Bobby Diamond: A horse's costar, a non-DIckensian Pip, Dunky Gillis, gymnast, nude flower child, and the Mighty Mightor

 

Dig this vintage commercial from the 1950s.  Bobby is trying to chop wood, but he's too weak, causing him to lose the respect of his friend, dad, and horse.  Then his other dad calls them to lunch.  They burst with excitement: they're having Borden's Cottage Cheese!!!!

The cooking-and-cleaning dad plops on "any kind of fruit."  Yuck!

The friend pours syrup on an enormous pile of the gunk.  Yuck again!

Bobby makes a cottage cheese-and-jelly sandwich.  Triple yuck!  

But shoveling the vile stuff into his face gives Bobby the energy to chop that wood and earn his gay dads' love.

And he takes his shirt off, causing conniption fits among the gay boys of the era.

During the 1950s, television characters commonly sold the product during the story ("Let's take a break for some Maxwell House Coffee -- It's so incredibly delicious!"), so this commercial was probably shown during Fury (1955-60), a modern-day Western: The orphaned Joey (Bobby Diamond) is adopted by Jim (Peter Graves), a rancher with a horse named Fury.  His friend might be Packy (Roger Mobley), and the dad who does the cooking Pete (William Fawcett).

Born in 1943, Bobby was discovered by a talent scout and put to work in 1952, with uncredited roles in The Silver Whip, The Lady Wants Mink, Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, Half a Hero, and many other movies,, plus one tv show, Father Knows Best. 

In 1955, he was cast as the lead in Fury, and achieved the greatest stardom of his career. 

Though Bobby was an adolescent during the course of the series, he was generally excused from expressing heterosexual interest (he gets a crush on a girl in one episode).  The producers did give him a series of best friends to get into scrapes with: after Packy, Pee Wee (Jimmy Baird), and then Buzz (Stuffy Singer), but they didn't express any heterosexual interest, either.  The episode "Pee Wee Grows Up" would today mean getting a girlfriend, but in 1956 it meant signing up for a bodybuilding course.

After Fury, Bobby was offered My Three Sons, which became a mega-hit, but instead he decided to play to his strengths, and become the adopted son of newlywed Nannette Fabray on Westinghouse Playhouse.  It lasted for only 25 episodes. (He did score three My Three Sons guest spots)

During the Swinging Sixties, the Westerns of yesteryear seemed old-fashioned and obsolete, and the former cowboy star had trouble finding roles, in spite of his willingness to take off his shirt.

And, reputedly, his pants, as this art photo from around 1965 suggests.  Notice the penis in the mirror, very rare in the 1960s.

Except for the stag films that showed nude guys doing...well, whatever this is.

Bobby appeared as Dobie's cousin Dunky during the last season of The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis, (1962-63), when the high schoolers jumped the shark and joined the army.  He got to sing "Deck the Halls" in a Christmas episode, and "My Mammy," which Al Jolson sang in blackface. Ulp.

Then came a lot of guest shots, on The Twilight Zone, Wagon Train, The FBI, Mr. Ed, Lassie....

The Twilight Zone  Episode, "In Praise of Pip," won critical acclaim.  Bobby plays a soldier dying in Viet Nam.  His father, a bookie played by a pre-Odd Couple Jack Klugman, meets the 10-year old Pip (Billy Mumy), hangs out with him, and finally exchanges his life for his adult son.

 Bobby's most significant buddy-bonding movie role was in Billie (1965), starring Patty Duke as a girl who is good at baseball, but has to pretend to be inept to attract guys.  Bobby played her boyfriend Warren Berlinger's buddy, who gets to sing.

Then it was back to the occasional guest role. Changing his name to Bob Diamond and then Robert L. Diamond didn't help.  He got some voice work, notably the teenage caveman Tor who turns into the Mighty Mightor (1967-68), but even that dried up.   Time for a new career.

Bobby graduated from San Fernando State College with a degree in broadcast journalism, hoping to become a tv reporter, but to avoid being drafted, he went to law school instead, earning his degree in 1970.

He joined a mid-level law practice specializing in personal injury and medical malpractice, and retired from acting except for an occasional guest spot and one production credit. 

In 1981, he produced and had a small part in the thriller Scream, unusual because the victims are adults, not teenagers, including some 1950s cowboy stars and Alvy Moore, who played Hank Kimball on Green Acres.  The critical consensus is that it's deadly dull.

Bobby was a familiar face at fan conventions, and heavily involved in former child star activism, He died in 2019.

So, was he gay?  I read one article that said he came out in 2012, but I'm not sure of it's veracity.  It is interesting that he didn't marry until 1986, when he was 43: Tara Parker, a woman he met at the gym.  They had two children before they divorced.  

See also: Joe Canoli's canoli: Frontal nudity and erotic poses from the groovy 1960s

Steve Bond: Tarzan costar turned Playgirl model

Jake Kelley's Hot/Hung Photos, Part 1: the Maniac K*d and his buff buds and hung homies.