Jean Darling, diminutive star of "Our Gang" comedies, wrinkled her tiny nose thoughtfully.
"Well, I wouldn't mind being Robert Montgomery's leading lady."
She wrinkled her nose again.
"And Maurice Chevalier wouldn't be hard to take."
"Clark Gable," her mother suggested.
Jean assumed a languid air.
"Rather," she said. And there were three a's in the word the way she said it.
It was in Jean's dressing room at the Chateau theater where her mother was struggling to make her up for the afternoon performance.
Birthday Cake, Too
A great birthday cake with pink and white iced roses stood on the dressing table. Jean would wriggle out of her mother's grasp and make a dive for the cake. She used all the available matches in the theater to light the candles, only to wish and blow them out. Twenty wishes are better than one was her theory.
Sunday (the 23rd) was Jean's birthday and yesterday (the 24th) she had a birthday party at the E. A. Knowlton Co. The gorgeous cake came from there and a wee satin pajama case.
Grandmothers came with the daughters and granddaughters to Jean's party. There was scarcely breathing space.
Just the tip top of Jean's golden curls could be seen through the crush of people. The grandmothers were as excited and some of them more so than the children. They were naughty and pushed too, to get a picture.
After the party, Jean hurried to the Chateau to greet her guests from the city playgrounds, winners in the annual fun frolic at Soldier field last Thursday.
They Ruffle the Usher
Long before the appointed time, the children augmented by their gangs shouted and milled about the lobby upsetting an imposing usher in a grand uniform, who tried to quiet them.
It was great fun and Jean was the jolliest of the lot.
After the afternoon show, Jean went over to Evelyn Knowlton's house with Mary Kirkland to play.
But before she left with her arms around her new found playmates, she threw one last telling blow to sobriety of face.
"And when I'm grown, I'm going to wear dresses with trains and on the trains, I'm going to have traps set to catch men."
Jean has been on the road since last October when she started a tour of the RWO(sic) circuit as a headliner. She will return to Hollywood this fall as she is on call at one of the studios.
This morning, Jean and her mother left for Winona by plane.