Baby Peggy

A documentary chronicling the shared experiences of prominent former child stars and the personal and professional price of fame and failure on a child.

Among the pieces featured in Fragments are the final reel of John Ford's The Village Blacksmith (1922) and a glimpse at Emil Jannings in The Way of All Flesh (1927), the only Oscar®-winning performance in a lost film. Fragments also features clips from such lost films as Cleopatra (1917), starring Theda Bara; The Miracle Man (1919), with Lon Chaney; He Comes Up Smiling (1918), starring Douglas Fairbanks; an early lost sound film, Gold Diggers of Broadway (1929), filmed in early Technicolor, and the only color footage of silent star Clara Bow, Red Hair (1928). The program is rounded out with interviews of film preservationists involved in identifying and restoring these films. Also featured is a new interview with Diana Serra Cary, best known as "Baby Peggy", one of the major American child stars of the silent era, who discusses one of the featured fragments, Darling of New York (1923).

The daughter of a wealthy man secretly marries a man below her station— one whom her father violently disapproves of. The father, in an excess of parental concern, separates the lovers by sending his daughter away so that she might forget her lover, unaware of their married state. During this time, she gives birth to a daughter. After some months, the young mother returns to her family manor and presents her father with his new granddaughter, which causes a most unfortunate scene. Unbeknownst to the young woman, her enraged father falsely accuses his son-in-law of theft and has him incarcerated in order to separate the lovers in an irrational attempt to force his daughter to forget this "unworthy" young man.

Clara Bow: Discovering the 'It' Girl features scenes from 25 of her films, as well as interviews with family members and acquaintances.

Chandu consults his crystal ball and sees that Nadji, Princess of Egypt, is in danger. She is about to be sacrificed by the black magic cult of Ubasti. Headed for the magic island of Lemuria, he is shipwrecked , washed ashore and captured. He becomes invisible, escapes and after numerous detours is able to rescue the princess.

A Baby Peggy two-reeler

Documentary about an extraordinary lady, Diana Serra Cary (born Peggy-Jean Montgomery). In the early 1920s she was one of Hollywood's first major child stars, Baby Peggy.

A young man, who has vowed never to marry and doesn't particularly like children, is left in charge of his two very young nieces. At first they drive him to distraction, but then he begins to warm to them, and also to a beautiful young local girl.

Angela comes to Hollywood with only two things: Her dream to become a movie star, and Grandpa. She leaves an Aunt, a brother, Grandma, and her longtime boyfriend back in Centerville. Despite seeing major movie stars around every corner, and knocking on every casting office door in town, at the end of her first day she is still unemployed. To her horror, when she arrives back at their hotel, she finds that Grandpa has been cast in a movie by William DeMille and quickly becomes a star during the ensuing weeks. Her family, worried that Angela and Grandpa are getting into trouble, come to Hollywood to drag them back home. In short order Aunt, Grandma, brother, boyfriend and even the parrot become superstars, but Angela is still unemployed...

Santussa, an orphan who becomes separated from her nurse en route to America to live with her grandfather, is cared for by gangsters who hide their stolen jewels in her ragdoll. In New York, Big Mike, finding Santussa a nuisance, dumps her and the doll in a trash can, where a newsboy finds her. After several adventures, Santussa finds her grandfather, the jewels are handed over to customs officials, and the gang of crooks is reformed.

Elnora Comstock is the badly abused daughter of Katherine Comstock, who blames her because her father was drowned while on the way home the night she was born. She finds her comfort with Margaret and Westley Sinton, a childless neighboring couple, who help her with her school costs, as does the wealthy Mrs. Parker, who takes an interest in the talented young girl. She meets and falls in love with Phillip Ammon, the nephew of Dr. Ammon, but learns that he is already engaged. The money that Elnora has saved for her college education is stolen, and when Mrs. Comstock goes to retrieve it from a suspect, she also learns of the duplicity of her husband, who had been courting a neighboring woman on the night he drowned. She begs forgiveness of Elnora, and the romance of Elnora and Phillip also begins to flourish.

A 1927 silent-era series of Hollywood studio tours, these short subjects go behind the scenes at major studios and showcase famous stars, directors, and landmarks of the movie capital.

