Lord Mountbatten,
Fritz Kreisler
Friedrich "Fritz" Kreisler (February 2, 1875 – January 29, 1962) was an Austrian-born American violinist and composer. One of the most noted violin masters of his day, and regarded as one of the greatest violinists of all time, he was known ...
,
Amelia Earhart
Amelia Mary Earhart ( , born July 24, 1897; disappeared July 2, 1937; declared dead January 5, 1939) was an American aviation pioneer and writer. Earhart was the first female aviator to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean. She set many oth ...
,
F. Scott Fitzgerald
Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald (September 24, 1896 – December 21, 1940) was an American novelist, essayist, and short story writer. He is best known for his novels depicting the flamboyance and excess of the Jazz Age—a term he popularize ...
,
Noël Coward
Sir Noël Peirce Coward (16 December 189926 March 1973) was an English playwright, composer, director, actor, and singer, known for his wit, flamboyance, and what ''Time'' magazine called "a sense of personal style, a combination of cheek and ...
,
Max Reinhardt
Max Reinhardt (; born Maximilian Goldmann; 9 September 1873 – 30 October 1943) was an Austrian-born theatre and film director, intendant, and theatrical producer. With his innovative stage productions, he is regarded as one of the most pro ...
,
Baron Nishi,
Vladimir Nemirovich-Danchenko
Vladimir Ivanovich Nemirovich-Danchenko (russian: Владимир Иванович Немирович-Данченко; , Ozurgeti – 25 April 1943, Moscow), was a Soviet and Russian theatre director, writer, pedagogue, playwright, producer an ...
,
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
Sir Arthur Ignatius Conan Doyle (22 May 1859 – 7 July 1930) was a British writer and physician. He created the character Sherlock Holmes in 1887 for '' A Study in Scarlet'', the first of four novels and fifty-six short stories about Ho ...
,
Austen Chamberlain
Sir Joseph Austen Chamberlain (16 October 1863 – 16 March 1937) was a British statesman, son of Joseph Chamberlain and older half-brother of Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain. He served as Chancellor of the Exchequer (twice) and was briefly ...
,
Sir Harry Lauder, and
Meher Baba
Meher Baba (born Merwan Sheriar Irani; 25 February 1894 – 31 January 1969) was an Indian spiritual master who said he was the Avatar, or God in human form, of the age. A major spiritual figure of the 20th century, he had a following of ...
, among others. However, the public nature of Pickford's second marriage strained it to the breaking point. Both she and Fairbanks had little time off from producing and acting in their films. They were also constantly on display as America's unofficial ambassadors to the world, leading parades, cutting ribbons, and making speeches. When their film careers both began to flounder at the end of the silent era, Fairbanks' restless nature prompted him to overseas travel (something which Pickford did not enjoy). When Fairbanks' romance with
Sylvia, Lady Ashley became public in the early 1930s, he and Pickford separated. They divorced January 10, 1936. Fairbanks' son by his first wife,
Douglas Fairbanks Jr., claimed his father and Pickford long regretted their inability to reconcile.
On June 24, 1937, Pickford married her third and last husband, actor and band leader Charles "Buddy" Rogers. They adopted two children: Roxanne (born 1944, adopted 1944) and Ronald Charles (born 1937, adopted 1943, a.k.a. Ronnie Pickford Rogers). A PBS ''
American Experience
''American Experience'' is a television program airing on the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) in the United States. The program airs documentaries, many of which have won awards, about important or interesting events and people in American his ...
'' documentary described Pickford's relationship with her children as tense. She criticized their physical imperfections, including Ronnie's small stature and Roxanne's crooked teeth. Both children later said their mother was too self-absorbed to provide real maternal love. In 2003, Ronnie recalled that "Things didn't work out that much, you know. But I'll never forget her. I think that she was a good woman."
Political views
Pickford supported
Thomas Dewey in the
1944 United States presidential election,
Barry Goldwater in the
1964 United States presidential election and
Ronald Reagan
Ronald Wilson Reagan ( ; February 6, 1911June 5, 2004) was an American politician, actor, and union leader who served as the 40th president of the United States from 1981 to 1989. He also served as the 33rd governor of California from 1967 ...
in his
race for governor in 1966.
