A few weeks ago, silent film star "Baby Peggy" (age 91) was interviewed on the radio by Sunny Starr. (read the original post) She had some wonderful stories to tell about her time in Hollywood. She sounded so good, sharp as a tack. Below is a compilation of the notes that I took while listening to the one-hour interview.
A native Californian, she was born October 26, 1918 as Peggy-Jean Montgomery. She had one sister. (she later changed her name to Diana Serra Cary when she became an author)
Her father Jack, a real cowboy, struggled to find work after WW1. The only place for a cowboy to find work was in Hollywood as a stunt double. He became a stunt double to Tom Mix, who was sort of the John Wayne of that era. Tom Mix introduced the whole idea of being a cowboy superstar. Her mother didn't care much for the movies or the whole movie business, and rarely left the apartment where they lived.
One day she took a trip to Century Studios with her two kids to see Jack work, never expecting any of her children to become superstars.
Peggy-Jean was 19 months old. She remembers what her mother told her about that day; she was just sitting on the set well behaved when someone at the Studio noticed her, and felt she had the right look for movies. It was a "You Ought to be in Pictures" moment.
Universal Studios head Julius Stern wanted to break her into showbusiness early, and wanted to see her in more shorts and features. Many photos and stills were made of her at the time.
She was put in her first film "Playmates" with Brownie the Wonder Dog. Brownie was a famous dog who had his own series. The short became very popular. The actual film was just rediscovered within the last 4-5 years, and she saw it for the first time, over 80 years later.When she turned 2 years old, she made 150 dollars a week. Her salary later doubled. As she got more famous, her father was affectionally called, "Mr. Baby Peggy".
At 3 year sold, she was old enough to walk and talk...By 1922 (4 years old) she was working all day every day. She made 150 shorts eventually.
She was the top box office star at Universal Studios in the early 1920s.
She has memories of that time. She recalls that in "Playmates", there was a scene where she was under water in a tub filled with soap suds. The filmakers used whip cream, and she remembers swallowing a whole bunch of it. She hated whip cream until she was 20 years old.
In 1924, she made the 64-minute long "Captain January" (released July 6, 1924) and she made 5 films in over a year.
Her films were classified by the studio as "The Universal Jewels", the top studio productions. They put in alot of care into the production of the films and treated the stars well. "Captain January" was one of her best films, she said. She remembers wearing all the costumes and working with good people on the set and, co-workers such as Hobart Bosworth who treated her like an adult.
In the film, there was a house on fire....she had to escape, and she rememers that. The crew set fire to all three windows. They put kerosine and sawdust on it. She touched the doorknob and it was red hot. She had to climb out over the sink out the window...there was camera right there. She remembers a stunt person was killled.
In another film, she fell out of a pick up truck. In one of the 2-reel comedies she was in, she was filmed from the waist up to make it look like she was riding a goat.
In 1924, she was a mascot of the Democractic convention. A famous photo of her was taken with her near President Roosevelt.She also talked a bit about other silent stars (not "celebrities"; no one used that term back then, she said) - Joan Crawford, John Gilbert and Charlie Chaplin, and Lilian Gish.
Early silent stars knew how to physically act. They knew expressions and close ups...you didn't have to talk. They could talk with their eyes. She said Joan Crawford brought that over to talkies, and you can see those physical acting abilitiies. Al Jolson was very nervous making talkie films. He did't like microphones.
She remembered how alot of silent films actors were thrown by the wayside during the talkie period. Talkies were primitive, but this was the rage.
She also became a top vaudeville act in the mid-20s. She said she never lived in a big "family house" as a kid. She said that because she traveled so much - especially when she got to vaudeville - that she "lived on the stage".
She said that in vaudeville, there were usually 6 acts. There was one headliner like Al Jolson or Babby Peggy (top vaudeville stars in that period) There was always a newsreel, comedy short, and a film. And 6 acts of live comedy. All for 85 cents. In 1926 -she did vaudeville work the Palace Theater several times. (The Palace in New York was known as the top vaudeville theater in the country) It was illegal to work as a kid at the Palace, but she managed to do it anyway. She talked about being affiliated with something called the Gerig Society that worked to get kids off the streets.She didn't stay a part of showbusiness past the age of 13. She went to school, had a family and pretty much wanted to put her Baby Peggy persona behind. As she got older, she realized her fans would not let her forget, so she "made peace with Baby Peggy".
In the years since she left performing, she became a writer specializing on Hollywood history, and put out several books, including "Hollywood's Children" (a book about child stars including Shirley Temple and Dickie Moore) She had many connections to the old silent stars still, and interviewed many of them for her books.
She met many silent stars, including Greta Garbo and Mary Pickford. She talked about going to Mary Pickford's house one day; she had a very ordinary looking house, she said.
Her interviews with these legends could be found in her books.
She talked about the discovery of a few of her films, a reminder that most silent films have been lost, about 80 percent of all silent films are lost. She made many films for Century Studios, but when the stuio burned down, so many films were lost forever.
One of her feature films, "Darling of New York" (1923), has never been found in its entirety. She said it contains the first scene ever filmed where you see firetrucks putting out a fire.
Just a few years ago, the last reel of "Darling of New York" was discovered. A high school kid overseas was collecting animated cartoons. In the package of old films, the kid found a missing reel of "Darling of New York".
There are not many Baby Peggy short comedies around today. But in last 25 years, they found 12 or 13 of the studio comedies. They are genuine slapstick films.
She said that the silent era was wonderful in those days. It was a favorite pastime of immigrants, as they could learn to read
the titles and learn English that way.
She then went on to speak a little about current Hollywood, and said how "it doesn't resemble the period I was a part of". "It was a great period. I never thought I would live to see the end of Hollywood."She talked a little about how she enjoyed seeing Lilian act in the 1987 movie "The Whales of August", when she was in her late 80s. (She said Lilian always had a sense of history, and that when she made it, she was aware of it being historical.)
There's a new book out that she wrote "Whatever Happened to Baby Peggy?". She enjoys talking about this book. All of her books are available on Amazon.
She will be appearing live in person July 7 in Los Angeles, California at the Silent Film Theater for a special screening of 1924's Captain January. See the calender page on their website for more information.
For more on Baby Peggy, read these recent blog posts:
Baby Peggy (Louise Brooks Society)
The Bookseller Who Became an Author and Who Once Had Been the Biggest Little film Star in the World (Huffington Post)
The Return of Baby Peggy (examiner.com)
