Edith Fellows

Edith Fellows was born on May 20 1923 in Boston Massachusetts When she was a year old she and her father and grandmother moved to Charlotte North Carolina As a toddler Edith was pigeontoed and had trouble walking and one doctor suggested that dance lessons might cure this condition At age four Edith entered Hendersons School of Dance where she was spotted by a man claiming to be a talent scout who told her grandmother that he could get Edith into show business for a fiftydollar fee The dance school raised the money but when Edith and her grandmother arrived in Hollywood they discovered that the address the man had given them did not exist and they realized he was a fraud Stranded in Hollywood with no means to return to North Carolina Ediths grandmother began doing housework to earn a living While she worked she left Edith with a neighbor and her young son One day Edith was taken along when the neighbors son had an audition for the film Movie Night 1929 and she ended up getting the part Although she never become a child star Edith appeared in many popular films of the 1930s most notably Pennies from Heaven 1936 She also proved herself to be a very versatile actress playing roles ranging from a spoiled rich girl as in Heart of the Rio Grande 1942 to a poor orphan girl as in Pennies from Heaven Edith was even given her own series The Five Little Peppers while under contract to Columbia and she made four of the Pepper films the first was Five Little Peppers and How They Grew 1939 in two years Between 1929 and 1954 Edith appeared in some fifty films mostly in juvenile roles due to her short 4 10 stature But her career suddenly slowed down in the mid1950s Between 1955 and 1980 she appeared in only one film Lilith 1964 in which she had a bit part During this time Edith chose to focus on her family life she had married producer Freddie Fields in 1946 and their only child daughter Kathy was born in 1947 But Edith and Fields divorced in 1955 and the end of her marriage coupled with other factors caused Edith to have a nervous breakdown She recovered and in 1981 she returned to acting in numerous supporting roles on television In 1985 fellow former child actor Jackie Cooper announced plans to make a TV movie based on Ediths life but this project never happened