Editing Mary Pickford (section)

=== Early years ===
[[File:Portrait of Mary Pickford, signed (CHS-2292) digital restoration.jpg|thumb|Mary Pickford, 1914–1915 (digitally restored)]]
[[File:Mary Pickford 1916.jpg|right|thumb|Mary Pickford, 1916]]
By the early 1900s, theatre had become a family enterprise. Gladys, her mother, and two younger siblings toured the United States by rail, performing in third-rate companies and plays. After six impoverished years, Pickford allowed one more summer to land a leading role on Broadway, planning to quit acting if she failed. In 1905, she played the boy Freckles in [[Hal Reid (actor)|Hal Reid]]'s ''[[The Gypsy Girl (play)|The Gypsy Girl]]'' on tour, and at the [[Star Theatre (New York City, built 1901)|Star Theatre]] on Broadway.{{sfn|Whitfield|1997|p=38}} In 1906, Gladys, Lottie, and Jack Smith supported singer [[Chauncey Olcott]] on Broadway in ''[[Edmund Burke]]''.<ref>{{cite book |last=Blum |first=Daniel C. |title=A Pictorial History of the American Theatre, 1860–1985 |publisher=Crown Publishers |location=New York |year=1986 |isbn=0517562588 |url=https://archive.org/details/pictorialhistory0000blum_x3w0/page/89/ |page=89 }}</ref> Gladys finally landed a supporting role in a 1907 Broadway play, ''[[The Warrens of Virginia (play)|The Warrens of Virginia]]''. The play was written by [[William C. deMille]], whose brother, [[Cecil B. DeMille|Cecil]], appeared in the cast. [[David Belasco]], the producer of the play, insisted that Gladys Smith assume the stage name Mary Pickford.<ref name="filmbug">{{cite web|title=Mary Pickford at Filmbug.|url=http://www.filmbug.com/db/342424|publisher=Filmbug|access-date=January 24, 2007}}</ref> After completing the Broadway run and touring the play, however, Pickford was again out of work.

On April 19, 1909, the [[Biograph Company]] director [[D. W. Griffith]] screen-tested her at the company's New York studio for a role in the [[nickelodeon (movie theater)|nickelodeon]] film ''[[Pippa Passes (film)|Pippa Passes]]''. The role went to someone else but Griffith was immediately taken with Pickford. She quickly grasped that movie acting was simpler than the stylized stage acting of the day. Most Biograph actors earned $5 a day but, after Pickford's single day in the studio, Griffith agreed to pay her $10 a day against a guarantee of $40 a week.<ref>{{cite book |last=Pickford |first=Mary |title=Sunshine and Shadow |publisher=Doubleday & Co. |year=1955 |location=Garden City, NY |oclc=1087225193 |language=English |others= Foreword by [[Cecil B. DeMille]].|page=10 }}</ref>

Pickford, like all actors at Biograph, played both leading roles and bit parts, including mothers, [[ingénue]]s, [[Charwoman|charwomen]], spitfires, slaves, Native Americans, spurned women, and a prostitute. As Pickford said of her success at Biograph:<blockquote>I played scrubwomen and secretaries and women of all nationalities ... I decided that if I could get into as many pictures as possible, I'd become known, and there would be a demand for my work.</blockquote> She appeared in 51 films in 1909—almost one a week—with her first starring role being in ''[[The Violin Maker of Cremona]]'' opposite future husband [[Owen Moore]].<ref name=varobit/> While at Biograph, she suggested to [[Florence La Badie]] to "try pictures", invited her to the studio and later introduced her to D. W. Griffith, who launched La Badie's career.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://11east14thstreet.com/2013/08/02/florence-la-badie-becoming/|title=Florence La Badie, Becoming|last=Zonarich|first=Gene|date=August 3, 2013|website=11 East 14th Street|access-date=April 8, 2017}}</ref>

In January 1910, Pickford traveled with a Biograph crew to Los Angeles. Many other film companies wintered on the [[West Coast of the United States|West Coast]], escaping the weak light and short days that hampered winter shooting in the [[East Coast of the United States|East]]. Pickford added to her 1909 Biographs (''Sweet and Twenty'', ''They Would Elope,'' and ''To Save Her Soul'', to name a few) with films made in California.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Mary Pickford Chronology |url=https://marypickford.org/mary-pickford-chronology/ |access-date=February 27, 2024 |website=Mary Pickford Foundation |language=en-US}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Mary Pickford, America's Sweetheart, born in Toronto, actress |url=https://www.discover-southern-ontario.com/mary-pickford.html |access-date=February 27, 2024 |website=www.discover-southern-ontario.com}}</ref>

Actors were not listed in the credits in Griffith's company. Audiences noticed and identified Pickford within weeks of her first film appearance. Exhibitors, in turn, capitalized on her popularity by advertising on [[sandwich board]]s that a film featuring "The Girl with the Golden Curls", "Blondilocks", or "The [[Biograph Girl]]" was inside.<ref>{{cite web |title=Mary Pickford, Silent Movie Star |website=goldensilents.com |date=2020-06-14 |url=https://www.goldensilents.com/stars/marypickford.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230222005326/https://www.goldensilents.com/stars/marypickford.html |archive-date=2023-02-22 |url-status=dead}}</ref>

