Diana Serra Cary in a recent photo,
with a rare collection of "Baby Peggy" dolls.

Seldom can one hear a first hand version of Hollywood's earliest beginnings, especially as recounted by an observant child actor who began her film career as infant when the movie industry itself was in its infancy.

Diana Serra Cary, billed as "Baby Peggy," was nineteen months old when she made her first two-reel comedy, becoming Hollywood's pioneer child star, the youngest in film history. After starring in 150 slapstick comedies and half a dozen silent feature films, seven-year old "Baby Peggy" was a headliner during American vaudeville's final glory years. At twenty-one, following an unsuccessful film comeback, she left Hollywood to become a historian and freelance writer. She is the author of two non-fiction books dealing with little-known aspects of early Hollywood and a recently published autobiography, "What Ever Happened to Baby Peggy?"

Her book "Hollywood's Children" served as a basis for an acclaimed 1982 PBS documentary of that same name, which Roddy McDowall narrated and in which Diana appeared. She has been featured in TV documentaries by the BBC, CBC, Australia's "60 Minutes," and in a 1989 PBS special on child stars, "When We Were Young." Diana recently was featured speaker on an A&E Special: "Child Stars", produced by Melissa Gilbert and Tony Dow.

Diana's inside account of the child star era contains a wealth of information and many humorous anecdotes about early Hollywood. With an insight born of first-hand experience, she recounts the poignant life and times of child stars from Lotta Crabtree in the California Gold Rush to the television moppets of today.

In her presentation, "Hollywood's Children," Diana shares her unique experiences with enormous perception, humor and knowledge.