Modern Screen (Dec 1948 - Oct 1949)

THE AWKWARD AGE (Continued from page 65) has never approached the heights he knew as a child. The saddest case of all was that of the other Jackie — Coogan, that is. Coogan was worth five million dollars before he could balance a full-grown bicycle. When he was eight years old, he rode around in his own $10,000 Rolls Royce. All Coogan has left from those days are a few press clippings and that Rolls Royce. He still drives it, and once in a while it pays for its own gasoline by being rented to the studios for a special scene. Bad money-management broke Jackie Coogan. Today he and a partner have an air field and he sells airplanes. His picture bid has been made in company with Jackie Cooper in the Kilr.qy Series, which hasn't set any worlds on fire. Take Mitzi Green. She was one of the biggest child stars in the early 1930's. She's never made it back to pictures. But Mitzi found another medium. She's been entertaining in night clubs, slaying the people with her visual comedy. yesterday's children . . . I've mentioned a few of yesterday's children who saw their names up there and reaped a share of moviedom's gold. Here are a few more. How many of them do you remember? How many of them have survived the awkward' age? Virginia Weidler, Cora Sue Collins, Baby Jane Quigley, Jackie Searle, Spankie McFarland, Dickie Moore, Jimmie Fay, Billy Lee, and Baby Peggy Montgomery. Yes — it's an imposing list. But let's take a look at the other side of the ledger — at some young Hollywoodites thereon, who have taken the awkward age in stride. Shirley Temple was the greatest child star there's ever been. She had already scored a sensation for the Fox studios by singing "Baby Take A Bow" in Stand Up and Cheer when Paramount borrowed her in 1934 for Little Miss Marker. Thereafter, for four straight years — from 1935 to 1938 — the incredible moppet was national box-office champion. When she left Hollywood in 1937 for a jaunt to Bermuda, 20th Century insured her for $1,685,000. They tell a little story about those days to show what Shirley meant on the lot at the time. Seems one morning two steam shovels began digging up the street near the executives' building. By the next day, the excavation was 40 feet wide and 20 feet deep. On the third day, the steam shovels were puffing away well below the surface in a hole 50 feet deep. Two vice presidents of the company happened by on their way to a conference. One of them had just returned from New York and asked the other what the digging was for. "I understand," he replied in hushed tones, "that Shirley Temple lost her ball." In 1940, when she was 12, Shirley said to her mother, "Don't you think I'm getting too big to be cute?" Mother thought so, and Shirley retired with a $3,000,000 trust fund. It was planned that she'd not return to film-making until she was at least 16. But a year later, when she gave no indications of becoming lank and graceless, she made Kathleen. And, a year after that, Miss Annie Rooney. Following this, Shirley really did retire — for two years. But the major reason for this was educational — her parents thought a spell of uninterrupted schooling was for the best. Then, in 1944, David Selznick wanted her for the young daughter in Since You Went Away. So Shirley was added to the Selznick roster and has been active since. You scarcely can say that Shirley is now reestablishing herself. Shucks, she never was un-established. All the awkward age did to Shirley was give her a brief breathing spell — and she didn't have to take it. Back in 1942, a pretty little girl named Elizabeth Taylor, with bright blue eyes and a charming English accent, was one of the things that helped make Lassie Come Home an over-all delight. Born in London in 1932, Elizabeth had come with her parents to Beverly Hills to live at the outbreak of the war and Lassie was her first film. The next year, she graced The White CViffs of Dover and Jane Eyre. (In the latter, Margaret O'Brien and Peggy Ann Garner were among her acting colleagues.) Then MGM began looking about for a talented child, who could ride and who had an English accent, for National Velvet. Elizabeth seemed to have all the qualifications — except that she was too short for the role. Suddenly she began to grow. In a few months she had sprouted three inches, and the part was hers. After they'd seen the film, so was a vast public. Elizabeth continued to grow. Into awkwardness? Into one of the most beautiful girls Hollywood has ever seen. In no time at all, she bloomed into graceful physical maturity. At 14, she played a 16-yearold in Life With Father. Now, after a series of adolescent roles, the 17-year-old beauty is slated for grown-up starring assignments from here on in, beginning with The Conspirator, which she's making in England with Robert Taylor. Awkward age? Never happened to Liz! debut at two . . . Then, of course, there's Mickey Rooney. He — Hollywood believed — was washed up at 12! Making his stage debut as a toddler of two in the variety stage show his parents were with, he toured in it for three years before his mother hauled him off to Hollywood. His first screen appearance was as a cigar-smoking midget in a Colleen Moore film called Orchids and Ermine. Then he beat out 275 other candidates for the lead in the Mickey McGuire comedy series when Mama dyed his yellow locks black with liberal rub-ins of burnt cork. He made 78 Mickey McGuires in the next six years — and then was considered superannuated. His starring days supposedly a thing of the past, he was relegated to bit parts. But somehow he landed an awful lot of them — in 18 months he flitted through 40 pictures for MGM. Then MGM broke down and gave him a contract in 1934. After he'd been loaned out to Warners in 1935 to play Puck in A Midsummer Night's Dream, the industry began to sit up and take notice. Robert Montgomery described him as the greatest scenestealer in the business. Came 1937 — and a low-budgeter entitled A Family Affair. The big name in the cast was Lionel Barrymore, playing a character called Judge Hardy. And Mickey, of course, played his son Andy. The studio was baffled when this turned out to be a box-office bonanza, with the exhibitors reporting customers raving over Andy. The MGM executives, with no great enthusiasm, thought they might as well do a follow-up of this probable flash in the pan. Lionel Barrymore — perhaps because he'd been fed up with Mickey's THE APRIL MODERN SCREEN IS THE BIG SHIRLEY TEMPLE ISSUE— BE SURE TO GET A COPY! Your Shoes are Showing! 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