The WAMPAS Baby Stars was a promotional campaign sponsored by the United States Western Association of Motion Picture Advertisers, which honored 13 (15 in 1932) young actresses each year whom they believed to be on the threshold of movie stardom. The campaign ran from 1922 to 1934, except for 1930 and 1933.
Most failed to live up to their promotion; a small number of the selections went on to become major movie stars: Colleen Moore (1922), Jobyna Ralston (1923), Clara Bow (1924), Janet Gaynor (1926), Fay Wray (1926), Dolores del Rio (1926), Dolores Costello (1926), Mary Astor (1926), Joan Crawford (1926), Loretta Young (1929), Jean Arthur (1929), Joan Blondell (1931) and Ginger Rogers (1932). Gaynor, Astor, Crawford, Young and Rogers all were awarded the Academy Award for Best Actress during their careers, with Gaynor receiving the first one during the first year of the award's existence.
Clara Bow was a Silent era star known as The It Girl. She was Hollywood's greatest female draw at her peak and her final film was in 1933. Bow was also in the first movie to receive the Academy Award for Outstanding Picture, Wings, in 1929. Arthur and Blondell had long and fruitful careers in Hollywood, the former as a lead actress, the latter usually in supporting roles after the Pre-Code era.
Others with significant Hollywood careers included Evelyn Brent (1923), Joyce Compton (1926), Lupe Velez (1928), Constance Cummings (1931, who decamped to England), Frances Dee (1931), and Gloria Stuart (1932, whose career revived in the 1990s when she received an Oscar nomination as Best Supporting Actress for her role in Titanic).
Overview
- 1922—1935
The WAMPAS Baby Stars campaign began in 1922. Every year, publicists chose a group of young actresses who were under contract at major studios that they felt were on the threshold of stardom. Awardees were honored at a party called the "WAMPAS Frolic" and were given extensive media coverage. The awards were not given in 1930 and 1933 due to objections from independent film studios. When the campaign was revived in 1934, freelance actresses, along with studio contract players, were included as the chosen "Baby Stars". The campaign was discarded in 1935, after which the Western Association of Motion Picture Advertisers disbanded.
- 1956
In 1956, a group of veteran stars, among them 1932 WAMPAS Baby Star Ginger Rogers, chose a group of young actresses supposed to be known as The Wampas Baby Stars of 1956. The Western Association of Motion Picture Advertisers no longer existed so the idea fizzled. The selection took place nevertheless;15 "babies" were chosen: Phyllis Applegate, Roxanne Arlen, Jolene Brand, Donna Cooke, Barbara Huffman (later known as Barbara Eden), Jewell Lain, Barbara Marks, Lita Milan, Norma Nilsson, Ina Poindexter, Violet Rensin, Dawn Richard, and Delfin Thursday.
- Last
The last surviving original WAMPAS Baby Star, Mary Carlisle, died at the age of 104 on August 1, 2018.
List
1922
1923
1924
1925
1926
1927
1928
1929
1931
1932
1934
From hundreds of entrants, thirty-eight actresses paraded, and thirteen were chosen, by more than 100 Hollywood press agents at The Writers' Club, in Hollywood, California, to comprise the 1934 edition of the Wampas Baby stars.
References
Works cited
- Liebman, Roy (2000). The Wampas Baby Stars: A Biographical Dictionary, 1922–1934. Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland. ISBN 0-7864-0756-5.
- Mank, Gregory William (2015). Women in Horror Films, 1930s. Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland. ISBN 978-1-4766-0954-6.
- Slide, Anthony (2014). The New Historical Dictionary of the American Film Industry. New York: Routledge. ISBN 1-135-92554-2.
- Vogel, Michelle (2010). Olive Borden: The Life and Films of Hollywood's Joy Girl. Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland. ISBN 0-7864-5836-4.
External links
- The WAMPAS Baby Stars