Later years and death
After retiring from the screen, Pickford became an alcoholic, as her father had been. Her mother Charlotte died of breast cancer in March 1928. Her siblings, Lottie and Jack, both died of alcohol-related causes in 1936 and 1933, respectively. These deaths, her divorce from Fairbanks, and the end of silent films left Pickford deeply depressed. Her relationship with her adopted children, Roxanne and Ronald, was turbulent at best. Pickford withdrew and gradually became a recluse, remaining almost entirely at Pickfair and allowing visits only from
Lillian Gish, her stepson
Douglas Fairbanks Jr., and a few select others.
In 1955, she published her memoirs, ''Sunshine and Shadows''.
[ She had previously published ''Why Not Try God'' in 1934, an essay on spirituality and personal growth, ''My Rendevouz of Life'' (1935), an essay on death and her belief in an afterlife and also a novel in 1935, ''The Demi-Widow''.][ She appeared in court in 1959, in a matter pertaining to her co-ownership of North Carolina TV station WSJS-TV. The court date coincided with the date of her 67th birthday; under oath, when asked to give her age, Pickford replied: "I'm 21, going on 20."
In the mid-1960s, Pickford often received visitors only by telephone, speaking to them from her bedroom. ]Charles "Buddy" Rogers
Charles Edward "Buddy" Rogers (August 13, 1904 – April 21, 1999) was an American film actor and musician. During the peak of his popularity in the late 1920s and early 1930s he was publicized as "America's Boyfriend".
Life and career
Early ...
often gave guests tours of Pickfair
Pickfair is a mansion and estate in the city of Beverly Hills, California with legendary history. The original Pickfair was an 18 acre (7.3 ha) estate designed by architect Horatio Cogswell for attorney Lee Allen Phillips of Berkeley Square a ...
, including views of a genuine western bar Pickford had bought for Douglas Fairbanks, and a portrait of Pickford in the drawing room. A print of this image now hangs in the Library of Congress
The Library of Congress (LOC) is the research library that officially serves the United States Congress and is the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It is the oldest federal cultural institution in the country. The library is ...
. When Pickford received an Academy Honorary Award in 1976, the Academy
An academy ( Attic Greek: Ἀκαδήμεια; Koine Greek Ἀκαδημία) is an institution of secondary or tertiary higher learning (and generally also research or honorary membership). The name traces back to Plato's school of philosophy ...
sent a TV crew to her house to record her short statement of thanks – offering the public a very rare glimpse into Pickfair Manor. Charitable events continued to be held at Pickfair, including an annual Christmas party for blind war veterans, mostly from World War I.[
Pickford believed that she had ceased to be a British subject when she married Fairbanks, an American citizen, in 1920. Thus, she never acquired Canadian citizenship when it was first created in 1947. However, Pickford held and traveled under a British/Canadian passport which she renewed regularly at the British/Canadian consulates in Los Angeles, and she did not take out papers for American citizenship. She also owned a house in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Toward the end of her life, Pickford made arrangements with the Canadian Department of Citizenship to officially acquire Canadian citizenship because she wished to "die as a Canadian". Canadian authorities were not sure that she had ever lost her Canadian citizenship, given her passport status, but her request was approved and she officially became a Canadian citizen.
On May 29, 1979, Pickford died at a ]Santa Monica, California
Santa Monica (; Spanish language, Spanish: ''Santa Mónica'') is a city in Los Angeles County, California, Los Angeles County, situated along Santa Monica Bay on California's South Coast (California), South Coast. Santa Monica's 2020 United Sta ...
, hospital of complications from a cerebral hemorrhage she had suffered the week before. She was interred in the Garden of Memory of the Forest Lawn Memorial Park cemetery in Glendale Glendale is the anglicised version of the Gaelic Gleann Dail, which means ''valley of fertile, low-lying arable land''.
It may refer to:
Places Australia
* Glendale, New South Wales
** Stockland Glendale, a shopping centre
*Glendale, Queensland, ...
, California.
