WHERE are the famous child prodigies of a few short years ago - those young mathematical wizards, talented child musicians, poets and artists of grammar school age who were renowned for extraordinary ability, who amazed scholars and astonished their parents?
Have they won fame and fortune, or into what dark obscurity have those children vanished?
What has happened to each of them since their days of fame in schoolroom and brief seasons of success on the silver screen? Where, for example, are the lovable members of "Our Gang" comedies? Plump Joe Cobb, dark-eyed and dark-skinned "Buckwheat" Billie Thomas and Farina, little Mickey Daniels, Mary Kornman, cute and well paid Jackie Condon, Baby Patsy May and lively Jackie Davis? These and many other former youthful screen stars have grown up and disappeared from the studio lots that they knew so well. What has become of them - these famous and pampered children who in their 'teens have left fame behind? All they once knew has faded - glamour, wealth, audiences that were counted by the tens of thousands. Many have suffered heartbreak and disappointment because the world has forgotten them - before they came of age!
Can a one-time talented child star make a comeback as a lovely young lady? Is it impossible to convince movie producers and directors that early success in children's roles need not ruin a girl's future - when she grows into young womanhood? One of the strange contradictions of Hollywood, this attempt to regain the heights is being made today by eager and courageous Jean Darling, remembered as a tiny blonde Miss in the rollicking "Our Gang" comedies of Hal Roach.
Everyone in Hollywood is watching, waiting to see what will happen to her. Will Jean Darling "make the grade" - can she succeed where so many others failed?
Once she was the proud young mistress of a hillside home where servants were at her command. Now she trudges through side streets, looking for a smaller apartment because her rent has been raised $5 a month!
Once her mail box overflowed with fan mail from every corner of the world. Now she is thrilled if one or two old friends send her a cheering note.
It's the same twice-told tale of Hollywood's fame and fortune and swift oblivion, but with an amazing exception. Most true stories of this kind concern once-beautiful girls whose beauty has dimmed with the years.
Jean Darling is 17! She is vivacious. Her fresh beauty is blooming, her personality is a curious blend of enthusiasm and youthful cynicism. She's outgrown "Our Gang" and is looking to a prosperous future which so far escapes her.
Born into a theatrical family - her mother, Mrs. Dorothy Hamilton Darling, is a former stage actress - Jean first played in pictures when she was only two and one-half years old. Her success in films came almost immediately, and lasted until she grew out of pigtails.
Personal appearance tours, guest of cities, an audience with Herbert Hoover in the White House, top billing in major cities, vaudeville and one-night stands - she has known them all.
"But what does it all mean now?" asks Jean in a voice unusually mature for a girl recently graduated from high school.
That awkward stage between childhood and young womanhood, plus a stock market which hit rock bottom, combined to interrupt her career and wipe away her investments.
When the market slumped and her securities dwindled, she was too young to realize what was happening. Today, however, all is very clear to her. Poverty is a tremendous handicap when a girl tries for a comeback.
She thumbs through thick scrapbooks, and says:
"These are nice to have, but they do not pay mother's doctor bills. They will not satisfy our landlord nor pay rent even for a cheaper place."
Nor have these clippings attracted the attention of theatrical agents. Newspaper stories and pictures tell only of the child star. They do not hint at the talent of the child grown older, more mature.
"Acting is all I know, yet I can't seem to find a place again in pictures. Hollywood - it's a peculiar place," she says, her voice couched in tones of a cynic. "You're up one day and down the next. I know. I've been at the top, and now I'm at the bottom. Agents tell me to pose as an eastern heiress, or to develop a thick accent and pretend I've just arrived from abroad. New faces, new personalities! Those are what Hollywood wants!
"But why try to change my personality? Why? Hasn't it been changed during the years between now and the time when I was starred?"
Jean remains baffled by an ever changing Hollywood, but is fortunate in having the companionship of her mother - now frail and tired from the struggle "just to exist where things once ran so smoothly."
Theirs is a love made stronger in the slide from wealth to poverty. The downward slide took them through a cheap pawn shop district on more than one occasion because "we had to eat, didn't we?"
But, if she again meets with success, Jean and her mother will prepare for the next downhill journey.
"There is nothing certain in this business," her mother said, "and if Jean is a success again in pictures, a good portion of her earnings will be placed in trust for her. Of course, we will live more comfortably, but never again so extravagantly."
And while the mother waits for "a better day," she spends her days working and her evenings - working at home where she makes smart garments for her girl.
"I can't have my little girl embarrassed by the lack of proper clothes. I know what clothes mean to a young girl - yes, and I know also what they mean to an older woman, but," she sighed before continuing, "perhaps the day will come when I can rest. That's what I want now."
Jean's mother is frail but courageous, even if a bit puzzled as to the future.
Can a girl make a comeback when she's been famous as a child?" she wonders. And so far has found no answer. "That early success didn't last," she says. "Jean soon reached the awkward stage between childhood and young womanhood. Then she found, suddenly, that she was no longer able to obtain contracts.
"At that time, it did not worry us very much, because most of her earnings had been carefully invested in good securities - which paid sufficient dividends to carry us both along very nicely. We were, really, free from the least anxiety. We planned to wait a few more years until Jean had grown up - then, of course, everything would be all right. She could go back - or so I thought - into the movies as a star again.
"The years slippped by pleasantly, until there came the crash of the stock market - and we were wiped out. Completely. Nothing was left, not a cent to tide us over. Even then, we were sure that before long Jean could return to the screen, and that this would quickly make up the fortune we had lost. But the economic stress that swept the country, taking the savings and investment of others, was, I believe, harder on us than on most people -
"It is true that there was some jewelry left -" and Mrs. Darling displays ringless fingers, "but when you are hungry and desperate you look for the quickest way to sell it - to pay rent and buy food."
Some of Jean's jewels were the gift of an Indian prince who came to Hollywood, admired her tremendously - and with a princely gesture presented the little girl with rings and bracelets for her tiny fingers and arms - and these same ornaments served to pay bills for many months when their stocks had dwindled.
Several baubles were the gift of a wealthy South American mine owner, who was pleased with Jean's natural talent and unaffected charm.
Still other jewels came from a whole series of Jean's ardent admirers - rich men who visited Hollywood, and demanded the privilege of meeting one of the most famous child stars in the world.
Day by day and week by week, bearing rings and bracelets, Jean and her mother sought out the dingy pawnshop attended by its bald-headed, stoop-shouldered proprietor. The jewelry changed hands at fairly regular periods, the new possessor, a cynical, experienced man who has helped many a former Hollywood star "tide over" the worst months - or even years of public neglect.
Will the day come when Jean and her patient mother can redeem the jewels of the Indian prince and the gifts of the South African mine owner?
"We haven't yet given up hope," says Jean's mother. "My goodness! Jean is not yet of age - and anything can happen in the next few years!"
Jean's is a typical Hollywood story - almost. But the principal character is no aging actress whose beauty is being dimmed. She is a 17-year-old girl whose chief obstacle is the fact that she was once a famous child actress.
Sidenote: The switch from South American mine owner to South African mine owner is in the original article. Also, it may go without saying that Buckwheat and Baby Patsy were both still in the Our Gang series and not teenagers by this time.