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December 09, 2007
The Greatest Movie Star: Mary Pickford
Mary Pickford
The most successful star of the silent era was not Charlie Chaplin, but Mary Pickford. Pickford was a huge box office draw, an international star, and a strong woman who took control of her own career.
Mary Pickford said it best: “My career was planned. There was never anything accidental about it. It was planned, it was painful, it was purposeful.”
Charles Rosher, the great pioneering cameraman said: “She knew everything there was to know about motion pictures.”
She was born in Canada, Gladys Smith in 1892. Her family endured poverty and her father died when she was six-years-old. Charlotte, her mother, took in sewing to make ends meet for Gladys and her sister Lottie and brother Jack.
Things changed in 1898 when Gladys, age six, made her debut on stage in Toronto. Within three years she was a well known theater actor.
Gladys went to New York and talked her way into theater impresario David Belasco's office. She wouldn't leave until he hired her. She was only 14-years old. Already she was tough and determined and wouldn't take no for an answer. Belasco didn't like her name. Gladys Smith. Too plain. He renamed her Mary Pickford.
She was a tiny, fragile creature with a mountain of corn-silk curls. She was also talented. Things went well with Belasco. But soon enough Pickford and her mother heard that the The Pictures were paying five dollars a day. Pickford and her mother took the trolley downtown to the Biograph Studios, and demanded ten dollars a day because she was a "Belasco actress."
D.W. Griffith hired her and paid her price.
Mary quickly became an audience favorite. She became known as the Biograph Girl. There was one Biograph Girl before Pickford; Florence Lawrence, was the first movie star, but she committed suicide by eating ant paste after a series of tragic professional and personal setbacks, and is now all but forgotten.
Mary quit the theater as she grasped the enormous artistic and financial possibilities of the new motion picture industry. She appeared in dozens of films, switching easily between comedy and drama, westerns and melodrama. She was learning her trade; how to play to the motion picture camera—very different than theater acting.
Mary didn't like the thick pasty makeup they were using at Biograph. She claimed it made her "look like Pancho Villa." So Mary went out and bought her own high quality materials and blended her own makeup especially for the camera—and demanded reimbursement from Biograph.
Working with Griffith was not easy for Mary. She didn't fit his vision of a helpless Southern maiden. She wasn't a pliant actress like Lillian Gish. Director and star fought on and off set. She once bit Griffith. He shoved her.
Pickford signed with Famous Players Lasky. The company set up Artcraft Pictures to release the films of Mary Pickford. She was the first actress to have her own production company. She was paid $10,000 a week plus half the profits in her films, or half a million dollars, whichever was greater. Such was Mary's popularity with the public that she now had complete creative control over her films; from script to final cut.
Poor Little Rich Girl, 1917, was a huge hit. Here she plays a lonely little girl whose wealthy parents neglect her. In this film Pickford also dresses up as a boy, a motif that will appear over and over again in her work, something her fans simply adored.
In Stella Maris, 1918, Pickford plays two roles, Stella, a wealthy, bed-ridden young woman, overprotected by her family, and her deformed servant, Unity Blake. It's a remarkable performance and the double exposures are first rate as Pickford acts with herself.
Mary Pickford in Stella Maris, she's playing both roles
By the end of 1918 Pickford's image was that of a feisty young American girl, no longer a child, not yet a woman. It set the pattern for the rest of her career, and some would say, locked her into a formula she could never escape, "America's Sweetheart."
Mary behind the camera
By now she was at the peak of her career on the screen making such films as The Poor Little Rich Girl (1917) Stella Maris (1918) "Daddy Long Legs" (1919) and Heart O' the Hills (1919) Mary had been married in name only to Owen Moore for years and around the time of the bond tour began an affair with Douglas Fairbanks, both thought that this might damage their career's, they married in 1920 and rather than damage them,they became even more popular as a couple. in 1919, together with Chaplin and Griffith, Mary and Doug formed United Artists which gave the four most important people in the movie industry complete license over their own productions. Mary and Doug were now treated like Hollywood royalty and drew famous names from home and abroad to their house named "Pickfair"by the press.
Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks
Throughout the twenties Mary slowed down her film production to one quality big budget production per year. Films like Tess of the Storm Country (1922) Sparrows (1926) and My Best Girl (1927) maintained her success but by the end of the decade Mary's screen persona was starting to look dated in the wake of the flapper culture.
Armed with a microphone and a new short haircut Mary embarked on her talkie debut in 1929 called Coquette and she won the Academy Award for best actress. However Mary became another casualty of talking pictures, together with the public failing to accept her in adult roles, her movie career was over by 1933. By 1936 Mary's marriage to Doug was also over, probably due to the loss of his film career and his constant globe trotting. In 1937 Mary married her "My Best Girl" co-star Charles"Buddy" Rogers , a marriage that was to last forty three years. Over the next years she engaged herself in some film production work and promoted several charities.
