In Hollywood, it has been said that beauty is more important than talent, but youth is most important of all. The image of America conveyed by the motion picture industry is one of beautiful, young people in the prime of life. The most youthful of all are the children—fresh-faced innocents in the bloom of youth transformed into Hollywood stars who represent the dreams of a nation. Certainly this was the case during the Depression, when child stars such as Shirley Temple, Freddie Bartholomew, and Deanna Durbin were the motion picture industry's top box office draws, inspiring a global mania for child actors. In what has come to be known as the Child Star Era, these juvenile audience favorites often single-handedly supported their studios, becoming more famous than their adult counterparts. When the Golden Age of Hollywood came to an end after World War II, so...