Can you name the only living top box office silent movie star? Don’t look it up. You may know the answer if you’re a movie buff but otherwise you probably won’t.
Diana Serra Cary, whose real name was Peggy Montgomery and who became a star as “Baby Peggy”, is 96 now. She appeared in her first comedy short in 1921 and became a major star in the silent era, the only child actor to compete for the title with “the Boy King”, Jackie Coogan. Later she appeared in vaudeville and I wonder if she and my mom ever crossed paths. There is something indefinable about Mrs. Cary that reminds me of my mother. A certain poise or flair.
Last night my wife and I managed to catch a documentary on her, Baby Peggy, the Elephant in the Room. It’s not available streaming or I’d give you a link. If you have the opportunity to catch it, do so. It’s illuminating and heart-rending.
I don’t know that I’ve ever seen it mentioned before but several of Shirley Temple’s vehicles were in fact Baby Peggy movies remade as musicals.
I’d seen Mrs. Cary in a previous documentary some years ago and one thing that struck me was that she seems to have come to terms more peaceably with her childhood over the last decade. I wish her all the best.
