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SAG - Your father
was in the movies, is that correct?
DSC - Yes, he was, by accident, so to speak, and it became
his career. He had been a cowboy, and ran away when he was 13,
and was a cowboy for 12 years all over the western states. Then
he married and tried to settle down and ended up in Los Angeles
with my mother, myself and my older sister. He was with a group
of cowboys who stumbled onto a new career where they could use
their riding skills which had become obsolete on the range. So
they found a new career for themselves riding in film and driving
stagecoaches and buckboards and everything. My father started
out working with Tom Mix, and he became Tom Mix's double. That
was in 1920. But, my career interrupted his. I went to work in
April of 1920 at 19 months of age as child star Baby Peggy. He
rode on my career for awhile until I was in my early teens. I
tried to make a comeback, and it didn't work, so he went back
into films as a riding extra, and he continued until his death
in 1962. My first book concerns that group of cowboys who came
from the open range into Hollywood and worked here for almost
50 years. (Hollywood Posse - The Story of a Gallant Band of
Horsemen Who Made Movie History, University of Oklahoma Press,
1996, reprint edition)
SAG - How did you get into films?
DSC - While my father was working at Mixville, my mother
went over to Century Studios on Sunset Boulevard with a neighbor
who worked as an extra occasionally, and the neighbor had to pick
up a balance due on a day job that she had. The director on the
set was to pay her, so my mother went along because she had never
seen a movie being made. She parked my sister at the door of the
set and me on a little stool. As it turned out, the director had
been looking everywhere for a small child to work with one of
their famous contract players, who was a dog, Brownie. They cast
me with Brownie, and that first film was very successful, so they
put me under contract.
SAG - How many shorts did you make for Century?
DSC - There were close to 150 two-reelers between 1920
and 1923. We've only been able to locate five of them. So many
of them were burned, you know.
SAG - "The Darling of New York" (1923) was your
first feature and was a pretty big film, wasn't it?
DSC - Yes, it was. It was what was called a Universal Jewel.
The Jewels were big productions, and they put a lot of money into
those.
SAG - You were about four years old when you made this
film. Since you were such a small child, do you remember much
about the film and its director, King Baggot?
DSC - Actually, I was about three and a half when I went
to Universal, and I recall two or three situations from the movie
in my autobiography (Whatever Happened to Baby Peggy? The Autobiography
of Hollywood's Pioneer Child Star, St. Martin's Press, 1996),
one in particular that was a dangerous fire sequence. But, as
for my memories of those times, my theory is that most children
live such a sedentary life that every day is the same. A lot of
my memories, in many cases, concern life and death situations.
You're being asked to do things that are really a stretch for
a three-year old or a two-year old. Also, I did most of my own
stunts. I was my own stand-in. Everything was new. I took in everything,
and I really have a terrific memory of most of those early days
because they were so intense, you know.
SAG - Was your mother with you at all times while you worked?
DSC - Actually, it was my father who directed my career.
My mother was a very beautiful woman, and he was terrified to
let her out of his sight.
SAG - In a 1924 Movie Weekly article, the writer
says you were such a good actress because you were so well-behaved
and obedient.
DSC - That was my father's whole theory. He had raised
horses when he was a cowboy, and he believed you could train anything.
He was very strict with us, and, fortunately, my sister was very
withdrawn and very shy. He just couldn't get her to open up at
all. She was afraid of people. In my case, I was very outgoing,
and I could take the discipline without becoming cowed.
SAG - The interview for the article was conducted in New
York while you were on tour promoting your films. What were the
personal appearances like?
DSC - After a film was shown on the screen, I would appear
onstage and tell a couple of little jokes. Then my father would
put me through a few things like registering fear, anger, happiness,
sorrow. Then I would thank everyone for coming, and that was it
- very, very short. Actually it was a relatively new thing to
do. I think Sol Lesser was one of the first producers to put his
stars on the road doing this. He got as much mileage out of every
celebrity as he could.
