Australian Women's Weekly (1933 - 1982), Saturday 8 September 1934, page 20


AUSTRALIA'S Janet Gaynor?

... Peggy MAGUIRE

HERE is a little girl Peggy Maguire, barely

past her middle teens,  who, according to all reports, shows great promise as a future Australian film star. She spent her early years in Melbourne, but has lived latterly with her family in Brisbane. By a lucky accident when the director of Ex-peditionary Films Ltd. was in Queensland recently he came across Peggy, and she was immediately offered the part of leading lady in the film he is now producing in Melbourne, "Heritage,'' which is described as an Australian "Cavalcade."

From Our Special Representative ALL the good fairies must

have been present at Peggy Maguire's christening. She is endowed with lovely features, a cloud of dark, silky hair, roguish Irish eyes, and a lissom figure, as well as a natural gift for act-ing, and that indefinable some-thing that makes a lovely girl look as lovely as she really is on

the screen.

Add to that a rich, soft voice, and you have a mind picture of the lass who bids fair to become Australia's Janet

Gaynor.

Her chance has come easily to Peggy

Maguire. At an age when most girls are still in the schoolroom she is enjoy-ing a unique chance to play her first big talkie role in "Heritage" as Biddy O'Shea, one of the hundred Irish brides who came out from Cork in the Bride Ship way back in the 'thirties.

All the time Mr. Charles Chauvel was filming the first outdoor scenes for the picture that he is making for Expedi-tionary Films Ltd., he was anxiously seeking the perfect type to play Biddy, but it was a long job.

Finally, when the company was work-ing in Queensland, an organised search was made, and the choice fell on Peggy, though she was probably the youngest girl who offered herself, and her only experience was a small part with Pat Hanna in "Diggers in Blighty," two years

ago.

Irish Descent

PEGGY got most of her education in

Melbourne, but later the Maguire family moved to Brisbane. She is the daughter of Mick Maguire, of pugilistic fame, who is now the proprietor of the Belle Vue Hotel, Brisbane.

One of five sisters, all lovely, all gifted, Peggy is a quaint combination of sophistication and dewy youth, and she has a natural trick of assuming a brogue that is truly Biddyish.

Biddy has a tragic history, for her future husband marries someone else and later, when she goes out to live in the bush, she is killed by the blacks. So there are scenes guaranteed to tax the ability of any actress.

If tears are as valuable a box office draw as we are led to believe, Peggy should go over big, for she can turn on the tears as easily as she can laugh.

At least, that is usually the case; but

tunately, it was the morning when Biddy practically breaks her heart on hearing of her lover's defection. But Peggy was pleased about something, and her youth-ful glee refused to be suppressed.

The producer stood it for a time and then he told the smiling girl exactly what he thought of her. She was not an actress, she was everything that was disappointing and useless. Soon real tears were streaming down the young cheeks. Then the scene was shot be-

fore the scapegrace rushed up to her dressing-room to have a good cry. Ac- cording to all reports, that is one of

the most moving scenes in the whole picture.

Fan Mail

THE little leading lady has had the

unique experience of sitting for her portrait to seven artists at one time.

This was to provide the picture of Biddy O'Shea in her Empire gown that

hangs in the modern sequence when Peggy comes back as her own grand-daughte, Biddy Parry.

Already Peggy Maguire has her fan mail. A woman wrote to her at the studio to say that she had picked up a medal for elocution bearing her name, and would be willing to return it to its

rightful owner in return for a signed photograph.

THE rest of the cast of "Heritage" con-

tains some notable figures. The leading man is Franklyn Bennett, of Sydney, who is handsome enough to turn any girl's head. The other girl in the story is Margot Rees, better known to Melbourne as Kathleen Rhys Jones.

Even the smaller parts are played by well-known actors. Harold Meade, who is with Delysia at present, plays the father in the modern sequence. Frank Harvey is Governor Phillip, and Norman French, Governor Macquarie. Joe Valli has an important part, and Rita Paunce-fort, of the "Fresh Fields" Company, is one of the main figures in the banquet scene. Many descendants of old New South Wales families came to Melbourne to appear in this scene, including Mrs. Hannam and her daughter, Joan, who had a part in "Roadhouse" when it was produced in Melbourne.

Strangely enough, David Ware, the ace bullock-driver of the Clarence River, brought down to Melbourne specially to play an important part, once worked for Charles Chauvel's grandfather. Dave will never see 60 again, and before his belated movie career began he had never seen a city.

PEGGY MAGUIRE, the little Irish-Australian, whose daintiness and charm suggest that in a few years she may become Australia's Janet Gaynor. She plays lead in "Heritage," the coming Chauvel

production.

MRS. CHARLES CHAUVEL, who assists her hus-

band as script girl

and who will be seen as Mrs. Mac-quarie in "Heri-

tage."

there was one morning when she simply could not cry. Unfor-

FRANKLYN BENNETT, or Bruce Bennett Smith, as he has previously been known, of Sydney, who is leading man in "Heritage," now in course of produc-

tion at the Efftee sudios in Melbourne.