The Amazing Miss Cummings: An Actress at Work and Play

I saw this short on TCM where it is occasionally played, usually in conjunction with the feature film it promotes, "The Goodbye Girl" (1977).

It's a behind the scenes promotional short that focuses entirely on the 9 year old, precocious child actress Quinn Cummings. The major cast and crew members lavish praise on Quinn for knowing the script extremely well, being easy to work with, being bright and being a natural talent. For education, Quinn is shown attending the same MGM lot school where Mary McDonald taught the famous child stars of yesteryear, like Elizabeth Taylor and Mickey Rooney. For recess, Quinn is shown being allowed to roam around unused studio lots and to play with the gadgets on those sets. Two clips of scenes from the feature film which spotlight Quinn are shown.

This short is mildly entertaining, maybe because I'm such a fan of the wonderful feature film, but it does border on being an embarrassing lovefest for Quinn. Sadly, although the precocious Quinn was absolutely wonderful in the feature film, she didn't really capture that magic again and was out of acting by her mid twenties. A cruel fate suffered by many child actors.