SAG - Obviously your personal appearances weren't limited
to the Los Angeles area.
DSC - Oh, no. For example, I traveled around the country
for about four or five months with "Captain January"
(1924). Then I went again for almost two months with "Helen's
Babies" (1924).
SAG - "Captain January" was a bigger hit than
"Darling of New York," right?
DSC - Yes, it was a very good story whereas "Darling
of New York" was a bit contrived. But "Captain January"
was a child's classic which had a tremendous following already.
It was a very popular book and a story of real human interest.
SAG - Hobart Bosworth was your co-star in the film. What
did you think of him?
DSC - He was a very nice man, a wonderful man. I enjoyed
working with him immensely
SAG - The Movie Weekly article refers to a collection
of dolls that you had, one of whom was named "Bosworth."
DSC - Oh, really? I didn't play with dolls much. Reporters
oftentimes made up stories about me and dolls.
SAG - You made a film between "The Darling of New
York" and "Captain January" called "The Law
Forbids." Does that movie exist?
DSC - It exists somewhere. It was a part of the Silent
Movie Theatre that was shut down for so long in Hollywood. The
owner had it at one time and sold it to a collector. It's floating
around somewhere, but no one has found it. Another Universal silent
that has survived, though, is "The Family Secret" (1924).
SAG - Was most of your work in the studio or out on location?
DSC - "Captain January" was made out at
Laguna Beach before there was anything there. "Helen's Babies"
was shot primarily out on location around Hollywood. When we were
out on the streets shooting, we would have lots of spectators
watching us.
SAG - How did you handle fans approaching you at such a
young age?
DSC - Oh, I handled it very well. From the time I was two-years
old, we had Shriners' conventions, Elks' conventions and Veterans'
conventions coming down to visit us at the studio, and I had to
pose with those groups and sign autographs and be nice to them
and all of those things.
SAG - Speaking of autographs, you were so young at that
time, did you actually sign any of your own autographs? Did you
and your family open your fan mail?
DSC - Actually, I did, what would pass for an autograph.
My father would guide my hand. Of course, fan photos were printed
from an original. As for fan mail, I wasn't involved in that.
At one time, we had five women full time working on the fan mail.
By 1923, I was getting 1,700,000 letters a year. Jackie Coogan
and I were the leading child stars at the time, and both of us
were extremely popular overseas, too.
SAG - Did you have the opportunity
to associate with Jackie Coogan at that time?
DSC. - Yes, our parents were friends. I visited his set
a couple of times, and we had lunch together a couple of times.
I recounted one of those times in my autobiography which was quite
amusing.
SAG - Who are the stars that stand out in your mind from
that period?
DSC - I was very impressed with Enid Bennett who was a
very beautiful lady. I had to imitate Pola Negri in one of my
comedies. Many of my comedies were satires of movies that grown-up
stars had made, and I imitated Rudolph Valentino and Mae Murray.
I don't remember ever meeting them, but some archivists have dug
up some Hollywood Newsreels which I appeared in, and I
met many of the stars in those, stars like Harold Lloyd and Mary
Pickford. I did visit Pickfair where I met Doug Fairbanks and
Mary Pickford. Almost everyone of any consequence in Hollywood
was in those newsreels at one time or another.
SAG "Helen's Babies" was your last major
motion picture in the silents, is that correct?
DSC - Yes, my starring career was over after that one.
I made another picture, "April Fool" (1926), for Chadwick
Pictures on Poverty Row. The autobiography tells what happened
there. It's quite a story.
SAG - The Internet Movie Database lists you as appearing
with Harry Langdon in his two-reeler "Saturday Afternoon"
(1926).
DSC - There was another woman who was about 21-years old
when I was at the height of my child star career, and her name
was Peggy Montgomery, and she was an ingenue. Over the years,
historians have mixed our pictures up. She was playing western
leads in silent films while I was in vaudeville, and people are
always crediting me with playing opposite some of these big stars
when I was not in Hollywood.
