One of these days, movie fans are going to be thrilled by the dramatics of a new star - that is if Jean Darling, youthful actress of Our Gang comedy fame has her way about her future. Miss Darling, who scored a real success in her first personal appearances in Marion at the Indiana theater yesterday, has some very definite ideas of what she's going to amount to in the next few years.
If a thoroughly human little girl with a great desire to play with toys and drink lemonade can be relied upon for an accurate idea of her future characterizations, Jean is going to be playing in a picture "where my mother or somebody I like is in trouble and I come in and save them." Drama is what Jean wants.
She came out to our house yesterday afternoon after her first appearance at the Indiana and the 45 minutes she spent there served to give us a wholesome impression of the kind of life a little girl like Jean lives.
Gently offering a beautiful bouquet, because she knew we had been ill, Jean asked first:
"Do you hurt much?"
After being reassured that two weeks in the hospital and at home had brought us back to near normal health, Jean wanted to discuss operations. She told about having her tonsils out.
"Is an appendix like tonsils?" Jean wanted to know.
Before we could answer, she spied a big Teddy bear and no further interviewing could be accomplished until the bear was safely in her arms.
"What's his name?" Jean asked.
So you see, interviewing a sweet little girl movie star isn't altogether easy. The tough part is to keep her from interviewing you.
Lemonade was served and a bag of marshmallows was found. Jean was in her glory with a glass of lemonade in one hand, a marshmallow in the other and a Teddy bear on her lap. Just like any other little girl, Jean likes to play, she likes sweets and she asks a lot of questions.
When the lemonade and marshmallows were well out of the way, Jean settled comfortably on the davenport and chatted about things in Hollywood and elsewhere.
Her favorite actress is Greta Garbo. Her favorite actor is Robert Montgomery. Jean, of course, goes to the movies just like we do. We asked her about Marlene Dietrich, the new star, and she said that Dietrich couldn't measure up to Garbo at all.
"What's a firecracker look like?" Jean asked suddenly after a loud blast just outside the window.
After being told she said:
"I shoot a cap pistol and light sparklers, but I wouldn't watch a firecracker unless I were in an aeroplane."
She's very careful about her English, this little movie star.
"I've been in a plane four times," she went on. "Twice on business trips and twice just for pleasure."
Asked whether she would rather appear before an audience of grownups or youngsters nearer her own few years, she replied that it didn't make a bit of difference.
"When I'm on the stage I can act even if nobody is watching," she said simply.
Jean keeps her little head remarkably well through all the adulation of thousands and thousands. Acting to her is her whole life. She goes along enjoying other things but she's an actress all the same.
She confided a secret about her act on the stage. Her dramatic song about the dog she is supposed to have mistreated is inspired by her sorrow at being separated from her own dog, a big collie named "Pal," now in Hollywood. She thinks of "Pal" way out there in Hollywood and cries without half trying. She confessed another secret. She wears makeup on the stage but in the movies she uses, as she says, "just a little eyebrow pencil and little darkening on the lips."
So if you've any doubts about what kind of a girl a famous little actress is, just remember that she's a perfectly normal human being but that she's every inch a "trouper" - and intends to keep on being one.