Oh, Brother, Where Art Thou?

This is a story that has taken 50 years to tell. So go get a cuppa whatever you like, settle in, and I'll try to tell it.

For the first 20 years or so of my mother's life, she was an only child. Sisters, born to her father and his 2nd wife, would come later, but for the most part, she was alone.
And she longed for a baby brother. Every time she would tell me her story, her eyes would fill with memories and tears.

When she was about 12 or 13, her mother, Lillian, married a truck driver named Elbert. Now Elbert was the total package. He was fun, good looking, and he came with one huge bonus....Elbert Junior. At last!! Mother had her baby brother. Never mind the fact that Junior was 9 years old...hardly a baby...it was good enough for her.

Junior was an only child, as well, and he and Mother adored each other.

Elbert Sr. who was called Slim, died of cancer with Mother and Lillian at his side.

A few years later, Mother became a teen-age bride, and Junior ran away to Hollywood, where he found the beaches of Southern California so compelling, that he took their beauty as his new name for his new life....he became Johnny Sands. This is his first head shot. Wasn't he handsome?

Uncle Johnny was working as a theater usher when he was discovered by a talent scout. His first movie was The Affairs of Geraldine. Mother always said this was her favorite. His most famous role was as Jerry White, boyfriend of Shirley Temple in The Bachelor and the Bobbysoxer. He went on to make about 15 movies, working alongside famous names like William Holden, Cary Grant, and Orson Welles.

l-r Cary Grant, Johnny Sands, Rudy Vallee in Bachelor and the Bobby Soxer

Johnny Sands as Aladdin in Aladdin and His Lamp

While Uncle Johnny was making movies, he and Mother wrote letters back and forth. She cut out pictures from the movie magazines and he sent her photographs. Typical things that brother and sister do to keep in touch. She was his biggest fan.

You may remember, dear reader, my description of my grandmother on my father's side...Mama C. (See "To Grandmother's House, We Go"...June 2011) It was about this time that Mama C. discovered that my Mother and her only  brother were writing to each other. She convinced my father that this innocent communication was somehow immoral and must be stopped. And stop it, Daddy did. He also destroyed all of mother's photos, and letters, and keepsakes...anything to do with Uncle Johnny was gone. I can't really blame Daddy, though. Mama C could be very insistent on getting her way, even when she was wrong.

After Mother and Daddy divorced, and we kids were grown, we started trying to locate Uncle Johnny. She longed to talk to him again, and maybe to see him before she got too old. He had stopped acting and retired to a happy life in real estate in Hawaii, but we didn't know that. We did everything we could think of to find him...We wrote to Paul Harvey when 'the rest of the story' sounded like it could be about Johnny. We wrote to Johnny Carson, because he was an old movie buff. We search Screen Actor's Guild membership roles. All this in the days before computers.
And always, we came up with nothing.

Then along came the Internet. The IMDB website proved invaluable. Through that site, I learned that  Uncle Johnny had passed away in 2003. Mother's heart was broken that she would never talk to him again.

Mother passed away on September 1, 2006.

Now here comes the 'rest of the story' as Paul Harvey would say.

A few years ago, I posted a comment on the IMDB website that we were searching for our lost uncle. There were replies from fans and admirers. Then the special one appeared. It was from Mike. Uncle Johnny's son.Oh my gosh, how exciting was that?!?! We exchanged emails for a while, but then it seemed like we had nothing left to say, and the communication stopped.

Then about 3 weeks ago, I got an email. It mentioned a post I had made at www.answerpool.com several years ago. This email was from Uncle Johnny's daughter, Catherine. In the ensuing days and weeks, we have included my sister, Pam, in our conversations. We have exchanged pictures. We have bonded. We have blended our families as we learn more about each other. When Pam and (unnamed family member) and I were growing up, we didn't have much contact with family. There was very little contact on Mother's side. And what contact we had with Daddy's side wasn't always pleasant. This is awesome. We have new cousins! We have Mike and Marco and Catherine.

I wish we could have found each other when Mother and Uncle Johnny were still living. Oh what a reunion that would have been. But I have no doubt that they are together in Heaven and Mother is happy being with her baby brother again.

Johnny Sands dancing with Shirley Temple

The caption on this newspaper photo says "Elizabeth Taylor, who's fast becoming Hollywood's most beautiful girl, was squired to the Awards by young actor John Sands."