeed, Wynne, and a long-standing church member who understands, it would, from “whence cometh (his) help.”
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If it was in a trust fund, the trustee cannot withdraw from the fund for his own purposes. Very likely, since he was an honest kid, he learned that from his parents. I would suspect the agent… but then I watch too many police procedurals…
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;>) Could be, Rebecca. All I know is that it was gone.
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Fascinating story! I see multiple spiritual lessons in it 🤔
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I agree, Jennifer.
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🙂 🙂
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Roger was certainly humble and very kind to give you a compliment to boost your confidence as an actor-although I don’t think you needed a confidence booster, Mitch the Legend!
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;>)
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A great story, Mitch. Sounds like you learned things from and about Roger you never dreamed of. Wonderful memories of a rich friendship. Thanks for sharing.
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My pleasure, Nancy.
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You have such deep pockets when it comes to pulling out another great memory, Mitch!
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It’s surprising how many details rise to the surface when we stir the memory pot. In this case it was Mike’s words in my yearbook, along with a Wikipedia article on Roger, that helped stir my personal recollections.
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Speaking of “deep pockets,” did he play the little sidekick in “Fury,” the kid they called “Packie” because his pockets were always overflowing with stuff? If so, I was one of the many little girls with a big crush on him. lol
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Yes! In fact, that was his first role, Annie.
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Wow! What a great story and great memory! I was a regular “Walt Disney’s Wonderful World of Color” viewer, but for the life of my I don’t remember the Gallagher series.
Lots of lessons to be gleaned from this colorful chapter of your life. Thanks for sharing.
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The Gallegher mysteries, based on a popular book series, ran as recurring multi-episode specials on Disney’s Wonderful World until 1968, when Roger was drafted. That instantly ended his acting career, but I doubt he missed it all that much; it was just something he’d fallen into as a kid, and he always had other aspirations.
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You are a really good friend to him Mitch with high level maturity
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Thank you, Ramani. But just to be clear: I only knew Roger for a short time. I found the later information online.
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I remember loving Fury as a child! You’ve sure known some interesting people…thanks for sharing their stories!
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Truly my pleasure, Ann.
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Mitch,
That’s cool. You both made and are still making your mark in the world
In Christ,
Gary
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Another great memoir, Mitch. I always enjoy reading the stories of your younger years.
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Thanks, Kellye.
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