Baby Gab

Today's Wall Street Journal features a story about an upcoming documentary on the life and career of nearly forgotten silent film star Baby Peggy. The doc, titled Baby Peggy: The Elephant in the Room, premieres in New York next week at MOMA and is accompanied by a discussion with the film's director Vera Iwerebor and the 93-year-old eponymous star.  From the WSJ:

"I was probably one of the 20 top stars [of that era]," says Southern California resident Diana Serra Cary, 93, who, as "Baby Peggy" Montgomery, made some 50 two-reeler comedies and six feature-length movies before her 7th birthday. "I started out at $75 a week when I was 20 months old. At the end of six months . . . the studio upped me to $150 a week. . . . At 5 years old, I was making a million dollars a picture."

This being a Hollywood story, tragedy eventually strikes, and Peggy, after losing two fortunes and her career is forgotten once the sound era sets in and must struggle for even bit parts as an extra.  But for every tragic second act, there is a triumphant final reel, and this doc promises to return the luster to Peggy's long-eclipsed star.