Inherited treasure: UHCL alumna receives scrapbooks and mementos of silent film stars
Contributed by Kate Gaddis, UHCL alumna
A few months ago, I had the honor of inheriting my late friend Ricky Arlen’s family mementos. His mother was the famous Jobyna Ralston. Jobyna was a major movie star in the early 1900s and 1920s.
She is mostly known for her work with Harold Lloyd and being the wife of Richard Arlen. But she was so much more. For example, she established the Little Rascals and the Marx Brothers.
I first met Ricky in January 2015. We became great friends over the years, and with his sudden death in May 2018 of lung cancer, he left a lot of his mother’s stuff behind.
A friend of his named Susie got in contact with me and said she had two boxes of Ricky’s family photos. Ricky was a dear friend of mine, and I loved his mother dearly. She told me that she was making the executive decision to give the mementos to me. I was ecstatic but at the same time really humble about it; I have never inherited this amount of responsibly before.
Three UPS boxes later, I got two scrapbooks, Rick’s baby book and lots of photos.
Across the country in Georgia lives Colleen Moore’s niece, Melinda Morrison Cox.
Her goal in life is to keep the memory of her aunt Colleen Moore alive. She inherited Colleen’s mementos from about 40 years ago.
“She had left things stored at the Morrison family farms and told me I could have any of it if I wanted,” Cox said.
Melinda has many scrapbooks of Colleen. Like Jobyna, Colleen also had some scrapbooks made. These scrapbooks are very valuable and are in different conditions.
Jobyna’s scrapbooks are in better condition since they haven’t been out in the open in a long time. Colleen’s on the other hand, at least the one I have seen, is in semi-good condition, as some of the pages are falling out.
It is amazing that both of these scrapbooks have survived through the test of time. The responsibility of keeping Jobyna and Rick alive is now in my hands. I intend to keep these mementos for years to come. They are mine and I will take good care of them.
Also published on Medium.
