We were always in competition: I wanted to cry better than June, and June wanted to cry better than me. June Allyson also did a lot of dramatic films, we were known as The Town Criers of MGM. "How they really got me to cry is kind of interesting. My mother saw that I had friends to play with kids who were not in the movies." -Margaret O'Brien quoted in Classic Images, August 1993. It could be something horrible if that's the way you want to look at it, but it was not. I had a mother who was really watching out for me. On her life as a child star: "I had a wonderful time. Twenty-one years later it was returned to her when it was located in a swap meet. O'Brien's miniature Oscar was stolen from her in 1954.
Two good roles came her way in 1949, as the tragic Beth in a remake of "Little Women" and as Mary Lennox in "The Secret Garden." Her next two features, "Music for Millions" (1944) and the drama "Our Vines Have Tender Grapes" (1945) were also impressive. For her performance, she was awarded a special juvenile Oscar. As Tootie Smith, the feisty but fragile little sister of Judy Garland, she was a bright point in a very good film, especially in her musical numbers with Garland and during a Halloween sequence in which she confronts a grouchy neighbor. O'Brien's next big showcase came with "Meet Me in St. She was loaned out to Fox for "Jane Eyre" (1944). It was an adult, intelligent and slightly scary performance which made her an overnight star. Sensing her potential, MGM signed her, changed her first name to Margaret and starred her in the tour de force "Journey for Margaret" (1942), as a terrified London war orphan who "adopts" reporter Robert Young. As Maxine O'Brien (her birth name), she first appeared in a civil defense film starring James Cagney, then in a bit in "Babes on Broadway" (both 1941). This child star of the 1940s was best known for her natural, emotional style and her startling facility for tears.