Editing Mary Pickford (section)

=== Stardom ===
[[File:Mary Pickford-Ziegfeld.jpg|thumb|Mary Pickford, 1920|left]]
Pickford starred in 52 features throughout her career. On June 24, 1916, Pickford signed a new contract with Zukor that granted her full authority over production of the films in which she starred,<ref>{{cite encyclopedia|first=Christina |last=Lane |url=http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_g1epc/is_bio/ai_2419200952 |archive-url=https://archive.today/20120710073149/http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_g1epc/is_bio/ai_2419200952 |url-status=dead |archive-date=July 10, 2012 |title=Mary Pickford |publisher=St. James Encyclopedia of Pop Culture |date=January 29, 2002 |access-date=January 11, 2009 }}</ref> and a record-breaking salary of $10,000 a week.<ref name="OP" /> In addition, Pickford's compensation was half of a film's profits, with a guarantee of $1.04 million (US${{formatnum:{{Inflation|US|1040000|1937|r=-4}}}} in {{CURRENTYEAR}}),<ref>{{cite book |last=Balio |first=Tino |title = The American Film Industry |publisher=[[University of Wisconsin Press]] |year=1985 |isbn = 978-0-299-09873-5|p=159 }}</ref> making her the first actress to sign a million-dollar contract.<ref name=varobit>{{cite magazine|magazine=[[Daily Variety]]|date=May 30, 1979|page=1|title=Mary Pickford, 86, First Great Film Star, Dies Five Days After Massive Stroke}}</ref> She also became vice-president of Pickford Film Corporation.<ref name=varobit/>

Occasionally, she played a child, in films such as ''[[The Poor Little Rich Girl]]'' (1917), ''[[Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm (1917 film)|Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm]]'' (1917), ''[[Daddy-Long-Legs (1919 film)|Daddy-Long-Legs]]'' (1919), and ''[[Pollyanna (1920 film)|Pollyanna]]'' (1920). Pickford's fans were devoted to these "little girl" roles, but they were not typical of her career.{{sfn|Whitfield|1997|pp=8, 25, 28, 115, 125, 126, 131, 300, 376}} Due to her lack of a normal childhood, she enjoyed making these pictures. Given how small she was at under five feet, and her naturalistic acting abilities, she was very successful in these roles. [[Douglas Fairbanks Jr.]], when he first met her in person as a boy, assumed she was a new playmate for him, and asked her to come and play trains with him, which she obligingly did.<ref>Clip of Douglas Fairbanks Jr. describing this incident. ''Mary Pickford: Muse of the Movies'', 2008. Documentary.</ref>

In August 1918, Pickford's contract expired and, when refusing Zukor's terms for a renewal, she was offered $250,000 to leave the motion picture business. She declined, and went to [[First National Pictures]], which agreed to her terms.<ref>''The New York Times'', November 10, 1918. p. 20</ref> In 1919, Pickford, along with [[D. W. Griffith]], [[Charlie Chaplin]], and [[Douglas Fairbanks]], formed the independent film production company [[United Artists]]. Through United Artists, Pickford continued to produce and perform in her own movies; she could also distribute them as she chose. In 1920, Pickford's film ''[[Pollyanna (1920 film)|Pollyanna]]'' grossed around $1.1 million.<ref name="OP">{{cite web|url=https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/pickford-chronology/|title=Timeline: Mary Pickford|work=American Experience|publisher=PBS|date=July 23, 2004|access-date=January 11, 2009}}</ref> The following year, Pickford's film ''[[Little Lord Fauntleroy (1921 film)|Little Lord Fauntleroy]]'' was also a success, and in 1923, ''[[Rosita (film)|Rosita]]'' grossed over $1 million as well.<ref name="OP"/> During this period, she also made [[Little Annie Rooney (1925 film)|''Little Annie Rooney'']] (1925), another film in which Pickford played a child, ''[[Sparrows (1926 film)|Sparrows]]'' (1926), which blended the [[Dickensian]] with newly minted [[German expressionism|German expressionist]] style, and ''[[My Best Girl]]'' (1927), a romantic comedy featuring her future husband [[Charles "Buddy" Rogers]].
[[File:MaryPickford4.jpg|thumb|A [[Movie poster#Lobby cards|lobby card]] for ''[[Little Lord Fauntleroy (1921 film)|Little Lord Fauntleroy]]'' (1921)]]
The arrival of sound was her undoing. Pickford underestimated the value of adding sound to movies, claiming that "adding sound to movies would be like putting lipstick on the [[Venus de Milo]]".<ref name="OP"/>

