Dear Friends of Milestone (and acquaintences and everybody else),
Please forgive the intrusion, but we thought you might be interested in
today's article in the New York Times regarding our Mary Pickford series at
Film Forum.
Dennis Doros
Milestone Film
New York Times
July 7, 1997
Mary Pickford: Under the Curls, a Determined Mind
By STEPHANIE ELIZONDO GRIEST
NEW YORK -- A common perception of Mary Pickford may be that when she died
at 87 she was still America's sweetheart, the girl with a headful of curls in
dozens of silent films. But to a new biographer, Eileen Whitfield, that is
about as true to life as the image of Charlie Chaplin in a silk top hat
eating caviar and seducing negligee-clad women.
"Mary Pickford's style was more, 'You be straight with me or I'll kick
you,"' said Ms. Whitfield, whose biography, "Pickford: The Woman Who Made
Hollywood," is to be published by the University Press of Kentucky in
September. "She knew what she was worth, and she didn't hesitate to ask for
it. She was a woman in complete control."
Starting Monday night, Pickford, the first woman to become a movie mogul
and one of the founders of United Artists, is returning to the screen in a
retrospective, "Mary Pickford: Superstar," sponsored by Milestone Film and
the Mary Pickford Foundation. Two of her movies will be shown each week at
the Film Forum through Aug. 25, beginning with "My Best Girl" and "Sparrows,"
before the retrospective embarks on a two-year worldwide tour.
In addition, Milestone plans to release at least five of Pickford's films
on video this year, and the foundation just finished a two-hour documentary
about her life, with Whoopi Goldberg as narrator. There is also another
biography under way.
Though Pickford remained a recognizable Hollywood name throughout her life,
her work -- some 52 feature films and 141 shorts, all but four of them
silents -- did not. Even today many of her films are accessible only to
scholars and have not been shown in theaters since their premieres 70 or more
years ago.
Pickford, named Gladys Smith at her birth in 1892, took to the stage when
her father died and at age 5 had already become the primary breadwinner of
her struggling family. She starred on Broadway at 14, and by 16 had informed
the filmmaker D.W. Griffith that she was an actress and would accept no less
than $25 a week plus overtime. She always demanded that her salary match
Chaplin's, and at her peak she made $350,000 a picture.
On camera, she played everything from Cockney slaves to paralyzed rich
girls and sometimes, as in the case of her 1918 classic, "Stella Maris," she
played them simultaneously. But her audience preferred her innocent
little-girl persona, and films like "Pollyanna," "Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm"
and "A Little Princess" were favorites.
"People wanted her to stick with an image she was trying to get away from:
that of a young girl," said Elana Archer, the manager of the Mary Pickford
Library in Beverly Hills, Calif., who maintains a continuing search
throughout the world for long-lost reels. "When they saw her get old, they
lost interest. She was afraid of becoming a giant anachronism, so she chose
to bow out."
Although in 1929 Pickford won the first of two Academy Awards, for her
performance in the talkie "Coquette," her transition from the silents was
arduous. She retired from films in 1933, moving on to radio performances and
writing several books. She was married three times, each time to a movie
actor, including Douglas Fairbanks. She eventually took up philanthropy, and
over the years her foundation has raised more than $10 million for various
charities and institutions like the Motion Picture Relief Fund.
"She represents the birth of superstardom and the female executive," said
Jeanine Basinger, the Corwin-Fuller Professor of Film Studies at Wesleyan
University in Middletown, Conn. "She addressed the hardships that women face
and she lived the liberated life."
Still, Mary Pickford was her own harshest critic.
"She believed people had forgotten how to watch silent film, and they would
find it laughable," Ms. Whitfield said. "She went to her grave feeling that
her work would not stand the test of time. But she really is a 1997 woman."
Copyright 1997 The New York Times
---------------------
Forwarded message:
Subj: Mary Pickford in NYT
Date: 97-07-07 13:09:14 EDT
From: Mile Films
To: Mile Films
Mary Pickford: Under the Curls, a Determined Mind
By STEPHANIE ELIZONDO GRIEST
NEW YORK -- A common perception of Mary Pickford may be that when she died
at 87 she was still America's sweetheart, the girl with a headful of curls in
dozens of silent films. But to a new biographer, Eileen Whitfield, that is
about as true to life as the image of Charlie Chaplin in a silk top hat
eating caviar and seducing negligee-clad women.
"Mary Pickford's style was more, 'You be straight with me or I'll kick
you,"' said Ms. Whitfield, whose biography, "Pickford: The Woman Who Made
Hollywood," is to be published by the University Press of Kentucky in
September. "She knew what she was worth, and she didn't hesitate to ask for
it. She was a woman in complete control."
Starting Monday night, Pickford, the first woman to become a movie mogul
and one of the founders of United Artists, is returning to the screen in a
retrospective, "Mary Pickford: Superstar," sponsored by Milestone Film and
the Mary Pickford Foundation. Two of her movies will be shown each week at
the Film Forum through Aug. 25, beginning with "My Best Girl" and "Sparrows,"
before the retrospective embarks on a two-year worldwide tour.
In addition, Milestone plans to release at least five of Pickford's films
on video this year, and the foundation just finished a two-hour documentary
about her life, with Whoopi Goldberg as narrator. There is also another
biography under way.
Though Pickford remained a recognizable Hollywood name throughout her life,
her work -- some 52 feature films and 141 shorts, all but four of them
silents -- did not. Even today many of her films are accessible only to
scholars and have not been shown in theaters since their premieres 70 or more
years ago.
Pickford, named Gladys Smith at her birth in 1892, took to the stage when
her father died and at age 5 had already become the primary breadwinner of
her struggling family. She starred on Broadway at 14, and by 16 had informed
the filmmaker D.W. Griffith that she was an actress and would accept no less
than $25 a week plus overtime. She always demanded that her salary match
Chaplin's, and at her peak she made $350,000 a picture.
On camera, she played everything from Cockney slaves to paralyzed rich
girls and sometimes, as in the case of her 1918 classic, "Stella Maris," she
played them simultaneously. But her audience preferred her innocent
little-girl persona, and films like "Pollyanna," "Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm"
and "A Little Princess" were favorites.
"People wanted her to stick with an image she was trying to get away from:
that of a young girl," said Elana Archer, the manager of the Mary Pickford
Library in Beverly Hills, Calif., who maintains a continuing search
throughout the world for long-lost reels. "When they saw her get old, they
lost interest. She was afraid of becoming a giant anachronism, so she chose
to bow out."
Although in 1929 Pickford won the first of two Academy Awards, for her
performance in the talkie "Coquette," her transition from the silents was
arduous. She retired from films in 1933, moving on to radio performances and
writing several books. She was married three times, each time to a movie
actor, including Douglas Fairbanks. She eventually took up philanthropy, and
over the years her foundation has raised more than $10 million for various
charities and institutions like the Motion Picture Relief Fund.
"She represents the birth of superstardom and the female executive," said
Jeanine Basinger, the Corwin-Fuller Professor of Film Studies at Wesleyan
University in Middletown, Conn. "She addressed the hardships that women face
and she lived the liberated life."
Still, Mary Pickford was her own harshest critic.
"She believed people had forgotten how to watch silent film, and they would
find it laughable," Ms. Whitfield said. "She went to her grave feeling that
her work would not stand the test of time. But she really is a 1997 woman."
Copyright 1997 The New York Times
----
Screen-L is sponsored by the Telecommunication & Film Dept., the
University of Alabama.
|
