Diana Serra Cary (1918 - 2020) was born Peggy-Jean Montgomery and was better known as "Baby Peggy". Considered the precursor to Shirley Temple during the silent era of Hollywood, Baby Peggy would become one of the country's youngest self-made millionaires. She would star in nearly 150 shorts between 1920 and 1923. π Her father was stunt double for western star Tom Mix while her mother was a movie extra. Peggy would make her first onscreen appearance at only 19 months old alongside Brownie the Wonder Dog. She later displayed a raw talent for imitating famous celebrities and her improvisational skills which were rare gifts for someone her age. Her ability to improvise would also benefit her in a time when Hollywood stunts were enacted with minimal supervision for child safety. Baby Peggy was thrown from a speeding truck, nearly trampled by a horse, and survived near-drownings and escaped sets precariously lit on fire. π½ By the age of 5, Peggy signed a major contract with Universal to make feature-length films. She would star in THE DARLING OF NEW YORK and HELEN'S BABIES with Clara Bow. But at the age of 8, Peggy's father argued with producers over her salary and the family was blackballed out of Hollywood and forced to work as a traveling vaudeville act. π Her family quickly plunged into poverty due to Peggy's earnings being erroneously mismanaged and the stock market crash of 1929. At the age of 17, she left her parents and took on the new persona of Diana Serra Cary (her husband's surname) in an attempt at a new start in Hollywood only to find occasional work as an extra. Diana would later discover a new line of work as a freelance writer on historical and theological subjects of Hollywood. She would publish books on the subjects of silent-era stunt riders in THE HOLLYWOOD POSSE followed by HOLLYWOOD'S CHILDREN: AN INSIDE ACCOUNT OF THE CHILD STAR ERA and her memoir WHATEVER HAPPENED TO BABY PEGGY? Her life can be seen in more detail from the 2012 documentary BABY PEGGY, THE ELEPHANT IN THE ROOM. #RestInPictures #RIP #BabyPeggy #DianaSerraCary https://www.instagram.com/p/B8_kEeIFz86/?igshid=obgcpxdkzfl9