SAG - What was happening to your career in the 1930's?
DSC - I did attempt a comeback in the 1930's, and, in my
autobiography, I give a detailed description of Hollywood social
life at that time, by that I mean the effect of the Depression
and the talkies on the stars and the terrific upheaval in Hollywood
at the time socially. My part in that was really harrowing, because
we were in desperate straits financially.
SAG - When did people begin to look back and take an interest
in your silent movie career as Baby Peggy?
DSC - Actually, from the time I returned to Hollywood in
1932. From then on it was constant. People would come up to me
and say, "Oh, you were so cute. My, how you've changed"
and things like that. When I was 16 or 18, I had a beautiful portrait
made. I went in to pick it up, and the clerk leaned over and said,
"How does it feel to be a has-been at 16?" It was a
very, very heavy trip to have to face time and time again. The
minute anyone introduced me as Peggy anything, no matter what
my last name was, even after I was married, everybody recognized
me.
SAG - When did silent film historians and film buffs begin
to take an interest in Baby Peggy?
DSC - That started after I published my first book. I was
then asked to attend film festivals. I was resurrected from the
dead, but in a nice way, you know. It was a very interesting time
in my life. And then the book that really turned it around was
Hollywood's Children (Southern Methodist University Press,
1997, reprint edition).
SAG - What made you decide to become a writer?
DSC - At eight years of age, I was determined to become
a writer. I started writing backstage in the theatre, and I also
wanted to be a historian. I was fascinated with history. So I
had to do it against my parents' wishes because they wanted me
to continue in films, and I didn't want to. Part of that was why
I got married, because that was the only way to get out of the
house. I didn't want to do that, but I was forced to in order
to do my own thing.
SAG - So you realized your dream when you published that
first book in 1975?
DSC - Actually it goes further back than that, and I almost
had a nervous breakdown in the process. After my divorce in 1948,
I came back to Hollywood, which, in a way, was a mistake. The
divorce really unglued me because I had had identity problems
from the time I was growing up. Baby Peggy was very powerful.
She was very popular. Nobody knew who I was - I mean me. So I
had this terrific personality that the whole world knew, and then
I had me to deal with. So I couldn't get my head together, and
I couldn't be me as long as I was carrying her. I went through
a five-year period which was very, very close to a nervous breakdown.
Certainly it was an identity crisis, and after I came through
that, I remarried to my present husband. Then I began to get an
identity. I began to put things together. I became a freelance
writer doing magazine articles. I got published. I was accepted
as a capable writer and historian.
SAG - What kind of articles?
DSC - Every kind. I wrote on theology. I wrote on history.
I wrote interviews and profiles, just about any subject in the
world. So, from all this, I developed a different identity in
a different world. I became a bookseller, and I hired and fired
people, and I was capable as a bookseller. I gradually rebuilt
myself, you know. In 1975, when I published Hollywood Posse,
I received a lot of attention as both Baby Peggy and myself, but
it wasn't difficult to carry it then because I had a balance.
SAG - Was your father the impetus for Hollywood Posse?
DSC - Well, he was and he wasn't. The Posse idea
was originally to be an article for Saturday Evening Post.
But, the more I worked with the idea, the more I realized there
was a book in it. These cowboys, about 200 of them, had all been
open-range cowboys. They all became riding actors. They formed
a very special clique in Hollywood that was unique. I worked with
them and knew them all personally. So, I figured nobody else was
going to write about them, and they were a very important part
of Hollywood. I decided to go ahead and do it. I began to collect
material, but, of course, I knew a lot of the stories already.
I finally put together a book, although it was turned down 23
times by publishers because they all said no one wants to hear
about that side of Hollywood. They only want sex, gossip, scandal
and stars. Finally, the 23rd publisher was Houghton-Mifflin, and
they took a chance. Kevin Brownlow read Hollywood Posse
before it was published and offered some help on it. He also wrote
the introduction for the reprint of Hollywood's Children.
