Douglas Greer (bio) - In His Own Words[]
Born in Ottawa, Canada, in 1921, I moved to Glendale, California in 1924. At age seven I began working in the movies after winning a freckle face contest. It was my many freckles that earned me the nickname of “Turkey Egg” while working in the “Our Gang Comedies”. It was while working at Hal Roach studios that the director of the “Our Gang”, Bob McGowan, gave me the name “Turkey Egg” because my freckles reminded him of the speckled eggs that turkeys lay.
One of my first days of work was in a crowd scene in one of the first talking pictures, “Sunny Side Up”. By 1929, I was a member of the Screen Actors Guild, (#11732). Besides working in many of the “Our Gang Comedies” I also worked with Mickey Rooney in the “Mickey McGuire Comedies” and westerns with John Wayne . As a teenager, I worked with Jackie Cooper in, “When a Feller Needs a Friend”, MGM, and several other “Kid” pictures. I made around $5.50 a day, but during the Depression that was a lot of money.
I worked alongside young stars like Mickey Rooney and Judy Garland, but many of my roles were possibly uncredited. We didn't know the difference between all us kids on the set, who was a star or not, but Mickey Rooney to me is the greatest actor that ever lived.
After working for twelve years in the movie industry and meeting many movie stars and acquiring around 60 screen credits, it was time to move on. Unfortunately, my time working as a child had interfered with my education.
I was failing in school, but thanks to my homeroom teacher, Mrs. Dollar, at Burbank High School I was able to graduate at age 21. I’ll never be able to thank her enough for meeting with me every morning at 7:00am before classes to tutor me and help me to finally graduate in 1941. It was while attending high school that I studied aircraft sheet metal. This skill would help me later in life when I started my own company.
When I graduated I went to work for Lockheed Aircraft Company in Burbank, CA. World War II had started at this time so I joined the 10th Mountain Division, Ski Troops in 1943. I had already learned to ski in the mountains of California. I was one of the first members of the ski troops at Camp Hale, Colorado. After finishing training, just before my outfit was to head overseas to the Italian Alps, I was transferred to “inactive duty” to go back to Lockheed for a specific job. I later found out that every officer in our company was either killed or wounded in the first three days of battle.
When my job at Lockheed was finished I was called back to service on June 8th, 1944, with the “1267 Combat Engineers”. I visited England, France, Luxemburg and Germany. When the war in Germany was over I went to Marseille, France where I boarded a ship that took me through the Panama Canal and ended in the Philippines. There I contracted Malaria. I was Honorably Discharged on March 31, 1946.
Back in the states I met my future wife, Doris. She was standing by a bookstore reading a magazine when my great dane put a paw on her leg and ripped her nylon stockings. I asked for her number so I could buy her a new pair and the rest is history. We were married in 1949 and together for a little more than 40 years until she passed away. We had a daughter, Diane, and later four grandchildren. I now have two great grandchildren as well.
I eventually formed my own company, American Northern, Inc., a laboratory furniture and supply company, specializing in fume hoods, biological safety cabinets and their exhaust systems. I put my systems in places such as UCLA and Cal Tech. It was at Northridge Hospital that my equipment helped stop a tuberculosis outbreak.
In 1978 I designed and built a three story home in Lake Tahoe. I lived there with my family for several years, enjoying fishing and skiing. I’m also an accomplished magician and lifetime member of the Magic Castle in Hollywood, CA.
At age 78, a near death malady befell me. My pancreas burst, 99% fatal. Somehow I survived. During the many months of recuperating I often wondered, why? Having never read the Bible, I now had time during my recuperation. I only knew of the stories from the preachers in the churches I attended growing up. I wondered if the stories by them were enhanced to make them more exciting. This wonderment became a curiosity, which became research, which became an obsession. Once I started, I couldn’t stop. I found it to be the most fascinating reading I had ever read, so many different faiths, so many different beliefs, so many different customs and so many different peoples, all wanting the same thing, a “deity”. This single event in my life helped propel me to compile and publish two books, “Religions of Man” and Women, Their Lives and Loves in the Scriptures”.
My advice for living a long, healthy life, "Go to bed an hour earlier every night, then get up and walk for an hour every morning. Doug “Turkey Egg” is still alive and active at age 93 (As of December 2014).
I currently reside in Santa Cruz, CA.