In 1976 Mary received a Lifetime Achievement Award at the Academy Awards. Later in her life she became dependent on alcohol and a virtual recluse behind the walls of "Pickfair." On 29th May 1979 Mary died of a cerebral hemorrhage in Santa Monica, California. She was 87 years old.
From the Mary Pickford Homepage.
Mary Pickford played little girls but she never had a childhood. As a young woman, her life was absorbed with hard work and business. She was the first great motion picture celebrity. When she was in Europe with Douglas Fairbanks, they were mobbed by crowds so vast that Fairbanks had to carry her on his shoulders lest she be consumed by the adoring fans. There is a picture of Fairbanks reaching out to get hold of his tiny wife and she looks absolutely terrified.
Pickford married young to an alcoholic actor, and it was rumored that because of a messy abortion she was never able to have children of her own. (She and her third husband Buddy Rogers adopted two children.) Mary lived through her brother Jack's messy life, and his marriage to the troubled actress Olive Thomas, and Jack's early death at age 36. Mary's closest companion was her mother Charlotte, who endured a terrible and painful cancer and died at age 55 in 1928. Her sister Lottie died at age 41.
Mary Pickford was not sentimental about her life: “I've worked and fought my way through since I was twelve.”
Film historian Kevin Brownlow correctly said of Pickford: “The ideal American girls is still the Mary Pickford character: extremely attractive, warm-hearted, generous, funny—but independent and fiery-tempered when the occasion demands. She had legions of imitators, but no rivals.”
Also highly recommended is Kevin Brownlow and John Kobal's Hollywood: The Pioneers. The essay and photos are simply breathtaking. Brownlow is the major historian of the silent era and the world owes him a debt of gratitude for his work in preserving valuable films and precious memories which otherwise would have been lost.
The Mary Pickford Photo Gallery. From the Mary Pickford Library. Beautiful.
Mary Pickford Photo Gallery, studio photos, posters, one-sheets, stills from her films, and behind the scenes shots.
Mary Pickford Rediscovered by Kevin Brownlow. I haven't read it yet. My bad. It's on order.
Posted by Robert J. Avrech at December 9, 2007 10:01 AM
Comments
Seraphic Secret is private property, that's right, it's an extension of our home, and as such, Karen and I have instituted two Seraphic Rules and we ask commentors to act respectfully.
1. No profanity.2. No Israel bashing. We debate, we discuss, we are respectful. You know what Israel bashing is. The world is full of it. Seraphic Secret is one of the few places in the world that will not tolerate this form of anti-Semitism. That's it. Break either of these rules and you will be banned.
I'm surprised you did not mention that Pickford was a staunch supporter of the American cause in World War I... joining Chaplin in an exhausting series of war bond rallies. There is some film of these rallies, and you can see that not only is Pickford working hard as she speaks, but she's enjoying herself as she does it.
More fuel for your theories about the patriotic Hollywood of yore.
Posted by: Jake Novak at December 9, 2007 05:50 PM
Yikes Robert...I feel the urge to bring you a babke for posting something other than war and politics.
Posted by: cruisin-mom at December 9, 2007 06:40 PM
Jake:
My bad.
Yes, during World War I Mary raised tons of money for the war effort by making personal appearances with Doug Fairbanks and Charlie Chaplin. Mary was incredibly patriotic.
I left out a great deal. My hope is that my readers will now be primed to watch her best films, which are exquisite, and read about this remarkable woman's life.
Posted by: Robert J. Avrech ![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://www.seraphicpress.com/nav-commenters.gif)
at December 9, 2007 07:07 PM
Cruisn-Mom:
Why resist the urge? Don't I deserve a Chanukah gift?
Posted by: Robert J. Avrech at December 9, 2007 07:11 PM
I have become a special fan of Pickford since my daughter Jordan was born. You see, Jordan is truly "the girl with the curls" herself, and my wife and I were knocked out by the resemblance when we saw some footage of Pickford, (especially her expressions... so important for silent films... Jordan is similarly expressive even in those rare moments when she is not speaking or singing).
Here's a link to a pic of Jordan last year that illustrates what I mean: http://roarlions.blogspot.com/2006/11/columbias-secret-weapon.html
And here's a pic of Pickford to compare it too: http://www.infoplease.com/images/movrf1.gif
Posted by: Jake at December 10, 2007 03:49 AM
Jake:
Amazing resemblance. A star is born!
Posted by: Robert J. Avrech at December 10, 2007 09:11 AM