WAMPAS Baby Stars


The WAMPAS Baby Stars was a promotional campaign sponsored by the United States Western Association of Motion Picture Advertisers, which honored 13 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.

Overview

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. 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. However, since the Western Association of Motion Picture Advertisers no longer existed, the idea fizzled. The selection took place nevertheless, and 15 "babies" were chosen: Phyllis Applegate, Roxanne Arlen, Jolene Brand, Donna Cooke, Barbara Huffman, Jewell Lain, Barbara Marx, Lita Milan, Norma Nilsson, Ina Poindexter, Violet Rensin, Dawn Richard, and Delfin Thursday.
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

Works cited

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