Hollywood’s Others: The Babies, The Nobodies, The Unhappy

Work in PRogress

Throughout the 1920s and 1930s, a number of unusual stars appeared across the American silver screen: a man best known for being unrecognizable; an interracial gang of child actors who moved in and out of roles as they aged; murder victims and suicides; a little girl who simultaneously embodied rigorous professionalism and childhood innocence; and a number of publicly unhappy women. Drawing from fan magazines, film performances, and production materials, Hollywood’s Others argues that such figures served a pedagogical function, as odd and challenging stars appeared alongside the rise of more traditional Hollywood celebrity culture and provided Americans test cases for empathy’s limits.