THE CUDDLY KID.

Pukekohe & Waiuku Times, Volume 5, Issue 209, 15 September 1916, Page 3 (Supplement)

THE CUDDLY KID.

SHE IS THREE-YEAR-OLD "MARX" SUNSHINE", THE KINEMA KID WHO WILL WIN* ALL HEARTS America lias gone crazy over n lttlt fir!, aged three, and this country will shortly have the chance to follow suit. Helen Marie Osborne is the name ot this remarkable child, who. it is quite on the cards, may out-rival Charlie Chaplin as the darling of the picture palace. ''Little Mary Sunshine," or the ''Cuddly Kid," as she is called; and she is, by common consent, by far the best and most natural youngster who lias ever taken part : n a film play. A« soon as her ability was discovered —- l t must be handed down to her from her parents, who are both on the stage--a play was specially written in which she could act the leading " lady'' role, and the result has boon astonishing

A WONDERFUL POWER OVER ANIMALS. Through four long reels the "Cuddly Kid'' romps and plays, running the gamut of emotons, from distress to delight, without the slightest trace or seif-consoousness or any sign that it is "only acting." She is the most natural thing that ewr happened in the pictures, and everyone who likes kiddies will surely want to hug her. She is neither too good nor too naughty, but ;s just nice. Thfl "Cuddly Kid" has loved animals from the time she was in the cradle, and it was her unusual power With them, coupled with her absolute fearlessness, that first brought her to the notice of the moving picture-making peop!.'.

One day Osborne was horrified to find her little daughter playing with a large rat which she had somehow got fiold of . Of course ,the creature was ai> onto taken away, but to pacify her rv tamo rat, a white one, with pink eyes, had to be bought for her. That tame rat was the beginning of a little menager.e. Gradually all manner of. animals wer.o added to it and to-day among the "Cuddly KidV dearest companions and two rattlesnakes, numerous dogs and cats, three chip-munks, a hshhawk, a donkey and a lion cub. With all of them this chili of three seems to have uncommon mesmeric influence. One celebrated doctor says he believes she has a "mesmeric eye" w : th animals, and other medical men aro so interested in her that thev ara arranging a series of tests to try to discover wherein it exactly lies.

GAVE THE BEAR A BATH. It was her boldness with a strange bear — of those brawn performing bears which Italians, armed with poletake about on chains —that first put the kinematograph producers on ner track. Ono day, at a seaside town, she was seen to walk up to a performing bear, take it gently but firmly by tn» ear, and attempt to lead it down tc the water. She explained that she "thought the bear ought to haro r. bath."

Bears, as a rule, don't like baths, hut there was a fins "stunt"' for the screen in the idea, and when a play was written round the "Cuddly Kid" the incident was included in it. And so in " Little Mary Sunshine", as the play is called, this wonderful little three-yenr-old star not only g : ves bruin a bath, but also makes him drink milk out of a bottle. For sheer joyous, simple fun the happenings have rarely been equalled in a moving pictur?. In all her scenes—-pathetic, comic. and roguish—the ''Cuddly Kid'" is her own winsome baby self, and she ha.s already proved herself to the public ot America.

The "Cuddly Kid'" has had more Press notices in American papers than any other film actor or actress on i first appearance on any screen, and a tremendous " boom" should he await'ng her in tins country.