Yesterday, I blogged about Strawberry Shortcake and in my research I discovered an old commercial featuring child actress Heather O'Rourke. Most of my readers were born in the mid to late 1980s and are likely to comment that they don't remember her. It is my duty as a retro blogger, to introduce you to this adorable little actress. Sadly, little Heather died rather suddenly of complications due to Chron's disease on February 1, 1988. For the full story visit her official site here.
Yes, there are many urban legends about crazy curses that affected many of the cast members of all three Poltergeist movies. Not to take away from this post dedicated to Heather, I encourage you to read more about that over at TheBeyond.
Full Name: Heather Michele O'Rourke Born: December 27th, 1975 in San Diego, California Best Known For: Carol Anne in Steven Spielberg's Poltergeist, Poltergeist II and Poltergeist III. Other Notable TV & Movie Appearances: Our House, 12 episodes of Happy Days, several episodes of Webster, CHiPs, Fantasy Island
Heather's first appearance on Happy Days.
An original news broadcast from 1988 announcing Heather's death.
It's no surprise to moms and collectors, that the Strawberry Shortcake character has certainly made a comeback over the past few years. I personally have never gotten over my love of the character. Although she doesn't rate as high as the Sanrio characters in my world, she's still aces just the same.
Thanks to Target, we own a Strawberry Shortcake pillowcase. I blogged about my obsession with fun 1980s bedding a while back. Sadly hubs made me remove the photo of him fast asleep on the Strawberry Shortcake pillow.
Back in 2000, I picked up some cute Strawberry Shortcake juice glasses on eBay. Like 'em?
Now to help keep you in-the-know about all things Strawberry Shortcake ... I've summed it up in 10 quick points below.
10 Things You Should Know About Strawberry Shortcake
Strawberry Shortcake is licensed and owned by American Greetings.
American Greetings Juvenile artist, Muriel Fahrion is the original designer of Strawberry Shortcake and her cat Custard from back in 1977.
The very first line of dolls were made by Kenner and released in 1979.
The first line of dolls had flat, outstretched hands and came with hair combs. They consisted of five dolls, each sold separately: Strawberry Shortcake, Huckleberry Pie, Blueberry Muffin, Apple Dumplin' and Tea Time Turtle and Purple Pie Man who had curved hands.
The very first Strawberry Shortcake dolls were rag dolls made with plastic doll heads. The heads were too heavy for the stuffed, soft dolls and were later developed to have soft heads.
Strawberry Shortcake dolls were scented to match their name.
The character Plum Puddin', originally a male character, debuted in 1980, but wasn't made into a doll until 1984 and was released as a female character.
From 1980-1985, yearly Strawberry Shortcake TV specials aired on TV.
As of June 2008, Hasbro owns and markets the Strawberry Shortcake line of toys. The characters have since been updated and no longer reside in Strawberryland. Today's characters live and work in Berry Bitty City.
Celebrate 30 years of Strawberry Shortcake on July 16 & 17 at Hasbro's Strawberry Shortcake Convention in Rhode Island. I wish I could attend, but it's hub's birthday weekend and we have a party for my grandma's birthday.
If you're a fan of Strawberry Shortcake and want to make yourself sick with jealousy, check out this collector's stuff. If I owned a house and had lots of extra cash, I would so love to have a collection like that.
Check out Heather O'Rourke from Poltergeist and Happy Days fame in this Strawberry Shortcake commercial. Sadly she passed away at age 12 in 1988. I'll do a post on her tomorrow.
The other day, Jesse at NotWorthMentioning.com asked me if I remembered Kids Beat and Audra Levi. At first I was slightly confused, but a search on YouTube brought it all right back to me.
In 1983 (one of my most favorite years) TBS began airing teen and tween-produced short news bits during their morning TV show lineup. The news topics were kid-friendly which was important as it held our interest. The one thing that sorta got on my nerves though was the super peppy, kinda Jappy Audra Levi. Some wonder if she went by the name "Audra Lee" although maybe because of her hyper intonation "Levi" sounded like "Lee"? Whatever. She was a tad annoying.
I don't think it was Audra's fault. Hey, if I was a kid doing a weekly TV news broadcast, I'd be hyper and excited as well. I too was a child journalist, only I was behind the scenes doing kids reporting for New York Newsday? I would have killed to be on TV like Audra. So yeah, I think she was just too "into" it or something, you be the judge.
Audra "Lee" Levi Today
The once Kids Beat anchor has since graduated from college (1997), is married (her new name is Audra Levi Priluck) and is apparently very involved in her sorority Alpha Chi Omega. You'd think someone involved in showbiz would easily make friends--sorry I'm so anti-sororities. The idea of forced friendships makes me sick.
