I was always fascinated, even as a child, by antiques and ancient times. I always felt I should have been born in the 17th or 18th century. They really had a big stone castle with authentic furniture.

The two men decided to split the $500 asking price hoping to resell it at a profit and lent it to a photographer to shoot for an upcoming auction catalogue. O'Brien is of half-Irish and half-Spanish ancestry. She played a young French girl and spoke and sang all her dialogue with a French accent in Jane Eyre (1944).

Beginning a prolific career as a child actress in feature films at the age of four O'Brien became one of the most popular child stars in cinema history and was honored with a Juvenile Academy Award as the outstanding child actress of 1944. In her later career Margaret O'Brien appeared on television on stage and in supporting film roles. Margaret O'Brien (born January 15 1937) is an American film television and stage actress.