Baby Peggy, Lillian Gish and James Patterson

November 16, 2013

Silent screen star Baby Peggy, Diana Serra Cary, celebrated her 95^th birthday at the Niles Essanay Silent Film Museum, Fremont, today amid throngs of well-wishers who presented the star with flowers, cards and other small gifts. Baby Peggy began her film career at 19 months. An Amsterdam filmmaker produced a documentary on her in 2012. NESFM in 2013 produced a silent black and white short film homage of a Broncho Billy Anderson film from 1913 with an era camera and starring Ms. Cary. NESFM sold her books at retail and she signed her Hollywood photos for $20.

Cary singed her books and production stills from her movies, posed for photographs, recalled Pola Negri, Rudolph Valentino, Charlie Chaplin, Colonel Tim McCoy, Roddy McDowell, Jackie Coogan and many others.

Cary's titles include 1978's "Hollywood's Children: An Inside Account of the Child Star Era" with a foreword by Kevin Brownlow. The Washington Post said of the book, "An eye-opening wide-angled view. A riveting, discerning account of performing children and their parents." Southern Methodist University Press

Cary wrote "What Ever Happened to baby Peggy?: The Autobiography of Hollywood's Pioneer Child Star" in 2009 with Bear Manor Media. Publisher's Weekly said of the book, "(Cary's) honest and well told account of her unusually rich life, as well as of Hollywood's during its formative years, should interest even those who have never heard of baby Peggy."

Ms. Cary told me she has a new book coming out in 2014, but as a wise author she would not disclose any details. At Niles, she worked non-stop from noon to 5 Pacific but exited before the evening screening of her 1923 “Captain January” with Hobart Bosworth and Irene Rich. She told me it is her favorite film as she got to do "responsible" and "heroic" things in the film. In her 2-reel comedies, more than 50 were made, she said she always played "a mischievous child" for laughs. 

Ms. Cary had several issues of Classic on her table. Photo covers included Baby Peggy (December 1923), Lillian Gish (February 1924) and Dorothy Gish. I searched the February 1924 issue for an article on Lillian and found nothing. The photo cover of Lillian highlights her youth and dramatizes her very small mouth. The cover of Dorothy is rather unflattering I thought.

Lillian Gish cover on Classic, a Brewster publication February 1924

For baby Peggy's 95th birthday.

James Patterson with Baby Peggy, Diana Serra Cary, Niles Essanay Silent Film Museum, Fremont California.

 

 

Beautiful Aurora, who came from Phoenix to celebrate Baby Peggy's birthday, with the Gish sisters

In the December 1923 Classic, combined with Shadowland, a Brewster publication, an article “Questions and Answers,” Harry Carr writes:

“Who is the finest artist in the movies?”

“The Answer: Taking all things into consideration, the finest artist among the men is Charlie Chaplin; Lillian Gish among the women.”

“Lillian Gish is a delineator of characters. Lillian Gish is a great actress in the sense of casting off her own personality and putting on another like a coat.

“Lillian Gish is a not a genius is. She is a master workman.”  (Ed. A sexist reference.)  

“Lillian Gish is always shooting at a mark. She studies the character she is portraying as a surgeon studies a disease. She even figures out in her own mind what such a girl would eat; what she would do on her holidays; what kind of friends she would have. She may never use these points on the screen; but it helps her to get ‘clear under.’”

“I think her work in Broken Blossoms was the higest point in which scrren acting has ever been lifted.”

Carr said the most intelligent woman on the screen was “between Mary Pickford and Louise Fazenda.” He called Pickford “a captain of finance.”

In its back pages, Classic had the following ads:

“Earn Money at Home You can make $15 or $60 weekly in your spare time writing show cards.” The company was West-Argus Show Card Service in Toronto.

“Learn Photo Play Writing. From John Emerson and Anita Loos two the world’s most famous, most successful, highest paid screen writers. They have written photo plays for Mary Pickford, Douglas Fairbanks, and Dorothy and Lillian Gish,” and many others

Another advert urged readers to consider a career in “Cartoon drawings.”

All photos courtesy Niles Essanay Silent Film Museum.

James Patterson

PS Our office recently sent thanks out to Alexander Kogun, Jr., whose studio is in Long Island City, New York. We interviewed him on his restoration work on Mayerling with Audrey Hepburn and The Trip to Bountiful with Lillian Gish. Kogan is legal owner of these early TV productions and hundreds more. He had the vision kinescopes could be restored to broadcast quality and marketed.