Eight-year-old Margaret O'Brien knew in advance that she would receive a special Oscar in 1945 for the four films she'd made the previous year, but it didn't dampen her enthusiasm when the big moment caem. "My mother wrote my speech, which I forgot," O'Brien, now 63, says. "I was so excited about meeting [emcee] Bob Hope. I said, 'Oh Mr. Hope, it's so wonderful to see you...and thank you for my Oscar.' I said that last part, 'thank you' really fast." Fellow MGM star Ann Miller, now 76, says about her friend's prive, "We were thrilled. It was a great honor for someone in the MGM gang to win." Four years later, O'Briend costarred in Little Women with Elizabeth Taylor and played the lead in The Secret Garden, both in 1949. As an adult, she worked on TV shows including Love, American Style and Murder, She Wrote. Separated from her second husband, O'Brien, who has a 21-year old daughter, is now an active fund-raised for AIDS charities. She says it's still a treat to hold her Oscar- and for good reason. The statue disappeared from her former home in Beverly Hills in 1954. "A maid left and took it with her," she says. It turned up 41 years later at a flea market. The Academy arranged its return. "The poor thing has been through a lot," says O'Brien, who was re-presented with the award in 1996. "I thought I'd never see it again. I was happy to get it back."

The article is accompanied by a small color photo from the 1944 film Meet Me in St. Louis, with Judy Garland hugging young Margaret, and a large color photo of 63 year old Margaret with several movie posters of her films- "It has a mythology to it," says O'Brien (in her Thousand Oaks, Calif., home, right) of her special juvile Oscar. "And it has opened doors to a nice way of life." The recognition, says the actress (below, with Judy Garland in Meet Me in St. Louis), "gives you status."; and a small black and white photo of Margaret showing her mother the special Oscar- "When they called my name, I ran to the stage," recalls O'Brien (above, showing her award to mom Gladys). My mother had told me to walk, ladylike, to the podium. She wasn't too pleased that I ran."