Trailblazer Mary Pickford By Karie Bible
Trailblazer Mary Pickford
By Karie Bible
In our modern world, people often lose sight of the past or remain entirely unaware of the trailblazers and pioneers who paved the way. For decades, Mary Pickford’s name was associated with her appearance. She was viewed as “the girl with the golden curls” and the picture of sweetness and light. What few may have realized is that she was a powerful titan of industry, a creative force, and a visionary ahead of her time.
Mary Pickford was born with the name Gladys Smith in Toronto, Canada in 1892. It would later be changed to Mary Pickford by Broadway impresario David Belasco. Poverty and hardship were ever-present and the situation grew increasingly dire when her father was killed in an accident shortly before Mary turned six years old. Her widowed mother Charlotte did the best she could to provide for Mary and her younger siblings Lottie and Jack. By 1898 Mary made her first professional stage appearance and got her first taste of acting and applause. There was no stopping her now. Given her blonde hair, angelic looks and innate acting talent, Mary was in constant demand. It wasn’t long before her acting career became the family’s primary means of support. Often alone, young Mary traveled all over the country performing on the stage. Conditions were far from glamorous. Life in a traveling theatre company involved cheap rooming houses, squalid accommodations, and cramped train trips. Clothes were washed in the sink with homemade soap. With no time for formal education, Mary learned to read by glazing at billboards while riding on the train. It was during these years that her business acumen began to form. While still a child, Mary quickly learned how to negotiate with theatre managers, rooming houses, and developed the razor-sharp instincts that would serve her well in Hollywood.
In the infancy of movies, many stage performers frowned at the prospect of going to work in front of the camera. It was slumming, but the Pickford family needed the money. When she approached director D.W. Griffith at the Biograph company in 1909 he said, “You’re too little and too fat, but I may give you a chance”. Mary would quickly prove him wrong. She seized the opportunity and quickly declared her worth pointing out that she was a seasoned veteran who had already spent a decade on the stage. The going rate was $5 a day, but Pickford demanded $10 per day with a $25 per week guarantee. After stints at Biograph and IMP, Mary soared to even greater heights when she signed with producer Adolph Zukor of Famous Players. Her films drew long lines, big box office, and stacks of fan mail.
In 1914 Mary starred in the drama “Tess of the Storm Country” where she played an impoverished young woman fighting for the rights of the poor and oppressed. The film struck a nerve with audiences and Pickford achieved a level of stardom and fan adoration that was unique in the fledgling film industry. On-screen, Mary often starred a plucky, determined little girl in films such as “Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm” (1917) “Daddy-Long-Legs” (1919), “Pollyanna” (1920) “Little Annie Rooney” (1925) and “Sparrows” (1926). Dubbed “America’s Sweetheart”, enormous crowds flocked to her public appearances around the world.
Off-screen Mary fought for equal pay long before it became a prominent issue. She learned that her salary was less than half of what comedy star Charlie Chaplin was making when she was on equal footing as a star and delivered far more films for exhibitors. Making matters worse, she learned that Zukor was forcing exhibitors to accept lackluster films in order to run the highly profitable ones in which Mary starred in a practice known as “block booking”. She realized her financial importance and demanded a contract to reflect it. In 1916 she negotiated a contract that paid her 50% of the net profits from her films, not less than $1 million and payable at the rate of $10,000 per week during the run of the contract. That comes out to just over $236K per week with current inflation. Mary also had approval over her directors and all cast members in her films. The new contract also stipulated that Zukor not use her films for block booking. She might have been small and seemingly innocent on the surface, but that belied an incredible strength and intelligence.
In 1918 Mary and her mother established the Mary Pickford Company and the next year she formed United Artists with Douglas Fairbanks, Charlie Chaplin, and director D.W. Griffith. Pickford and Fairbanks married in 1920 after their respective divorces were finalized. They became Hollywood’s first A-list power couple and lived in a house the press called “Pickfair”. Many notable people on the world’s stage coveted an invitation and guests included the likes of Amelia Earhart and Albert Einstein. Pickford and Fairbanks were accorded the status of royalty on their extensive world travels. They were leaders and standard bearers for the industry.
Meanwhile, Mary continued to work at a rapid pace churning out films, running United Artists, and was always involved in philanthropic endeavors. She and Fairbanks helped raise millions for the war bonds and ambulances during WWI and Mary founded the Motion Picture Relief Fund and Home, which is still in operation today. Pickford and Fairbanks were also co-founders of the Motion Picture Academy of Arts and Sciences.
In the late 1920s, Mary Pickford’s mother Charlotte died of cancer. She was Mary’s best friend, advisor, and the driving force behind her success. Seeking to rebel and end her perception as the “little girl” character forever, Mary went to a New York salon and had her famous curls cut off. It made the cover of the New York Times and signaled the end of an era. The famous haircut led to a torrent of criticism from fans who expected her to remain the little girl forever. She later said, "You would have thought I had murdered someone, and perhaps I had, but only to give her successor a chance to live.”
When sound arrived, the artistic side of Mary resisted the change, but as a businesswoman, she recognized that sound was the future of film. Her talking debut “Coquette” was the most commercially successful film of her career and netted her an Academy Award for Best Actress in 1929. She made a total of four talking pictures and then her acting career was over. Her sense of loss continued when her brother Jack died in 1933 and sister Lottie died in 1936. The fabled marriage to Fairbanks ended in divorce in 1936 and he died of heart problems only three years later.
In 1937 Mary married Buddy Rogers, her co-star in her final silent film “My Best Girl”. They remained married until her death in 1979. Pickford remained active behind the scenes as a producer and penned the autobiography “Sunshine and Shadow”. Eventually, she retreated from public life and had certainly earned a much-needed rest. Before her death, Mary was awarded an honorary Academy Award for her “her unique contributions to the film industry and the development of film as an artistic medium.” Her achievements, determination, and demand for equality still resonate today.
On May 5, 2020, we celebrate the 110th anniversary of the release of The Unchanging Sea, filmed in Palos Verdes, a D.W. Griffith production starring America's sweetheart of her day Miss Mary Pickford, just a young woman of about 18 years old in 1910. Thankfully The Unchanging Sea survives today. Less than 14 minutes in length it can be seen here.
To learn more about her extraordinary life, please check out the following books:
Pickford: The Woman Who Made Hollywood by Eileen Whitfield
Mary Pickford, America’s Sweetheart by Scott Eyman
Mary Pickford: Queen of the Movies by Cristel Schmidt
Mary Pickford Rediscovered by Kevin Brownlow
Karie Bible is the in house tour guide at Hollywood Forever Cemetery and has been giving tours several times a month since 2002. She has appeared on Turner Classic Movies, CNN, The Reelz Channel and her tour has been written up in the Los Angeles Times and Best of LA Weekly. She co-authored the books "Location Filming in Los Angeles" and "Hollywood Celebrates the Holidays". www.cemeterytour.com