Michael 'Nuggin' Taylor and Powdah save lives during a sea tragedy in this story about the slave trade on the high seas during 1842.

A writer takes a job as a secretary because her scrupulous husband isn't bringing in the dough as an attorney. When her new employer is murdered, she can't seem to make up her mind as to whether she "dunnit" or not.

A short featuring many stars

A documentary about the careers of child stars of the '40s in Hollywood, featuring movie clips with Shirley Temple, Margaret O'Brien, and numerous others along with interviews.

A pint-sized Mountie pursues a gang of moonshiners.

A documentary about child actors, since the beginning of motion pictures (narrated by Roddy McDowell).

Baby Peggy is joined by her star-making partner, Brownie the Wonder Dog and is in a circus as a junior clown.

Teddy Shaw, a bored New York office girl, goes to a camp in the Catskill Mountains for rest and finds Chick Kirkland.

Tommy Frazer is one of a gang of crooks lead by "Tony the Wop". Frazer gets caught and is sent up the river for three years on a forgery rap. When he gets out of prison, he finds his girl, Ann Whittaker, waiting for him -- and she's got a scheme. She is working in a bank and wants to pull an inside heist.

Paul and Rhoda Remsen, having marital difficulties, separate; and each is awarded custody of their child Peggy for 6 months of the year. Rhoda and Peggy move to a farm town, while Paul remains in the big city to write a play for actress Inez Lamont, who is in love with him. Peggy knows that her mother still loves Paul, so she flees to the big city to explain the situation to her father.

At the turn of the century, a young man graduates high school and realizes the joys and sorrows of growing up, with some loving help and guidance from his wise father. A tender, coming-of-age story, with a wonderful look at a long-gone, but fondly remembered, small town America.

The story of a bad organ grinder, a life saver, a pretty girl and her baby sister. A dog takes an active part in the final rescue and helps save the child from the fleeing kidnapper.

In an exclusive Swiss school for young girls, Christa Storm discovers that she is going to have a baby. She keeps the secret from everyone but her boyfriend, chemistry student David Perrin. Having lived in the private school for most of her life, Christa cannot confide in her distant father - and David cannot get his approval to marry her.

The 'secretary' of a busy newspaperman is revealed to be a cherubic small child, Baby Peggy. When a rich woman's pearl necklace is stolen, Baby Peggy's employer promises to make the reporter who cracks the case Editor-in-Chief. The little girl seizes the opportunity, and - several disguises and chases later, with the grudging aid of the office-boy - duly returns with the jewels to achieve promotion, with all the adults scurrying to serve her.

A documentary looking at the life, films, and troubled times of America's first sex symbol, screen actress Clara Bow, featuring interviews and archive footage. It takes a look at why she is considered the 'Lost Screen Goddess'.

In a dual role, Baby Peggy plays the Morgan twins—one who lives with her wealthy parents, and her identical sibling, who is adopted by the impoverished owner of a small-gauge tourist train. Chaos erupts for all concerned when the chase for a lost coin and a case of mistaken identity fortuitously reunites the sisters.

During a tempestuous storm, a lighthouse keeper finds an infant girl who washes ashore tied to some wreckage. He adopts her and they become inseparable. Eventually her real family finds her and wants her to live with them.

This is the story of the heartless mother whose burdens are such that she would be rid of her two children. The henpecked father is compelled to take them to the woods and there lose them. Gretel drops bread-crumbs to find her way home, but wild-fowl eat the crumbs and they are truly lost. The babes wander to the home of a witch, who would fatten them up to make ginger-bread of them. As they are about to be thrown into the blazing furnace Peggy outwits the witch, and, in turn, the witch is thrust into the roaring flames, as the mother, repentant, heads the neighbors in the work of rescue.

Part of a 7-part series exploring all aspects of Hollywood.

The reclusive Patricia Douglas comes out of hiding to discuss the 1937 MGM scandal, in which the powerful film studio tricked her and over 100 other underage girls into attending a stag party, where she was raped.

Baby Peggy and Brownie the Dog star in this adorable short.

An out-of-work pants presser starts an umbrella business and makes a fortune. His daughter is set to marry the nephew of a rich neighbor until the nephew is accused of stealing money from his uncle--but the money was really stolen by the rich man's son.