Pickford left Biograph in December 1910. The following year, she starred in films at [[Carl Laemmle]]'s [[Independent Moving Pictures|Independent Moving Pictures Company]] (IMP). IMP was absorbed into [[Universal Pictures]] in 1912, along with Majestic. Unhappy with their creative standards, Pickford returned to work with Griffith in 1912. Some of her best performances were in his films, such as ''Friends'', ''The Mender of Nets'', ''Just Like a Woman'', and ''[[The Female of the Species (1912 film)|The Female of the Species]]''. That year, Pickford also introduced [[Dorothy Gish|Dorothy]] and [[Lillian Gish]]—whom she had befriended as new neighbors from Ohio<ref>{{cite book |last=Affron |first=Charles |title=Lillian Gish: Her Legend, Her Life |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=X44SqEVU2r4C&pg=PA19 |publisher=University of California Press |year=2002 |pages=19–20 |isbn=978-0-520-23434-5 }}</ref>—to Griffith,{{sfn|Whitfield|1997|pp=8, 25, 28, 115, 125, 126, 131, 300, 376}} and each became a major silent film star, in comedy and tragedy, respectively. Pickford made her last Biograph picture, ''[[The New York Hat]]'', in late 1912.

She returned to Broadway in the David Belasco production of ''[[A Good Little Devil]]'' (1912). This was a major turning point in her career. Pickford, who had always hoped to conquer the Broadway stage, discovered how deeply she missed film acting. In 1913, she decided to work exclusively in film. The previous year, [[Adolph Zukor]] had formed [[Famous Players Film Company|Famous Players in Famous Plays]]. It was later known as [[Famous Players–Lasky]] and then [[Paramount Pictures]], one of the first American feature film companies.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Adolph Zukor (1873–1976) {{!}} American Experience {{!}} PBS |url=https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/pickford-adolph-zukor-1873-1976/ |access-date=2025-03-24 |website=www.pbs.org |language=en}}</ref>
[[File:Mary Pickford with camera2.jpg|left|thumb|Mary Pickford, 1916]]
Pickford left the stage to join Zukor's roster of stars. Zukor believed film's potential lay in recording theatrical players in replicas of their most famous stage roles and productions. Zukor first filmed Pickford in a silent version of ''A Good Little Devil''. The film, produced in 1913, showed the play's Broadway actors reciting every line of dialogue, resulting in a stiff film that Pickford later called "one of the worst [features] I ever made ... it was deadly".{{sfn|Whitfield|1997|pp=8, 25, 28, 115, 125, 126, 131, 300, 376}} Zukor agreed; he held the film back from distribution for a year.

Pickford's work in material written for the camera by that time had attracted a strong following. Comedy-dramas, such as ''[[In the Bishop's Carriage]]'' (1913), ''[[Caprice (1913 film)|Caprice]]'' (1913), and especially ''[[Hearts Adrift]]'' (1914), made her irresistible to moviegoers. ''Hearts Adrift'' was so popular that Pickford asked for the first of her many publicized pay raises based on the profits and reviews.<ref name="Kevin Brownlow">{{cite book|last=Brownlow|first=Kevin|title=Mary Pickford Rediscovered|year=1999|publisher=Harry N. Abrams|isbn=978-0-8109-4374-2|pages=86, 93}}</ref> The film marked the first time Pickford's name was featured above the title on movie marquees.<ref name="Kevin Brownlow"/> ''[[Tess of the Storm Country (1914 film)|Tess of the Storm Country]]'' was released five weeks later. Biographer Kevin Brownlow observed that the film "sent her career into orbit and made her the most popular actress in America, if not the world".<ref name="Kevin Brownlow"/>

Her appeal was summed up two years later by the February 1916 issue of ''[[Photoplay]]'' as "luminous tenderness in a steel band of gutter ferocity".{{sfn|Whitfield|1997|pp=8, 25, 28, 115, 125, 126, 131, 300, 376}} Only [[Charlie Chaplin]], who slightly surpassed Pickford's popularity in 1916,<ref name="MBI)">{{cite web|url=http://www.marypickford.com/mpickford_bio.pdf|title=Mary Pickford, filmmaker|access-date=February 25, 2010|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080708203521/http://www.marypickford.com/mpickford_bio.pdf|archive-date=July 8, 2008|url-status=dead}}</ref> had a similarly spellbinding pull with critics and the audience. Each enjoyed a level of fame far exceeding that of other actors. Throughout the 1910s and 1920s, Pickford was believed to be the most famous woman in the world, or, as a silent-film journalist described her, "the best known woman who has ever lived, the woman who was known to more people and loved by more people than any other woman that has been in all history".{{sfn|Whitfield|1997|pp=8, 25, 28, 115, 125, 126, 131, 300, 376}}