Perhaps not a single subsonic movie actress was as popular as Pickford Mary. Theater and film actress, the first business woman of Hollywood, the founder of a number of acting nominations and so on and so forth. It is difficult to say what its amazing popularity consisted of. Beauty, talent and wealth are far from uncommon in her homeland. But a unique combination of these qualities made Mary Pickford the banner of silent cinema and the symbol of an era.
Biography
The future movie star was born in 1892 in a family of Irish immigrants. Her real name was Gladys Mary Louise Smith, the pseudonym Mary Pickford appeared much later. The girl was not the only child - her sister Lottie was born after her, and after her brother Jack was born. The father of the future actress never stayed long at one job, and children from an early age used to move from place to place in search of a cheaper city to live in. The father could not feed his family and soon left his wife with small children in her arms. Charlotte moved to Toronto and declared herself a widow - it was easier for a respectable woman with three children to find work.
To make ends meet, the mother had to give her girls to the theater, where they played small roles in various children's performances.
When Jack grew up, a close-knit family proclaimed itself a stage troupe, but Mary was still the main breadwinner of the family.
Relationship with mother
Constant touring and stressful life did not provide Gladys Smith with the opportunity to get an education. In schools, she studied only a couple of months a year, her mother taught her basic literacy and arithmetic. Mary had a special, trusting relationship with her, which the future actress greatly valued.
Aspiring actress
In those days, family melodramas and small children's tales enjoyed particular success among the spectators of provincial theaters. The play "The Silver King" was a typical performance, not the first year to appear on the scene. But the seven-year-old actress, who played the main role in it, caused a storm of delight among the audience. It was then that she clearly demonstrated stage talent. There were later roles in Uncle Tom's Cabin and East Lynn. Mary was noticed and invited on an ongoing basis to a professional troupe.
Touring America
The actress received her first professional theatrical experience in the vans of the company “Valentine Company”. A harsh life in cold, undeveloped vans, an eternal lack of money, constant traveling would break the life of an adult actor. But Mary Pickford was persistent. She taught new roles, achieved the desired reaction from the audience and studied, studied, studied.
Desperate step
Mary worked in several troupes and traveled around the country in search of small incomes and great luck. In the fall of 1907, she received a permanent engagement from producer David Belasco with a salary of $ 25 per week. At the insistence of the producer, she changed her name and became known as Mary Pickford. December 3, her debut on Broadway.
Out of work again
The family play Warrens of Virginia has been shown 308 times. But at the end of the performance, Belasco did not renew the contract with Mary. The need to maintain a beloved family pushed the actress to a desperate act - she and her mother went to New York to try their luck in cinema. By hook or by crook, she made her way through a series of secretaries, advisers and theater agents and ensured that the famous David Griffith ordered her samples. To demonstrate her acting skills, Mary chose the monologue of a little boy who begs the policeman not to arrest him. The role of the policeman in this monologue was played by a chair.
Movie debut
Griffith was so impressed with the actress's play that he signed a contract with her for a weekly salary of $ 10 a week, although he usually paid much less to novice actors. As the film director later admitted, he could not refuse the actress "because of her outrageously beautiful eyes."
In those days, small movie clips were shot for several hours, and lasted about 12 minutes. Her first film, Lonely Villa, lasted only 8 minutes. There were no special scenarios, there were not even captions indicating the names of the actors. But the audience remembered the actress - for the audience she became a little girl with golden curls, who played her part not with expressive gestures, but with her indescribable eyes.
Serious roles
After a short period during which she returned to the stage, Mary Pickford was busy with the movie. Director A. Tsukor invited her to play a major role in the film adaptation of the play. The success of "Tess from the Storm Country" was staggering - newspapers asked viewers to take seats in movie theaters early to avoid crowding.
So Mary Pickford took place in the movie. Working with this producer was very successful: in four years of filming, a small woman turned into an idol, which was worshiped by all of America. One of the first sensational tapes of the time was “Poor Little Rich Girl”. Mary Pickford played a major role in it. The actress took advantage of her role, presenting the audience all the feelings of the daughter of wealthy parents. The finale of the tape forced many to rethink their attitude towards children.
The success of the paintings with her participation was so great that the actress decided to create her own rental studio for the fees received. Its co-founders were Douglas Fairbanks and Charlie Chaplin. Newspapers nicknamed her "Pioneer Mary Pickford," because she became the first actress in the world with her own studio. Mary also assigned a large role to public work - during the First World War she made proposals to buy military bonds, visited the wounded, and donated large sums to charity. It is amazing that at the same time she found the strength in herself and act in films. Films with her participation went around the world and made Mary a first-rate star in silent cinema. And active social activity only ignited a few additional rays in its aura of glory.
So actress Mary Pickford has become one of the most influential women in the film industry. Her popularity was contributed a lot by the fact that she married one of America's most attractive men.
Brilliant marriage
Douglas Fairbanks and Mary Pickford met at a Hollywood party. Mary was then married to Owen Moore, an actor, and Fairbanks was married to her wife Gladys for more than 10 years. But this did not stop them from falling in love with each other. Both Mary and Douglas carefully concealed their feelings, but in the end they broke the previous ties and got married.
Heyday of fame
The early 20s caught Douglas and Mary Pickford at the pinnacle of fame. They were worshiped, deified. The appearance of the couple could stall the movement of cars in any city. Their fame spread far beyond the borders of the country - for silent film did not know any language barriers. In 1927, she arrives with her husband in the Soviet Union, where she plays the main role in the film "Mary Pickford's Kiss." 1927 - the time of recognition on the world stage of the young Country of Soviets. In the film, an American movie star was shot together by Soviet actors Igor Ilyinsky and Vera Malinovskaya. “Kiss Mary Pickford” is a comedy telling about how a world star kissed a simple Soviet guy Vasya Palkin. Many shots were shot in Ukraine, and after they were skillfully mounted. “Mary Pickford's Kiss” was launched in 1927, a copy of it was solemnly handed to the actress herself.
Talkies
The era of sound cinema began in America in the late 20s. The sunset of silent movie Mary Pickford was approaching. Roles in the movie were still easy for her, but the reason for the decline in popularity was the age of the actress. After all, she was far from a girl, but the audience did not want to see her in more adult images. One of the first roles in the sound film was Norma in the movie "Coquette." For this tape, Mary Pickford received an Oscar, but still the film was not accepted by the audience with the same enthusiasm that the previous tapes with the participation of the first business woman of Hollywood. Suddenly, problems fell - the mother of the actress, who was her best friend for many years, died, the brilliant Fairbanks began to walk, trying to act like in his youth. The marriage of Mary Pickford broke up, but the strength to continue the stage career was gone.
Third marriage
After the divorce, Mary was not long left alone. She married one of her film partners. Pickford's chosen one - jazz musician Buddy Rogers - was 15 years younger than the actress.
Buddy and Mary were an exemplary American couple. Since they did not have their children, they adopted a boy, Ronald and a girl, Roxanne. This marriage lasted more than forty years and ended only in the death of Buddy from a heart attack.
Last years
Mary spent her old age alone. Siblings died before her, foster children began to live their own lives. But society did not forget the contribution of a small woman to cinema - on the slope of her days, in 1976 she received an honorary Oscar for her invaluable role in the film industry. At the end of her life, she asked Canada - her home country - to restore her citizenship. Her request was granted.
In 1979, at the age of 89, Mary Pickford died - the owner of two Oscars, an honorary citizen of two countries, a small woman who fell in love with herself the whole world ..