Meglin Kiddies

Meglin Kiddies was a well-known troupe of acting, music and dance performers, consisting of children up to the age of 16. (AKA: The Meglin Professional Children's School, The Meglin Dance Studio, Meglin's Dance School and Meglin's Wondrous Hollywood Kiddies).

Background

The troupe was started by Ethel Meglin in 1928. Meglin was a Ziegfeld girl in feature films.[1] Director/actor and Slapstick Keystone King Mack Sennett was supportive of the formation of the troupe's studio. Sennett donated a Meglin Kiddie studio building sign and assisted in securing an operations location on his lot.[2] The Johnny Grant Building[3] at 7018-24 Hollywood Blvd once housed the Meglin Dance Studio on its second floor.

Shirley Temple, was once a Meglin Kiddie dancer. Producers from Educational Studios recruited her from the Meglin Kiddie studio.[4] "Charles Lamont, a director from Educational Studios visited the “Meglin Kiddies” and chose Shirley, hiding under the piano, for a part in a movie that the studio was about to make."[5]

Future superstar Judy Garland was also a Meglin Kiddie.[6] Garland's mother, Ethel Gumm, played the piano at the Meglin Kiddie studio to help pay for Garland's singing and dancing lessons there.[7] The film debut of Judy Garland was in Meglin Kiddie short films.[8] Garland also performed with the Meglin Kiddies over the radio, and live at theaters such as: Shrine Auditorium, Pantages Theatre (Hollywood), and Loew's State Theater in Los Angeles, California.[9]

Film star June Preston was also a Megin Kiddie who was making good. In 1934, Neil Albright, managing owner of the Meglin Dance Studios of Santa Monica and Beverly Hills took on little June Preston who at the tender age of 4 had just signed a long-term 5 year contract with RKO-Radio Pictures with her first role in Anne of Green Gables and Here is My Heart starring Bing Crosby. Albright said, "she is expected to develop into a brilliant child star under the Meglin artistic training". And she did, in addition to movies, June Preston had featured parts in numerous Meglin Kiddie short films, radio shows, Our Gang shorts and Our Gang Follies movies. As a Meglin Kiddie, Preston also performed at multiple Hollywood theaters singing and dancing and was a regular at the historic Wadsworth Theatre. Preston quickly gained international success and went under contract with other major studios and signed on with over 50 merchandising contracts for apparel and toys using her name and likeliness sold worldwide. Meglin Kitties artistic training was a groundbreaker for up and coming child stars back in the day and helped launch mega stars of the Golden Age of Hollywood.

In the 1950s, the Meglin Kiddies had a television show.

Ethel Meglin retired in 1962, as did the studio and dance troupe.[1]

Movies
  • Reg’lar Fellers (1941) --Billy Lee's Band --Associate Producer: Ethel Meglin
  • The Wizard of Oz (1939) --Munchkin child actors and dancers
  • Maytime (1937) --Children In Maypole Number
  • Roarin’ Lead (1936) --Dancers
  • Too Many Parents(uncredited) (1936) --Themselves
  • In Love with Life (1934) --Floor show performers at the Kiddie Kabaret: Featured dancer June Preston
  • Show Kids (1934)
  • The Land of Oz (1932) --Production company and actors/dancers (Film adapted from the book, Land of Oz)
  • The Big Revue (1929)--AKA "The Meglin Kiddie Revue" & AKA "The Starlet Revue"—with Judy Garland (Francis Gumm & Sisters)[10]

Notable Meglin Kids

References
  1. Scott, A. O. "Ethel Meglin filmography". NYTimes.com. Retrieved 2010-05-12.
  2. Cary, Diana Serra (1978). Hollywood's Children. Texas: Southern Methodist University Press. ISBN 0-87074-424-0.
  3. "The Johnny Grant Building". Hollywood Historic Site Walk web site. Archived from the original on 2009-10-25.
  4. "More About Shirley". The Official Shirley Temple Web Site. Archived from the original on 2005-03-27.
  5. Mckenzie, Loretta. "Shirley Temple's Childhood". Loretta's Shirley Temple Dolls. Archived from the original on 2012-01-19. Retrieved 2007-02-26.
  6. "Who were the Meglin Kiddies?". Kansas Wizard of Oz 'N More Store.
  7. Cary 1978:202
  8. Brogan, Scott. "About Judy". The Judy Room. Archived from the original on 2007-01-27.
  9. Brogan, Scott. "1922-1939 Timeline". The Judy Room.
  10. Brogan, Scott. "The Gumm Sisters/Garland Sisters Early Short Subjects". The Judy Room. Archived from the original on 2006-11-30.
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