If one is good, then three are better. Hello everybody. Joe Morella and Frank Segers back with more info on the MGM child stars of the 1930s.
Every studio back in the Golden Era had a child star or two under contract. And at MGM, which boasted as being the biggest and the best, ( “More stars than there are in the heavens.”) they naturally had the most.
FOX may have had Shirley Temple in the 1930s, but Metro had Jackie Cooper, Freddie Bartholomew and Mickey Rooney. (That’s them above.) Not to mention Judy Garland!
Then there were the lesser lights, Ann Rutherford, Tom Brown, Cora Sue Collins, Robert Sinclair.
And the one that got away, Deanna Durbin.
The teenager, once under contract to MGM (she and Garland had made a short film together, Durbin singing “sweet,” Judy singing “hot”) did not have her option renewed and was dropped by the studio.
Universal snapped her up and Durbin became a top star there. Some contend she actually “saved” that studio in the middle of the Great Depression with her handful of family oriented film musicals.
And who can readily forget Margaret O’Brien, who followed Temple as perhaps Hollywood’s biggest child star of the Forties at MGM.
I often wonder how Deanna Durbin’s career would have been different if Mayer had picked her over Garland. He liked Durbin better, just didn’t think she would sell as well. Might be blasphemous, but I think I like Durbin better too haha.
And how I would like to forget Margaret O’brien…..lol. I think her trade mark phrase is “I hate you!”
Deanna Durbin’s career fascinates me. From her first feature film, she was THE star of every film in which she appeared: the majority of which were vehicles specially tailored for her that didn’t have the prior name recognition a film adaptation of a literary classic like THE WIZARD OF OZ or a film adaptation of a Broadway hit like FUNNY GIRL, to generate audience interest. The few Durbin films that did originate from recognizable prior sources like CHRISTMAS HOLIDAY and UP IN CENTRAL PARK, were produced long after she’d become a star.
She also never appeared opposite a comparably popular box office star, and, though she was one of the greatest musical stars of the 1930s and 1940s, she almost never appeared in a film musical. In fact, she was almost always the sole musical presence in her films.
Are there any other stars of that era, musical or non-musical who were so singularly responsible for the success of their films? Offhand I can’t think of any…
I think she also may be the only enduring child star of that era who didn’t come to films from a professional/performing background. Unlike Temple, Garland, Rooney and her other peers, she didn’t become a movie star after years of Vaudeville/Professional Children’s School/Film shorts training and experience, but had to learn her craft and develop her talent as the whole world watched her grow up onscreen.
It’s amazing that she didn’t crack under all that pressure and a testament to her talent and appeal that she scored such a remarkable success and continues to attract new fans to this day.