Baby Peggy: The Elephant in the Room

Hollywood discovered Peggy-Jean Montgomery when she was just 19 months old and made her a star before she was two. By the time she was six, Baby Peggy had appeared in feature films, more than 150 popular shorts and was earning $1,500,000 a year -- making her one of the most popular stars in Hollywood. All around the world, stores sold Baby Peggy dolls, sheet music, jewelry and even milk.

But by the age of 11, Baby Peggy was broke -- her money twice stolen and squandered by her family. A has-been without any formal education, she had never even been taught to read or write. Over the course of the next six decades this neglected child reinvented herself as Diana Serra Cary, a respected author, film historian and advocate for laws protecting child performers.

With narration co-written by Cary, Vera Iwerebor's moving documentary combines rare clips from Baby Peggy's films with an intimate portrait of a woman who lost her childhood to the movies. The recent rediscovery of many Baby Peggy films now gives new generations the chance to fall in love with a plucky young actress and the lovely and accomplished woman she became. Like its star, Baby Peggy: The Elephant in the Room is filled with humor and a love for cinema and for life.

Also includes Captain January (1924) and three short films starring Baby Peggy: Carmen, Jr. (1923), Peg O' the Mounted (1924) and Such is Life (1924).