She played a reckless socialite in ''[[Coquette (film)|Coquette]]'' (1929), her first [[Sound film|talkie]],<ref name=Katz>{{cite book | author-link=Ephraim Katz|last = Katz | first = Ephraim | title = The Macmillan International Film Encyclopedia | publisher = Macmillan | location = New York | year = 1998 | isbn = 0-333-74037-8 |oclc=39216574 |edition=3rd |page=1087}}</ref> a role for which her famous [[Ringlet (haircut)|ringlets]] were cut into a 1920s' [[bob cut|bob]]. Pickford had already cut her hair in the wake of her mother's death in 1928. Fans were shocked at the transformation.<ref>[https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/pickford/peopleevents/e_fans.html People & Events: Mary Pickford, ''Fan Culture''], PBS.org; accessed December 4, 2015.</ref> Pickford's hair had become a symbol of female virtue, and when she cut it, the act made front-page news in ''[[The New York Times]]'' and other papers. ''Coquette'' was a success and won her an [[Academy Award for Best Actress]],<ref name="mdecline">[https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/pickford/peopleevents/e_decline.html The Long Decline], PBS.org; accessed December 4, 2015.</ref> although this was highly controversial.<ref>{{cite web |last=Soares |first=Andre |title=Mary Pickford Oscar Controversy: Can Best Actress Statuette Be Sold? |url=http://www.altfg.com/film/mary-pickford-oscar-controversy/ |website=Alt Film Guide |date=2007 |access-date=April 7, 2025}}</ref> The public failed to respond to her in the more sophisticated roles. Like most movie stars of the silent era, Pickford found her career fading as talkies became more popular among audiences.<ref name="mdecline"/>

Her next film, ''[[The Taming of the Shrew (1929 film)|The Taming of The Shrew]]'', made with husband [[Douglas Fairbanks]], was not well received at the box office.<ref>[https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/pickford/peopleevents/p_fairbanks.html "Douglas Fairbanks profile"], pbs.org; accessed May 19, 2014.</ref> Established Hollywood actors were panicked by the impending arrival of the talkies. On March 29, 1928, ''The Dodge Brothers Hour'' was broadcast from Pickford's bungalow, featuring Fairbanks, Chaplin, [[Norma Talmadge]], [[Gloria Swanson]], [[John Barrymore]], D. W. Griffith, and [[Dolores del Río]], among others. They spoke on the radio show to prove that they could meet the challenge of talking movies.<ref>{{cite book|last=Ramon|first=David|title=The Dodge Brothers Hour|publisher=Clío|year=1997|isbn= 968-6932-35-6}}</ref>

A transition in the roles Pickford selected came when she was in her late thirties, no longer able to play the children, teenage spitfires, and feisty young women so adored by her fans, and not suited for the glamorous and vampish heroines of early sound. In 1933, she underwent a [[Technicolor]] screen test for an animated/live-action film version of ''[[Alice in Wonderland]]'', but [[Walt Disney]] discarded the project when [[Paramount Pictures|Paramount]] released its own version of the book. Only one Technicolor [[Film still|still]]<!-- or is this [[still frame]]? --> of her screen test still exists.

She retired from film acting in 1933 following three costly failures with her last film appearance being ''[[Secrets (1933 film)|Secrets]]''.<ref name=varobit/><ref name=Shipman>{{cite book|author-link=David Shipman (writer)|last=Shipman|first=David|year=1995|title=The Great Movie Stars: The Golden Years|pages=461–466|publisher=Warner Books|isbn=0-7515-0809-8}}</ref> She appeared on stage in Chicago in 1934 in the play ''[[The Church Mouse]]'' and went on tour in 1935, starting in Seattle with the stage version of ''Coquette''.<ref name=varobit/> She also appeared in a season of radio plays for [[NBC]] in 1935 and [[CBS]] in 1936.<ref name=varobit/> In 1936, she became vice-president of United Artists<ref name=Shipman/> and continued to produce films for others, including ''[[One Rainy Afternoon]]'' (1936), ''[[The Gay Desperado]]'' (1936), ''[[Sleep, My Love]]'' (1948; with [[Claudette Colbert]]), and ''[[Love Happy]]'' (1949), with the [[Marx Brothers]].{{sfn|Whitfield|1997|pp=8, 25, 28, 115, 125, 126, 131, 300, 376}}