(Chris Gardner’s article appeared in the Hollywood reporter, 3/ 4; via the Drudge Report.)

Ninety years ago, Hollywood's "Million Dollar Baby" was a beloved star earning seven figures. But her career was over at age 6, and her family then squandered her fortune. THR catches up with the spry 97-year-old at her modest home in central California: "People said my performances changed their lives."

This story first appeared in the March 18 issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine. To receive the magazine, click here to subscribe.

Calvin Coolidge was in the White House. F. Scott Fitzgerald was writing The Great Gatsby. Ziegfeld ruled Broadway. And here in Hollywood — in 1924, the silent-movie capital of the world — a 4-year-old child star nicknamed Baby Peggy (real name: Peggy-Jean Montgomery) was presented with a film contract worth $1 million a picture (that's the equivalent of about $14 million today).

"People said my performances changed their lives," says Peggy, 97, who now goes by the name Diana Serra Cary (she changed it when she was 61) and who may very well be the last living silent-film star. "Child stars were important in those days. And Baby Peggy made a pretty good dent in people's lives."

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/features/last-living-silent-star-child-871602