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Show His J Poking at HOLLYWOOD ' I ''HIS is the year of child stars, with talented kids in greater de-! mand than they have ever been, with the possible exception of Shirley Shir-ley Temple. Central Casting boasts 1,500 smaK thespians whose mothers hang around the telephone night and day, waiting to snatch off their prodigies' prodi-gies' curl papers and usb them to the casting directors. di-rectors. Every ambitious mother moth-er in the business busi-ness thinks she has a Peggy Ann Garner, a Roddy McDowall, a Mar- garet O'Brien, an Peggy Ann Elizabeth Taylor, Garner a Jackie Jenkins, or a Ted Donaldson in her home. Movie moguls are capitalizing on stories with child characters. Jim Ryan of 20th Century-Fox told me: "The problem isn't to find kids with talent and looks; our difficulty is to select the ideal one child for the part out of the mob of applicants." Small stars usually disappear when they reach the awkward age. Occasionally they come back in their teens as ingenues, as did Shirley Shir-ley Temple, Anita Louise, and Jane Withers. But the first awkward-age star of magnitude to hit the screen is 20th Century's Peggy Ann Garner, Gar-ner, now playing Francie in Betty Smith's current hit, "A Tree Grows in Brooklyn." : Acting Plum This is the most important role ever entrusted to any young player. It fell' to Peggy Ann after ber distinguished dis-tinguished performance as the child Nora in "The Keys of the Kingdom" King-dom" also the child in "Jane Eyre." This 12-year-old, who works 71 out of the 73 days required by the picture pic-ture for shooting, gets two days' rest before going into "Nob Hill," where she plays Katy, a little Irish immigrant immi-grant child, an emotional and important im-portant role. She's not a pretty child in the I conventional sense; she has beauti ful bone structure and a face full of character that takes on beauty when the role demands. On Masculine Side Another child star who promises to weather the grim years that threw Jackie Coogan, Freddie Bar-tholomew, Bar-tholomew, Dickie Moore, and Peter T Lawford out of pictures for a time is Roddy McDowall. His performances perform-ances are predicated on sheer technique tech-nique and vast spiritual comprehension comprehen-sion of the adult heart. He has a unique niche in Hollywood star ratings. In "The Keys of the Kingdom," young McDowall plays Francis Chis-holm Chis-holm as a boy a role as appealing as Hiu in "How Green Was My Valley." Val-ley." which shot him to stardom overnight. He is now in Kanab, Utah, making "Thunderhead," another an-other Mary O'llara story and a sequel se-quel to "My Friend Flieka." The tale has majestic outdoor settings, gives Roddy the sort of things he loves best, working with animals. Born That Way Another small fry who promises to have such a record is Metro-Goldwyn Metro-Goldwyn - Mayer's seven - year - old Margaret O'Brien. This philosophical philosophi-cal pixie is no run-of-the-mill beauty, either. Small Margaret's face has quality and spirit rather than baby beauty. She comes of a dancing family both her mother and aunt are talented performers. In "Sunday Dinner for a Soldier" is Connie Marshall, a mini-marvel who, like Margaret O'Brien and Peggy Ann Garner, became known as a model and magazine cover child before clicking with movie cameras. She's lined up against Bobby Driscoll and Billy Cum-mings, Cum-mings, two scene stealers who won their spurs in "The Sullivans." This j is Connie's first picture, but she's a child to keep your eyes on. Still They Come I spotted George Noakes for a , winner in "Going My Way." So did 20th, I guess, because they grabbed him for the part of Andrew in "The Keys of the Kingdom." He's an English Eng-lish type whose soft-checked charm hides an athlete's physique. There's Ted Donaldson, from "A Tree Grows in Brooklyn," and Skip-py Skip-py Homeier, who plays nasty Nazi kids superbly. Eliiabeth Taylor, who has a steadily mounting following and will be co-starred with Rooney in "National Velvet." Oh, and . there's Jackie Jenkins of "The Human Hu-man Comedy," who wrapped himself him-self about our hearts in a brief two hours. The list is as long as your arm and crammed with talent. . . Looking a Way Ahead Warners have bought 15 acres ot top of Hollywood Hills for a television tele-vision studio, which they figure it will take five years to build and equip. ... At Republic, on "A Song for Miss Julie" set, are Roger Clark. who's directly descended from Capt. William Clark of famed Lewis and Clark expedition, which opened up the northwest country, and Margaret Mar-garet Early, who claims Confederate Confeder-ate Gen. Jubal Early as a greal-granduncle. greal-granduncle. She plays opposite Roger. |