Figure 1.--Here is a Paramount studio publicity shot with legendary movie mogul Adolph Zukor. He was born in Hungary (1873) and arrived in Amerrica a pennyless Jewish orphan (1891). He began working in an upholstery shop and from nothing built a prosperous fur business. He entered the movie business by investing in theaters. He became one of the great movie Hollywood moguls, producving one of the first American feature-length firm--The Priosoner of Zenda: (1913). Ge became one of the three founders of Paramount Pictures. Here he is with four child actors that appeared in many films (1937). The Paranount caption read, "Adolph Zukor Entertains. At an informal buffet dinner at the Ambassador Hotel in honor of Barney Balaban, President of Paramount Pictures, Inc., and Stanton Griffis, chairman of the executive committee. Executives and players from Paramount were on hand to meet the new film heads. Left to right: Billy Lee, Jackie Moran, Mr. Zukor, Benny Bartlett, and David Holt." A reader notes, "If you look at the image carefully, Zukor looks very uncomfortable staring directly at the camera while the child actors look very natural." He was losing control of Paramount at the time.

HBC has collected information on a range of child stars, mostly during the era after the appearance of the talkies (1929). There were child actors in the 19th century, but they had only limited eposure before the development of the movies at the turn-of-the 20th century. Movies trvolutionized entertiment. Stage plays had audiences of hundreds in theaters. And even miltiplied by repeat performances, even the most popular might at the most be seen by tens of thousands of mostly affluent individuals. Movies mean that anyone with a nickle could enhoy a theatrical release. Soon there were asudiences in the tens of millions. Thus ctiors inluding child ctors had unprecedented exposure. The early-20th century was the era of the silent films, a substantial three decade period. There were important child stars who for the most part are largely little know, largely because silent films are never shown in theaters are on television. Nor or they generally available on DVDs. We have many pages on individual stars and lesser child actors. Here you can search the child stars of interest alphabetically. Let us know if you have a favorite who you believe should be included.

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Created: 5:07 PM 10/23/2024
Last updated: 3:45 PM 10/28/2024