Legacy
* Pickford was awarded a star in the category of motion pictures on the Hollywood Walk of Fame
The Hollywood Walk of Fame is a historic landmark which consists of more than 2,700 five-pointed terrazzo and brass stars embedded in the sidewalks along 15 blocks of Hollywood Boulevard and three blocks of Vine Street in Hollywood, Californ ...
at 6280 Hollywood Blvd.
* Her handprints and footprints are displayed at Grauman's Chinese Theatre in Hollywood, California.
*She is represented in Hergé
Georges Prosper Remi (; 22 May 1907 – 3 March 1983), known by the pen name Hergé (; ), from the French pronunciation of his reversed initials ''RG'', was a Belgian cartoonist. He is best known for creating ''The Adventures of Tintin'', ...
's ''Tintin in America
''Tintin in America'' (french: link=no, Tintin en Amérique) is the third volume of ''The Adventures of Tintin'', the comics series by Belgian cartoonist Hergé. Commissioned by the conservative Belgian newspaper for its children's supplement ...
''.
* The Pickford Center for Motion Picture Study
The Pickford Center for Motion Picture Study
The Pickford Center for Motion Picture Study is one of three Los Angeles-area facilities of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, located at 1313 Vine Street in central Hollywood. Precise ...
at 1313 Vine Street in Hollywood, constructed by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, opened in 1948 as a radio and television studio facility.
* The Mary Pickford Theater
The Mary Pickford Theater, named in honor of silent film star Mary Pickford, is the "motion picture and television reading room" of the United States' Library of Congress in Washington, D.C.
)
, image_skyline =
, image_caption ...
at the James Madison Memorial Building
The James Madison Memorial Building is one of three United States Capitol Complex buildings that house the Library of Congress. The building was constructed from 1971 to 1976, and serves as the official memorial to President James Madison. It is ...
of the Library of Congress
The Library of Congress (LOC) is the research library that officially serves the United States Congress and is the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It is the oldest federal cultural institution in the country. The library is ...
is named in her honor.
* A prohibition-era cocktail was named in her honor.
* The Mary Pickford Auditorium at Claremont McKenna College is named in her honor.
* In 1948, Mary Pickford built a seven-bedroom, eight-bathroom, estate on at the B Bar H Ranch, California, where she lived and then later sold.
* A first-run movie theatre in Cathedral City, California
Cathedral City, colloquially known as "Cat City", is a desert resort city in Riverside County, California, United States, within the Colorado Desert's Coachella Valley. Situated between Palm Springs and Rancho Mirage, the city has the second larg ...
, is called The Mary Pickford Theatre, which was established on May 25, 2001. The theater is a grand one with several screens and is built in the shape of a Spanish Cathedral, complete with bell tower and three-story lobby. The lobby contains a historic display with original artifacts belonging to Pickford and Buddy Rogers, her last husband. Among them are a rare and spectacular beaded gown she wore in the film ''Dorothy Vernon of Haddon Hall
''Dorothy Vernon of Haddon Hall'' is a 1902 historical novel written by Charles Major. Following the life and romances of Dorothy Vernon in Elizabethan England, the novel became the year's third most successful novel according to '' The Bookman ...
'' (1924) designed by Mitchell Leisen
James Mitchell Leisen (October 6, 1898 – October 28, 1972) was an American director, art director, and costume designer.
Film career
He entered the film industry in the 1920s, beginning in the art and costume departments. He directed his f ...
, her special Oscar, and a jewelry box.
* The 1980 stage musical ''The Biograph Girl
''The Biograph Girl'' is a musical with a book by Warner Brown, lyrics by Brown and David Heneker, and music by Heneker. Its plot focuses on the silent film era and five pioneers of American cinema - actresses Mary Pickford and Lillian Gish, ...
'', about the silent film era, features the character of Pickford.
* In 2007, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS, often pronounced ; also known as simply the Academy or the Motion Picture Academy) is a professional honorary organization with the stated goal of advancing the arts and sciences of motio ...
sued the estate of the deceased Buddy Rogers' second wife, Beverly Rogers, in order to stop the public sale of one of Pickford's Oscars
The Academy Awards, better known as the Oscars, are awards for artistic and technical merit for the American and international film industry. The awards are regarded by many as the most prestigious, significant awards in the entertainment ind ...
.[; September 1, 2007.]
