Since I now own one of these Underwood portable typewriters with the case stand, and Mark Adams was good enough to alert me to this image of child star Margaret O'Brien using the very thing (aged about 10 or 11?), I thought I should buy the photo and scan it in:
Margaret O'Brien began a prolific career as a child actress in feature films
at the age of four and became one of the most popular child stars in cinema
history. She was honoured with a Juvenile Academy Award as the outstanding child
actress of 1944. She was born Angela Maxine O'Brien, of Irish-Spanish descent, in San Diego on January 15, 1937. Her name was changed to Margaret following the success of the film Journey for Margaret, in
which she played the title role. She made her first
film appearance in Babes on Broadway (1941) but it was the
following year that her first major role brought her widespread attention. As a
five-year-old in Journey for Margaret, O'Brien won wide praise for her
convincing acting style. By 1943, she was considered a big enough star to have a
cameo appearance in the all-star military show finale of Thousands Cheer. She
played a young French girl, and spoke and sang all her dialogue with a French
accent, in Jane Eyre (1944). Arguably her most memorable role was as Tootie in
Meet Me in St Louis (1944), opposite Judy Garland. Her other successes included The Canterville Ghost (1944), Our Vines Have Tender
Grapes (1945) and the first sound version of The Secret Garden (1949). She
was unable to make the transition to adult roles. O'Brien shed her child
star image in 1958 by appearing on the cover of LIFE Magazine with the caption
"The Girl's Grown", and was a mystery guest on the TV panel show What's My Line?
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