I swear, there's not a day that goes by that I do not learn something new about the world.

Very few people may know that Adeal Crooms was the voice of Wicket W. Warrick in Return of the Jedi but I'm doubting that anyone beyond one handful of people knew that Ms. Crooms was one of the many "Rosie the Riveters" from our past. ( more about Rosie the Riveter)

During the years of 1977 - 1979 women all over the country were interviewed for a documentary filmed about the ladies who worked the traditionally men's jobs here in the US while their husbands, brothers, sons and fathers fought and served in World War II.
The film was called The Life and Times of Rosie the Riveter and focused on the experiences of these ladies here at home throughout the early to mid 1940's.
Adeal did not make the final cut, there were only five who did, however, her 32 minute interview managed to be preserved amongst the outtakes (23 tapes exist) of the doc which are housed at the Schlesinger Library of the Radcliff Institute, part of the Harvard Library system, at Cambridge, MA.

At this point it is only possible to view the interviews via appointment but there may transcripts available, which I'm looking into.

How interesting to find this little gold nugget of information about a woman who brought such an endearing but never credited voice to Wicket. And a little sad that almost nobody knew of her contribution (other than her close relatives and a precious few at Lucasfilm) before she died in 2003.

A friend of mine recently spoke with Ms. Crooms' daughter, before I found the info on 'Rosie', who said her mother would have been delighted to know that someone out there was/would have been interested in what she saw as a very minor effort in the scheme of things.

If only more people had known, they might have had the chance to catch a little bit of WWII history while hearing a little bit of Ewokese in the process.

LM