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22. Her Childhood Was On Screen
The reporter saw the absurdity of the situation Hollywood had placed Ricksen in. He wrote, “Those Edgar Comedies were Lucille’s only childhood—the only chance to play with children her own age. That is what makes her different. It is almost uncanny how different she is”.
It was uncanny and also more than a little disturbing. In hindsight, it also proves a tragic foreshadowing of what was to come.
File:The Child Thou Gavest Me (1921) – 3.jpg
John M. Stahl Productions, Wikimedia Commons
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23. She Left An Ache In Your Heart
That reporter went on to say, “It makes you sorry and it makes you glad. You long to see those pigtails flying in the wind and the cheeks snapping with bright color, instead of the all-day session playing the abused wife of a ‘horrid’ Russian…”. You may have longed to see Ricksen as the child she was, but those days were already gone.
File:Lucille Ricksen pho524.jpg
Photoplay Magazine, Wikimedia Commons
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24. Her Fame Grew At An Alarming Rate
By the time The Rendezvous graced the screens, the world already saw Lucille Ricksen as their newest rising star. Ricksen starred in five films in 1922. In 1923 and 1924, that number jumped to nearly 10 in each year. Ricksen starred in so many films that she didn’t even have time to complete them all.
File:Lucille pictureplay1223.jpg
Picture-Play Magazine, Wikimedia Commons
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25. She’d Spent Her Whole Life Working
Ricksen had been working basically her entire life. That is all that she knew. By the early 1920s, that job had expanded to the point that it was nearly all that she did. Ricksen began “lapping” her filming, meaning that she’d begin filming one movie before she finished the first. It was an impossible pace for anyone, let alone a child.
File:Ricksen True Story725.png
True Story Magazine, Wikimedia Commons
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26. She Pushed Herself To Her Limits
In only seven months, Lucille Ricksen filmed 10 different features. If the working pace hadn’t been exhausting enough, Ricksen had surrounded herself with people double her age. Playing complex adult roles as a child had to have been taxing enough even before you factored in navigating real adult relationships as well.
File:Ricksen picture.jpg
Picture-Play Magazine, Wikimedia Commons
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27. She Had Questionable Friends
In 1924, at the peak of her career, Ricksen was 13. At the same time, she was calling men in their 30s or close to it her best friends. Her Rendezvous crew, in particular, Syd Chaplin and Marshall Neilan, had notorious playboy reputations. Anyone should see the trouble with Ricksen associating with such men, yet the media only encouraged these connections.
File:Silent film actor Syd Chaplin (SAYRE 21565).jpg
Unknown authorUnknown author, Wikimedia Commons
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28. She Got Recognition
Lucille Ricksen appeared everywhere you looked, and Hollywood took notice. Each year, the Western Association of Motion Picture Advertisers announced 13 young actresses that they believed were on the cusp of fame. It was a prestigious honor, and many future superstars earned the title.
However, for Lucille, the title “WAMPAS Baby Stars” was a little too on the nose.
File:WAMPAS baby stars 1924.JPG
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