You almost wince when you read about child stars. Of any era.

Montgomery, as she then was, was one of the three major American child stars of the Hollywood silent movie era along with Jackie Coogan and Baby Marie. Between 1921 and 1923 she made over 150 short films for the Century Film Corporation. In 1922 she received over 1.2 million fan letters and by 1924, she had been dubbed The Million Dollar Baby for her $1.5 million a year salary ($22 million in 2018). Despite her childhood fame and wealth, she found herself poor and working as an extra by the 1930s.

When this ran in the magazine, she had less than a year to go in the business. It ended poorly. But she had a second act.

Having an interest in both writing and history since her youth, Montgomery found a second career as an author and silent film historian in her later years under the name Diana Serra Cary. She is the author of several books including her historical novel, The Drowning of the Moon, and became an advocate for child actors' rights.

Odd how an industry that prides itself on its lustrous virtues would need such a thing.