Canadian-born actress and producer Mary Pickford, widely known as America’s Sweetheart, was one of the first American celebrities of the silent film era. Many people still recognize her name but they are unaware of her many accomplishments. I had occasion to do some in-depth research about her life and career in preparation for an interview about Pickford on David Heath’s film podcast. Here’s what I discovered about this remarkable woman:
Pickford began her career as a child performer in vaudeville, appearing once in my hometown of Columbus, Ohio. Her father died when she was seven-years-old and she became the breadwinner of the family, supporting her mother and two siblings. At one point, the family was so poor her mother considered allowing a doctor and his wife to adopt Mary (still known at that time as Gladys). She was terrified of the family becoming separated and took on all of the stage work she could find in order to keep the family together. Her goal was to appear on the Broadway stage which she did twice, initially in a small role in the Civil War drama The Warrens of Virginia in 1907–08 and later in a more prominent role in A Good Little Devil in 1913, after impressing producer David Belasco with her acting ability and determination.
Pickford was a visionary who foresaw the use of film as an artistic medium which would have lasting impact. In 1909, she began working with director D.W. Griffith in what was the start of a film career encompassing over 200 movies. This was an astonishing record for any actor. She quickly became known for accurately and sensitively playing child roles long after she had left adolescence. In 1915, she formed her own corporation and negotiated her own contracts, rivaling those of Charlie Chaplin. In 1919, Pickford joined forces with Chaplin and formed United Artists along with her husband, actor Douglas Fairbanks.
Pickford’s films reflected her sense of justice: cruel characters often got their comeuppance. Parents and guardians ranged from blithely oblivious to their child’s sadness and loneliness to physically abusive guardians and nannies. In the film Stella Maris (1918), Pickford played the striking duel roles of rich invalid Stella and the orphaned Unity who was taken in by Stella’s extended family as a servant. At one point, Unity is beaten unconscious by her adoptive mother, who is charged with child abuse and serves a three-year prison term. The adoptive mother has no redeeming characteristics — she is seen drinking heavily, chain smoking, and rejecting the support of her husband. The character serves as an archetype to balance the sweet, kind, gentle Stella, who recovers from an undisclosed condition and gains the ability to walk. As one of Pickford’s darker films, a resolution for love and harmony is found through murder and suicide.
Some of Pickford’s popular films included Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm (1917), Poor Little Rich Girl (1917), and Tess of the Storm Country (1922). The first two of these films cemented Pickford’s image as the innocent child, a role her public favored, even as she aged into her 30s. Through the eyes of a child, Pickford could make statements about societal issues of poverty, child abuse, and adoption in a non-threatening and non-pedagogical manner. Largely because Pickford refused to have her films included in silent film revivals and had her films pulled from circulation in the 1970s, her characters have been mistakenly remembered as sheltered and saccharine sweet when in fact she often acted in roles of independent, strong girls, ready to defend themselves or the underdog, if provoked. This no-nonsense temperament was also part of Pickford’s personal identity. Once, in a heated disagreement with D. W. Griffith, Pickford bit his hand.
Pickford was socially forward thinking in acting with a multi-racial cast in Little Annie Rooney (1925). She won the Academy Award for best actress in Coquette in 1929. In other films, Pickford illustrated the evils of gossip, as in The New York Hat (1912). This is one of my favorites, partly because I’m a hat collector and have one from this era. In Ramona, (1910), Pickford paints a picture of the plight of Native Americas against the lush backdrop of the mountains of the American West. Pickford’s films often made use of fantasy and dream sequences, as in Cinderella (1914). In the pre-Disney era, Pickford’s version of the fairytale is replete with spirits of the forest and a sorceress.
Pickford’s career came to a halt with the talking film era. She may have enjoyed a longer film career had she not lost the people closest to her during the late 1920s and in the 1930s. Her mother, Charlotte, who guided Pickford’s film career and helped negotiate deals, passed away in 1928; siblings Jack and Lottie passed respectively in 1933 and 1936; she and Fairbanks divorced in 1936. Fairbanks passed in 1939, having stated that he regretted their divorce. Pickford went on to form a cosmetics company, work in radio, and author books. She was given a Lifetime Achievement award in 1976, an honor given to friend and colleague Charlie Chaplin in 1972.
Pickford’s position as the head of studio created controversy and cast her unfeminine. Some critics pointed to her work as the reason for her divorce from Fairbanks. Her film image as an innocent child caused some feminist film theorists to overlook her work as insignificant, dismissing some of the truly important films of the early twentieth-century. Many of Pickford’s classics can be viewed on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=mary+pickford+movies I encourage anyone with an interest in learning more about Pickford to visit this page. Much of my information on Mary Pickford was found in the book, Mary Pickford: Queen of the Movies, edited by Cristel Schmidt. Look for David Heath’s podcast on Pickford to be posted in spring 2019. Photo credit: bookhaven.stanford.edu.
