Baby Peggy at MOMA

[Swithin]

I'm not sure this has been covered here yet. *Baby Peggy* appeared this Wednesday at the Museum of Modern Art in NYC, introducing a new documentary and a series of her films. A friend of mine went and found it very enjoyable.

 

[lavenderblue]

Swithin, Lucky Friend. It may sound somewhat dorky, but the Florence Henderson show on the RLGTVnetwork, has featured Baby Peggy as a guest. It's shown as a rerun quite often. Baby Peggy talks about her early life and her experiences while appearing in films. She shows many photos. Very interesting, enjoyable program. Next time I see it's on,I'll post it.

[ValeskaSuratt]

How to market a four-year-old movie star in 1923 ... little has changed.

 

 

It's really uncanny how good she was in this clip from Carmen Jr. (1923) :

 

 

 

This promo for the Pordenone Silent Movie Festival has a quick segment about her memories of acting in silent films:

 

 

 

And here's a trailer for a documentary about the personal costs of her career called Baby Peggy, The Elephant in the Room

 

 

[hamradio]

Bless her she is still with us, she is the very few of the earliest silent film stars around. Her name is Diana Serra Cary.

 

I'm glad I have her few surviving films, the last "Helen's Babies" was very hard to obtained. That one has Edward Everett Horton costarring and was neat to see him in a silent.

 

I think "Captain January" (1924) is the best version even though its silent.

 

Baby Peggy is mention in the documentary "Child Stars - Their Story" (2000) and that told me she was a poster child for child labor laws. They worked her to death, and its even sadder that so little of her films survives to show for the barbaric hours she was forced to put in. I hope someone might come across a few more in a private collection.

 

Anissa Jones comes in second for been worked to death.

It's amazing how few people realise how BIG a star Baby Peggy was. We associate Shirley Temple for being the greatest but Baby Peggy equaled her in popularity. Never has such a popular star been so forgotten so quickly!

 

Here are a couple of interesting links - http://www.moviediva.com/MD_root/reviewpages/MDHelensBabies.htm|http://www.moviediva.com/MD_root/reviewpages/MDHelen

 

http://www.silentsaregolden.com/featurefolder6/helensbabiespage.html

 

Edited by: hamradio on Sep 7, 2012 9:09 PM

 

Edited by: hamradio on Sep 7, 2012 10:26 PM

[ValeskaSuratt]

Great links, hamradio, thanks.

 

(Just FYI, the first one doesn't work because of the apostrophe in "MDHelen'sBabies.htm")

 

 

[hamradio]

I hate those broken links. Go to Google images and type baby peggy. Select the photo below (3rd from the top row, select it and go to the website.

 

[ValeskaSuratt]

> {quote:title=hamradio wrote:}{quote}I hate those broken links.

>

 

This is intended only as a helpful suggestion: if you edit your post and delete the apostrophe, it'll be fixed.

[ValeskaSuratt]

Sorry, I was wrong -- the link still isn't working.

 

I should have just followed your instructions.

 

Here's the site :

 

http://www.moviediva.com/MD_root/reviewpages/MDHelen'sBabies.htm

[hamradio]

I tried that but got a 'Page not found'. Even when I use my old method of directly typing the missing charactors into the Address bar in a second browser. I get this problem with underscore charactor but typing in the _ along with the missing text fixes it. Doing this with the ' doesn't work. Just one of those bugs in hypertext.

 

Oh well. Thanks anyway.

[ValeskaSuratt]

That's very weird -- when I copy and paste the web address from the address bar to here, it still won't work ??? ?:|

 

Looks like the only way to get there is via Google images as you described.

 

Well ... glad we put out that fire ...

 

 

[hamradio]

I'm afraid the fire just reignited. The photo of Baby Peggy as an adult with the dolls is image protected. (not going through the motions with Tinypic) :_|

 

I'm going to dig out my Billy Joel 45 and play it.

 

didnt[/i]starttheretro.jpg]

[ValeskaSuratt]

 

Good idea ... I think I'll put on a record, too ... I mean, a CD ... an mp3 ? ...

 

 

 

[musicalnovelty]

> {quote:title=hamradio wrote:}{quote}

> Anissa Jones comes in second for been worked to death.

Third could be Lucille Ricksen, 1910 - 1925, dead at age 14, one could say literally worked to death.

This brief bio doesn't give nearly all the tragic details, but a search on her name should find other articles & info.

 

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0725584/bio

[gagman66]

That's awesome seeing all those Baby Peggy Dolls. And the real McCoy! She is an amazing lady. I hope the documentary will be released on DVD and Blu-ray, or at least shown on TCM soon. Possibly even in December. Watch the schedule.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

*Baby Peggy as Pola Negri- The Widdle Spanish Dancer-1924*

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[ValeskaSuratt]

GREAT pix, gagman66.

 

I found a better clip of her than the one I posted earlier. It's from Peg O' the Mounted (1924)

 

 

 

 

"I have a dog that looks exactly like you" is my favorite silent movie title card for this week.

[gagman66]

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[gagman66]

Thanks for all the links!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[hamradio]

Here is another informative link about Baby Peggy.

http://astarforbabypeggy.com/about-baby-peggy/baby-peggys-biography/

 

I found out from this site "The Darling of New York" (1923) was one of her popular movies but only the last reel exist.

Read the remaining list and *weep!* These don't include *totally lost* films. Hollywood can be a movie slaughterhouse.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_incomplete_or_partially_lost_films

 

The mentioning of Baby Peggy and this book goes hand-in-hand.

 

Edited by: hamradio on Sep 8, 2012 10:48 AM

[ValeskaSuratt]

> {quote:title=hamradio wrote:}{quote}Here is another informative link about Baby Peggy.

> http://astarforbabypeggy.com/about-baby-peggy/baby-peggys-biography/

>

>

>

> I found out from this site "The Darling of New York" (1923) was one of her popular movies but only the last reel exist.

> Read the remaining list and *weep!* These don't include *totally lost* films. Hollywood can be a movie slaughterhouse.

 

 

Great link ... "By 1923 she was making $1.5 million a year (adjusted for inflation this would be roughly $15 million a year)" ... a historical precedent for the Olsen twins.

 

Re: nitrate ... "We're building on sand," said D.W. Griffith. He could have been talking about the film stock as well as the art.

 

And if you've ever seen (and smelled) nitrate film burning, you'll squirm at the notion that among Mabel Normand's practical jokes was tossing firecrackers into Sennett's cutting room.

[hamradio]

Like to see nitrate burn?

 

 

Here is a photo of explosive combustion of a nitrate film vault at a series of tests of vault design features conducted by the National Archives in conjunction with the National Bureau of Standards in 1948.

 

Since this was 1948, *what film* did they used for the test? Not old movies I hope. :0

 

This is the structure of nitrocellulose, you can see why it burns underwater.

[gagman66]

Truth be told, Nitrate if properly stored and handled last longer than Safety film. According to the head of the Nitrate Film Department at the Library of Congress. They have films over 90 years old still on nitrate showing no signs of deterioration, while acetate Safety film under 50 years old is curled up in a ball and completely unusable. I'll see if I can find the video clip.