*** Margaret Kerry ***

An Interview with Margaret Kerry
The live-action model for Tinker Bell

Real Tinker Bell still flits for fans

By KEN HOFFMAN

First, her name is Tinker Bell, two words. "Some people make it one word, but do you know how Tinker Bell got her name?" asked Margaret Kerry, the inspiration and body double for the world's most famous fairy in Disney's animated classic Peter Pan. "She mended the pots and pans for the Lost Boys. She was a tinker. And she never spoke. She just had a bell. So that was her name: Tinker Bell," Kerry said. Kerry said people tend to think of Tinker Bell as a child or a young teen-age girl. People are always telling her, "My small daughter looks just like you when she's angry or pouting." The next time you watch Peter Pan, take a close look at Tink's figure. Keep your hands on the steering wheel, though, because those are some dangerous curves. "I had just gotten married when I was asked to model for Tinker Bell. My measurements were a 35 bust line, my waist was 25 inches and my hips were 36, maybe 37 inches. That's how the rumor started that Tinker Bell was modeled after Marilyn Monroe," Kerry said. "I had just won the World's Most Beautiful Legs contest, but I didn't tell them. I didn't think Disney would approve. I played Tinker Bell as being childlike. But I was, as you might say today, a babe. I was gorgeous." Kerry, now 70, will be part of the fourth annual Houston Celebrity Autograph Collectors Show, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday-Sunday at the Sheraton Brook hollow, 3000 North Loop West, where U.S. 290 and Loop 610 meet. Admission is $10 daily. Among the celebrities scheduled to appear: astronauts Alan Bean, Richard Gordon, Walt Cunningham and Edgar Mitchell; plus movie stars Debra Paget, Stella Stevens, Margaret O'Brien, Gary Busey, June Wilkinson, Don Stroud, Michael Callan and dozens more. Kerry said she understands the importance of Tinker Bell more today because of these shows, where fans get autographs and share stories about the first time they watched Peter Pan. "I meet such wonderful people. They bring photos of themselves as children dressed as Tinker Bell or they bring their own children dressed in a Tinker Bell costume. They have such a sparkle in their eyes." Kerry, who had acted since age 4 in Our Gang comedies and Three Stooges shorts, received a phone call from Peter Pan director Clyde Geronimi in early 1952. She was 22 years old and a regular on The Charlie Ruggles Show, one of television's earliest sitcoms. Geronimi asked her, "How would you like to model for a sprite who doesn't speak?"

For her audition, Kerry danced and performed the song Fixing Breakfast. "I did a lot of acting in the song, closing the refrigerator door with my foot, things like that," she said. "They asked me, `Would it be convenient for you to come back next Tuesday?' Convenient? I said, `Yes, that would be be convenient.' Nobody had ever treated me that great in Hollywood before." Nobody had ever acted the role of Tinker Bell before, either. James M. Barrie's play about the boy who wouldn't grow up had been performed continuously since 1905. But Tinker Bell was always just a small light dashing about the stage. Now it was up to Kerry and Disney artists to bring Tinker Bell to human form. For the next six months, Kerry portrayed Tinker Bell on a huge, empty soundstage, wearing a tight bathing suit. The director would say, "OK, now act jealous" or "You're angry at Peter," and Kerry would make exaggerated body motions and facial expressions. The animators captured her tiniest nuance, raised eyebrow or frown. "They called me Two-Take Tink because I would get it right the first time. We did a second take just for protection. Sometimes we'd use giant props, like 15-foot scissors or large keyholes for me to look through. But most of the time it was just me pretending to be looking up from under the mattress or in a drawer." Kerry saw the Disney feature when it was released in 1953 and "like everybody else, I was enchanted." She didn't watch it again until a few years ago when Peter Pan was digitally remastered in stereo. "My husband and I saw it in a movie theater. I remembered all the scenes and all the motions I did to create them. I kept elbowing my husband and saying, "That's me! That's me!' " "He just turned to me and said, `I know it's you. I'd recognize those thighs anywhere.'

To learn more about Margaret Kerry you can visit her official website here:

Tinker Bell Talks
Margaret Kerry's Official Website