* A bust and historical plaque marks her birthplace in Toronto, now the site of the Hospital for Sick Children. The plaque was unveiled by her husband Buddy Rogers in 1973. The bust by artist Eino Gira was added ten years later. Her date of birth is stated on the plaque as April 8, 1893. This can only be assumed to be because her date of birth was never registered; throughout her life, beginning as a child, she led many people to believe that she was a year younger than her real age, so that she appeared to be more of an acting prodigy and continued to be cast in younger roles, which were more plentiful in the theatre.
* The family home had been demolished in 1943, and many of the bricks delivered to Pickford in California. Proceeds from the sale of the property were donated by Pickford to build a bungalow in East York, Ontario
East York is a former administrative district and municipality within Toronto, Ontario, Canada. From 1967 to 1998, it was officially the Borough of East York, a semi-autonomous borough within the upper-tier municipality of Metropolitan Toron ...
, which was then a Toronto suburb. The bungalow was the first prize in a lottery in Toronto to benefit war charities, and Pickford unveiled the home on May 26, 1943.
* In 1993, a Golden Palm Star on the Palm Springs Walk of Stars
The Palm Springs Walk of Stars is a walk of fame in downtown Palm Springs, California, where "Golden Palm Stars", honoring various people who have lived in the greater Palm Springs area, are embedded in the sidewalk pavement. The walk includes po ...
was dedicated to her.
* Pickford received a posthumous star on Canada's Walk of Fame
Canada's Walk of Fame (french: link=no, Allée des célébrités canadiennes) in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, is a walk of fame that acknowledges the achievements and accomplishments of Canadians who have excelled in their respective fields. It is a ...
in Toronto in 1999.
* Pickford was featured on a Canadian postage stamp in 2006.
* From January 2011 until July 2011, the Toronto International Film Festival
The Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF, often stylized as tiff) is one of the largest publicly attended film festivals in the world, attracting over 480,000 people annually. Since its founding in 1976, TIFF has grown to become a permane ...
exhibited a collection of Mary Pickford memorabilia in the Canadian Film Gallery of the TIFF Bell LightBox building.
* In February 2011, the Spadina Museum, dedicated to the 1920s and 1930s era in Toronto, staged performances of ''Sweetheart: The Mary Pickford Story'', a one-woman musical based on the life and career of Pickford.
* In 2013, a copy of an early Pickford film that was thought to be lost (''Their First Misunderstanding
''Their First Misunderstanding'' is a 1911 American short silent drama film directed by Thomas H. Ince and starring Mary Pickford and Owen Moore. Pickford and Moore married on January 7, 1911.
Cast
* Mary Pickford as Mae Darcy
* Owen Moore a ...
'') was found by Peter Massie, a carpenter tearing down an abandoned barn in New Hampshire
New Hampshire is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the northeastern United States. It is bordered by Massachusetts to the south, Vermont to the west, Maine and the Gulf of Maine to the east, and the Canadian province of Quebec t ...
. It was donated to Keene State College
Keene State College is a public liberal arts college in Keene, New Hampshire. It is part of the University System of New Hampshire and the Council of Public Liberal Arts Colleges. Founded in 1909 as a teacher's college (originally, Keene Norm ...
and is currently undergoing restoration by the Library of Congress
The Library of Congress (LOC) is the research library that officially serves the United States Congress and is the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It is the oldest federal cultural institution in the country. The library is ...
for exhibition. The film is notable as being the first in which Pickford was credited by name.
* On August 29, 2014, while presenting ''Behind The Scenes
In cinema, behind-the-scenes (BTS), also known as the making-of, the set, or on the set, is a type of documentary film that features the production of a film or television program. This is often referred to as the EPK (electronic press kit) vi ...
'' (1914) at Cinecon, film historian Jeffrey Vance
Jeffrey Vance (born May 21, 1970) is an American film historian and author who has published books on movie stars including Buster Keaton and Charlie Chaplin.
Career
While working as an archivist for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer/United Artists he met El ...
announced he is working with the Mary Pickford Foundation on what will be her official biography.
* The Google Doodle
A Google Doodle is a special, temporary alteration of the logo on Google's homepages intended to commemorate holidays, events, achievements, and notable historical figures. The first Google Doodle honored the 1998 edition of the long-running an ...
of April 8, 2017, commemorated Mary Pickford's 125th birthday.
