Robb twin: ‘“Mr. Skitch” story is timely’

Louanne, Cleora and Glorea Robb will come from California for Will Rogers Days. Twins Cleora and Glorea were cast in the 1933 movie “Mr. Skitch.” Louanne was a showgirl in “The Will Rogers Story,” with Will Rogers Jr. (Photo Courtesy Ryan Miller, Capture Imaging)

Mr. Skitch (Will Rogers), his wife (Zasu Pitts) and three children are on an auto trip in the 1933 Twentieth Century Fox movie. (Photo from Will Rogers Memorial Archives)

 

The Robb twins were just 11-years-old when they were cast as the Skitch sisters in “Mr. Skitch,” starring Will Rogers and Zasu Pitts. It is a “walk down memory lane” for the twins, now 88, as they prepare to visit Claremore for Will Rogers Days Nov. 3-6.

Glorea Robb Morgan and Cleora Robb Galt, will be grand marshals for the Saturday, Nov. 6 Will Rogers Days parade, their first trip to the home of Will Rogers, whose memory they cherish.

They will also be on hand for a public reception 10 a.m. to noon on that Saturday and participate in other Will Rogers Days events.

“It’s amazing at this time of the attention to ‘Mr. Skitch,’ which was about a family on an auto trip in hopes of regaining the fortune they had lost,” said Glorea, “so timely with the state of our economy.”

Will, who was discovered in 1918 with his debut in “Laughing Bill Hyde,” was particular about the roles he played and about his co-stars. By the time he began to take an interest in motion pictures, the medium was about two decades old and had moved from novelty to big business. (At the time of his death he had starred in 21 Twentieth Century Fox movies and more than 50 silent films.)

That he was able to have such control over his movies, how he related to his role and the staff and stars, is almost unheard of today. It was his emphatic call for “little girls, who look like little girls,” that got the Robb twins their parts.

Known as the “personality twins,” Glorea said, they had danced and sang in stage work, on radio, and modeled (her first job was with the prestigious Bullock department store when she was eight). This was their big foray into the movies.

“He treated us like we were his children,” she said of Will. “He was so kind, so interested in what we were doing, how we got along at home, school … such fun.

“We would hear a whistling sound (he would be practicing his roping) when all of a sudden he would lasso us and pull up us up to him and say ‘come on Winnie (Glorea) and Minnie, we are going for a ride.’”

Will would load them in his car, where he showed them the typewriter he kept in the car for his daily columns, and drive them around the Fox lot pointing out places. “It was just an adventure,” Glorea said.

Recalling the costumes they wore in the movie, she said, “Organdy dresses! The costume person was out of her mind, organdy dresses to travel across the country in a touring car!”

As was customary in those days, their mother was on the set with them — much of the time with their baby sister. Louanne was just a year old. Will would always pay attention to the baby, who 19 years later, was a showgirl in “The Will Rogers’ Story,” starring Will Rogers Jr. Louanne is coming to Claremore with her sisters.

She remembers the day, two years later, when they heard Will Rogers had died.

“We were living with our grandparents in L.A.,” Glorea said. “I still remember our mother saying they heard on the radio that Will was killed in a plane crash. I remember looking up in the sky as if I might see something. It was a sad day.”

The twins and their “baby sister” were re-introduced when they participated in the grand opening of the Will Rogers Historical Ranch gift store opening in August of this year.

There have been other motion picture and Will Rogers’ connections in the Robb sisters’ lives. They went to school with Jane Withers, Judy Garland and Mickey Rooney (he played in Will movies) and took harmony lessons from “Judy’s mother, Mrs. Gumm.”

Grey Morgan, who became Glorea’s husband, went to Beverly Hills High with Will Jr. and played polo with him at the ranch.

The twins have been busy raising their own families. Glorea is the mother of five sons. Robb (“you will recognize him, he’s six-foot-nine”) is accompanying his mother and aunts to Claremore. Cleora has four daughters and three sons. There are other interesting connections. Robb is an acquaintance of Johnny Crawford, who played in “The Rifleman” and was in Claremore in the 1960s. Johnny is a friend of Zasu Pitts’ grandson John Reynolds. Crawford’s orchestra played at Robb’s wedding a few years ago.