SAG - Did the success of Hollywood Posse make it
easier to get Hollywood's Children published?
DSC - Yes, I presented the outline to Houghton-Mifflin,
and they immediately snapped it up. It was extremely successful.
It was also made into a documentary on PBS.
SAG - Why did you write that book?
DSC - I had always wanted to write that book because I
felt that child stars had never been given a fair shake of what
their lives had been like. It's a very tough road to walk, and
I went back and researched it to 1853 and the first child star
in America. It's a very unusual book in that it deals with both
the parents and the children and what happens in that field.
SAG - Why wasn't an autobiography your first idea for a
book?
DSC - I hadn't resolved everything, and I was very interested
in what was around me more so than what was inside of me. I was
very distracted even while writing the other two books, too, because
I was working full time and lecturing. It was very hard. I had
to work every weekend and holidays, 10 hours a day to get those
finished. So, I didn't want to rush the autobiography. It only
took me nine or 10 months to write it, but it was done at a leisurely
pace after I retired from the bookselling job.
SAG - What sort of recognition did Baby Peggy get after
the autobiography came out?
DSC - It was very widespread and very favorable. The book
got excellent reviews. I had a lot of exposure in bookstores and
autographing.
SAG - Are you enjoying all of the recognition?
DSC - Yes, I am, and also that, historically, the recognition
is coming from the right premise, you know what I mean? In the
thirties, I was one of many, many silent screen stars who might
as well have never lived except for the scandal element and the
gossip element about my parents. I knew what it was to be dumped,
and I knew what it was to fail. I lived with failure - Baby Peggy's
and my own failure to get on my feet. So it was very nice and
very gratifying to be recognized as an author first, and then
the subject matter was also appreciated. It was also better that
it came later because I was better able to handle the material
and be objective. The mistake of many stars who write their autobiography
is that they are not writers. They either get someone to work
with them who doesn't understand fully, or they just plow through
it and don't understand the material that they are working with
as a writer or a historian. You have to keep a lot of objectivity.
SAG Your father passed away in 1962. Tell me about
your sister and your mother?
DSC - Well, my mother lived at the Motion Picture Home
until 1977, and she died there. My sister lived for a long time
in Oregon, but she now lives in Idaho near her son. She has three
children.
SAG - Did your mother live long enough to see any of the
renewed interest in Baby Peggy?
DSC - Yes, she did. When Hollywood Posse came out,
she was still alive, and she thoroughly enjoyed that. She got
a great deal of attention because of that book and was very happy.
Because of her being at the Motion Picture Home, she was able
to put me in touch with Fred Fishbach's widow, whom she knew,
and Owen Moore's widow. He was Mary Pickford's first husband.
So I made contact with quite a few people that way. She knew I
was writing the second book, but she never knew what it was about
and passed away before it came out. I'm glad she didn't know about
it because I had to be very frank, you know, but not cruel.
SAG - Do you maintain friendships today with anyone from
the Hollywood days?
DSC - Yes, I'm in contact with Edith Fellows who was a
child actress. Dick Moore is a very close friend of mine. Roddy
McDowell was a very close friend of mine until I lost him last
year. He was a very dear friend, however, we didn't meet as children.
SAG - How do you remember your days in motion pictures?
DSC - I see it as all of a piece. It's kind of like putting
a quilt together. Quilt-making is very good because everything
becomes equally important and equally valid, and everything forms
the core of yourself. So both the good and the bad - I always
felt that was the hand life dealt, and I've tried to handle it
as best I could. I don't have any rancor or any anger or anything
toward anyone - or toward Hollywood. Even when it was happening,
I realized it was nobody's fault, but you get hurt in spite of
that. But, I'm very peaceful about it.
(special thanks to John DeBartolo for his assistance with this interview)
copyright 1999 by Tim Lussier, all rights reserved
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