Jackie Coogan: the World's Boy King
A Biography of Hollywood's Legendary Child Star- Authors:
- Publisher:
- 2004
Summary
Discovered by Charlie Chaplin in 1919, four-year-old Jackie Coogan soared to overnight stardom for his title role in the silent masterpiece, The Kid. A string of successes followed, including Peck's Bad Boy, Oliver Twist, and A Boy of Flanders, earning Coogan a fortune of four million dollars. Dubbed 'The Millionaire Kid' by the press, he later had to sue his parents in a futile attempt to recover his squandered fortune. His later years were marked with penury and the cruel diminishment of his childhood fame. As an adult, he found work in character roles and gained unexpected but fleeting fame as 'Uncle Fester' in the series The Addams Family. He continued to make guest appearances on television until his death in 1984. In Jackie Coogan: The World's Boy King, Diana Serra Cary reveals the little-known and even less understood private life of this famous child star and his dysfunctional family. She looks at the highs and lows of an actor who reached the height of fame before ten and whose subsequent career took an inevitable fall. Cary also examines the conduct of Coogan's parents, whose behavior served as an unfortunate model for countless others who sought fame and fortune through their children's success. The author, a major child star (the former Baby Peggy), employs her own hard-won insight to explore the career and family woes of another in this fascinating account about one of the greatest child stars of all time. Includes more than 30 photos.
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Bibliographic data
- Copyright year
- 2004
- ISBN-Print
- 978-0-8108-4650-0
- ISBN-Online
- 978-0-585-46687-3
- Publisher
- Rowman & Littlefield, Lanham
- Language
- English
- Pages
- 269
- Product type
- Book Titles
Table of contents
- Contents No access
- Preface No access
- Acknowledgments No access
- Chapter 1 "Baby Lillian" No access Pages 1 - 8
- Chapter 2 On the Road No access Pages 9 - 22
- Chapter 3 The Man in the Front Row Seat No access Pages 23 - 30
- Chapter 4 The Genius No access Pages 31 - 40
- Chapter 5 Inside the Cathedral No access Pages 41 - 52
- Chapter 6 "Owning the Store" No access Pages 53 - 68
- Chapter 7 Fame, Friends, and Family No access Pages 69 - 84
- Chapter 8 The Boy King No access Pages 85 - 94
- Chapter 9 The Regency No access Pages 95 - 104
- Chapter 10 In the Limelight No access Pages 105 - 114
- Chapter 11 "Introducing Dad" No access Pages 115 - 126
- Chapter 12 Death and Drama in the Real World No access Pages 127 - PS32
- Chapter 13 Fatal Turn No access Pages 147 - 154
- Chapter 14 Aftershocks No access Pages 155 - 166
- Chapter 15 The Great Betrayal No access Pages 167 - 176
- Chapter 16 Picking up the Pieces No access Pages 177 - 186
- Chapter 17 Behind Enemy Lines No access Pages 187 - 200
- Chapter 18 Second Honeymoon No access Pages 201 - 214
- Chapter 19 Uncle Fester, Big Daddy, and King Lear No access Pages 215 - 230
- Chapter 20 The "Coogan Legend": An Assessment No access Pages 231 - 246
- Filmography Compiled by Richard E. Bratt No access Pages 247 - 256
- Bibliography No access Pages 257 - 260
- Index No access Pages 261 - 268
- About the Author No access Pages 269 - 269