* ''The Girls in the Picture'', a 2018 novel by Melanie Benjamin, is a historical fiction about the friendship of Mary Pickford and screenwriter Frances Marion
Frances Marion (born Marion Benson Owens, November 18, 1888 – May 12, 1973) was an American screenwriter, director, journalist and author often cited as one of the most renowned female screenwriters of the 20th century alongside June Mathis a ...
.
* On August 20, 2019, the Toronto International Film Festival
The Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF, often stylized as tiff) is one of the largest publicly attended film festivals in the world, attracting over 480,000 people annually. Since its founding in 1976, TIFF has grown to become a permane ...
announced Mati Diop
Mati Diop (born 22 June 1982) is a French-Senegalese filmmaker and actress who starred in the 2008 film '' 35 Shots of Rum''. She also directed the 2019 film '' Atlantics'', for which she became the first black female director to be in contentio ...
as the recipient of the first Mary Pickford Award.
File:Grauman's Chinese Theatre, mary pickford.JPG, Pickford's handprints and footprints at Grauman's Chinese Theatre in Hollywood, California
File:Mary Pickford star on Walk of Fame.jpg, Pickford's star on the Walk of Fame in Toronto
File:PickfordCenter01.jpg, Pickford Center for Motion Picture Study in Hollywood, California
Filmography
See also
* Timeline of Mary Pickford
* List of actors with Academy Award nominations
Notes
References
Citations
General sources
* Total pages: 680.
Further reading
*
*
*
*
Gladys goes to Hollywood
at ''100 Canadian Heroines: Famous and Forgotten Faces'', by Merna Forster, via Google Books
Google Books (previously known as Google Book Search, Google Print, and by its code-name Project Ocean) is a service from Google Inc. that searches the full text of books and magazines that Google has scanned, converted to text using optical c ...
, pp. 204 sq.
External links
*
*
*
Mary Pickford
at the Women Film Pioneers Project
About Mary Pickford
from the Mary Pickford Foundation website
Mary Pickford CBC Radio interview May 25, 1959
Mary Pickford
at the ''Encyclopædia Britannica
The (Latin for "British Encyclopædia") is a general knowledge English-language encyclopaedia. It is published by Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.; the company has existed since the 18th century, although it has changed ownership various time ...
''
Footage of Mary Pickford with Charlie Chaplin and Douglas Fairbanks in 1919
Mary Pickford
at Virtual History
Mary Pickford–Buddy Rogers correspondence, 1943–1976
held by the Billy Rose Theatre Division, New York Public Library for the Performing Arts
The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, Dorothy and Lewis B. Cullman Center, at 40 Lincoln Center Plaza, is located in Manhattan, New York City, at the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts on the Upper West Side, between the Metro ...
Mary Pickford scrapbook, 1915–1917
held by the Billy Rose Theatre Division, New York Public Library for the Performing Arts
Mary Pickford papers
Margaret Herrick Library, Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences
''Mary Pickford – Whose Real Name is Gladys Smith'' from ''Current Opinion Magazine'', June, 1918
{{DEFAULTSORT:Pickford, Mary
1892 births
1979 deaths
20th-century American actresses
20th-century American businesspeople
20th-century Canadian actresses
Academy Honorary Award recipients
Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences founders
Actresses from the Golden Age of Hollywood
Actresses from Toronto
American company founders
American women company founders
American film actresses
American film production company founders
American film producers
American people of English descent
American people of Irish descent
American radio actresses
American silent film actresses
American stage actresses
American women screenwriters
Best Actress Academy Award winners
Burials at Forest Lawn Memorial Park (Glendale)
Businesspeople from Toronto
Canadian emigrants to the United States
Canadian film actresses
Canadian film producers
Canadian people of English descent
Canadian people of Irish descent
Canadian silent film actresses
Canadian women film producers
Canadian women screenwriters
Paramount Pictures contract players
People with acquired American citizenship
United Artists
Vaudeville performers
Canadian women company founders
Women film pioneers
Writers from Toronto
20th-century American women writers
20th-century Canadian screenwriters
California Republicans
20th-century American screenwriters