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After a life of tragedy and redemption worthy of silent film, Baby Peggy has cashed in her chips.


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Diana Serra Cary, Child Star ‘Baby Peggy’ of Silent Films, Dies at 101

 

Diana Serra Cary, an author, a film historian and probably the last surviving child superstar of the silent film era nearly a century ago, who spent decades coming to terms with a bizarre childhood of triumphs, heartbreaks and parents who squandered her fortune, died on Monday in Gustine, Calif. She was 101.

Her death was confirmed by the Niles Film Museum, which is devoted to the silent era, in Fremont, Calif.

Her name was Peggy-Jean Montgomery, and she was a precocious 2½-year-old in 1921 when Century Studio cast her as Baby Peggy, opposite Brownie the Wonder Dog. America soon fell in love with the chubby-cheeked little girl as she fled burning buildings, held thugs at bay with a pistol and clung to the underside of a train.

By age 5 she had made more than 150 pictures, mostly short comedies and melodramas, for Century, Universal and Principal Pictures, and was a multimillionaire. Home was a Beverly Hills mansion near Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks. A $30,000 chauffeur-driven limousine took her to work every day.

 

...and not one word abouit the fate of Brownie, the Wonder Dog. :(

 

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How do you squander what today would equate to $60 million?

How much did property in Beverly Hills cost in the 30s and 40s?

Just hard to fathom losing or spending that much money.

I wonder if her parents felt guilty for doing that and not setting up some sort of trust for the lass?

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22 minutes ago, Dottles said:

Doubtful. 10 to 1 says they spent it on themselves.

Property and cars is what is said.  Timing would put the purchases right before the stock market crash of 29 and the great depression, which would explain much.  Then her dad got her black listed and she could not get work.

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11 minutes ago, jsharr said:

Property and cars is what is said.  Timing would but the purchases right before the stock market crash of 29 and the great depression, which would explain much.  Then her dad got her black listed and she could not get work.

What the heck would Wade have to do for you to blacklist him?  Seriously.

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