When we think of child stars now, we imagine children aged 9 or 10 or even in their early teens. We think of Macaulay Culkin in Home Alone, Haley Joel Osment in The Sixth Sense or even Jayden Smith starring opposite his father, Will, in After Earth. But in the silent era, and the early years of talking pictures, child stars were often barely more than babies, as reflected by their names.
There was Baby Marie, who made her most famous film, Little Mary Sunshine, at age five. There was Baby LeRoy, who was given a studio contract at 16 months and appeared opposite W.C. Fields in the classic comedy It s A Gift. And there was Baby Peggy, who in 1920 was discovered aged 19 months and in 1924 earned a million dollars for starring in Captain January.