Only the last reel of "The Darling of New York" survives and only then as a scratchy, decomposing 16mm Kodascope print. The results actually look rather appropriately beautiful for a reel that is about a building catching fire. It's as though the film itself were burning along with it, which given that it was made on inflammable nitrate, isn't far off the mark (although in the discussion of the film as part of the UCLA Film & Television archive tribute to Baby Peggy, water damage to the print is mentioned, somewhat ironically).
The picture is interesting in another regard because Diana Serra Cary, as Baby Peggy later became known as, cited it as one of if not the most traumatic experiences and examples of child endangerment during her child stardom. So, when we see everyone here abandoning a child in a burning building--even a man whom she rescues leaves her behind--realize that this is exactly what the Universal studio was doing in making the film, as reportedly there was trouble with Peggy exiting through a door from which she was to escape the flames. That's real fire, and Baby Peggy was really in danger.
Once an entirely lost film, which Cary is said to have considered especially unfortunate--all that trauma to not even have the record exist anymore. Because Hollywood didn't only disregard child well-being, they inevitably disregarded their own films. Once their commercial life was over, whether an actress or a film, they were kicked to the curb. And, as for the millions of 1920s dollars Baby Peggy pulled in, we see a guy played by comedian Max Davidson with a bunch of kids at the end of this picture and who winds up forfeiting a bag of smuggled diamonds. The way this picture goes, I'll take that as the stand-in for Baby Peggy's real father squandering all her wealth.
Luckily, this damaged reel was rediscovered, though, and Cary lived to have her films cherished by archivists and among fans at festivals. She wrote a memoir and was the subject of an informative documentary, "Baby Peggy, the Elephant in the Room" (2012), before her death at the age of 101 this past year. History is littered with children thrust into show business who weren't so fortunate.
