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| Pearl White "Queen of the Serials" hosting several children at her home. From Photoplay magazine, February 1920. |
While exploring the January to June 1920 volumes of Photoplay magazine, I found a curious page article called "Pearl White's Party". The full-page article tells a story of an orphan boy named Russell at the historic Ottilie Orphan Asylum in Queens, New York who told the reigning Queen of the Serials that he wanted a party. As a result, Russell and nearly 30 children were invited to Ms. White's home in the Bayside community of Queens for a party with "ice cream cones and gingerbread".
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| Pearl White with little Russel who became the "ringmaster" of the children's party. From Photoplay magazine, February 1920. |
How true this account is speculative since this is a movie fandom magazine, but it is interesting to see Pearl White with so many children. The common thought about the serial genre is that serials were not geared towards a younger audience until the mid to late 1920s. In Pearl White's time as a serial queen, the genre was seen as more adult. So this 1920, suggests that Pearl White may have had a good-sized juvenile audience as well. Or, that she or her producers were starting to recognize juveniles as an increasing serial audience.
These youngsters would have seen Pearl on the screen in "The Black Secret" (1919) which was supposed to be her last serial. She would return to cliffhangers one more time in 1923's Plunder.
