Wikipedia says Mary Pickford is one of the most recognisable women in history. Do you agree ?

What? Ridiculous.

Yes. The first woman to get her hair caught in a blender.

Well certainly not from that pic. Maybe this one though.

No, not at all. Just because she was one of the first screen stars does not mean she endured as an icon for people.

yeah, that is a really funny way to put it. I seriously doubt you could put up the picture anywhere and have even .1 percent of the people who saw it know who it is.

She was of course one of the first real movie stars, an international sensation with Douglas Fairbanks, before people even got was celebrity was all about. But still, now? Yeah, I don't think she's truly recognizable at all, in that sense.

For more than a decade she was the best known female movie star in the United States and Canada. I think that's what they mean.

I don't think they were thinking about you and r1 personally. Although next time, I'm sure they'll consult with you both before they post anything.

Who the hell remembers her?!

I know the name but have never seen any of her films.

They were all silent films, weren't they?

Aint nobody got time for that.

For all the people praising Lucille Ball for being a TV studio leader in the 1950s, Mary created United Artist decades earlier and was very involved in runn8ng it when her transition to talkies didn’t work out. She’s definitely one of the most pioneering women in Hollywood production and behind the scenes.

Most certainly.

You beat me to a Joan reference, R7!

My response would've been similar...

[quote] "Who?" -J. Crawford, Former Step Daughter In-Law

R9 she won the second Oscar for Best Actress for 1929's COQUETTE (a sound film) which is now viewed as a ridiculous win in retrospect.

I didn’t know Wikipedia was around in 1924.

Who?

I think Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks were the original power couple. Both were huge silent film megastars in the 1910s-1920s. They were even known as 'Pickfair' (later the name of their estate) nearly a century before the Bennifers and Brangelinas.

Very much r16. I think they helped invent the whole damn concept of celebrity. When they visited London there were crazy, ridiculous mobs and everyone was kind of shocked by the whole thing.

(Okay, I remember reading that years ago, but dammit I'm sticking to it right now before some bitch steps in and tells me otherwise.)

Her vagina was loved by millions!

I also remember reading that Mama held the pursestrings, and would only allow her fully grown, very rich daughter to buy a house once she was married. Of course, to her credit, Mama was also investing in Los Angeles real estate when that was still cheap and easy.

True, but with the picture R3 posted.

And if America's sweetheart were still with us, I'd say..."You in danger, Girl! Meghan Markle has you in her sights!!" LOL

That may have been true 75years ago , but not anymore. Virtually nobody under the age of 50 would know who that is.

I heard they dismantled Pickfair

Agree, r21. If OP just posted that picture at r3 with no explanation, I suspect very few of us would be able to identify it. Old Bitch in Old Movies would be the most popular choice (after Vivian Vance of course.)

And then they put up a parking lot, r22

Hag.

From 1920-1990, or so, virtually any adult would recognize her. The fact that Gen-Z doesn't know who she is doesn't negate that.

Really, r26? Really? You think this is some weird new phenomenon where only young people don't recognize a silent film star?

"Have they forgotten what a star looks like?"

We called her Mary Pick-Herself-Up-Off-The-Floor-D back in that hot day of the locust.

"Wikipedia" didn't say that. The person who wrote this book did:

[quote] Whitfield, Eileen: Pickford: the Woman Who Made Hollywood (1997), pp. 8, 25, 28, 115, 125, 126, 131, 300, 376. University Press of Kentucky; ISBN 0-8131-2045-4

Miss Clara, you do NOT want to start opening these doors. The Princeton Football Team would like a word, and so much more, when you have a sec.

According to Wikipedia, she became an alcoholic and a recluse. She seemed so sad when she received her honorary Oscar, despite showing great appreciation for it.

I'm guessing the 1997 claim is taking the proportion of the worldwide population that would have recognized her at the height of her fame, and saying almost no other woman in any other period in history comes as close (proportionately).

That may be r33. But I am going to guess that if you put up a picture of Elizabeth I, not just in Europe or the U.S., but even in India and Africa and Latin America, there would be an instant recognition. I'm not sure about that, it is a guess, but I think she is ubiquitous enough in history and even in Hollywood that most people would get it. China? Well, not so sure there.

In the 2000s animated series BRACEFACE (starring Alicia Silverstone) the main character attends Mary Pickford Junior High School.

Mary Pickford is a legend, but if we’re talking silent film stars, Clara Bow is more recognizable today (and still to only a sliver of people).

Maybe to that 118-year old woman who was recently the subject of a thread.

[quote]Mary created United Artist decades earlier.

Well, that might come as a surprise to her partners D. W. Griffith, Charlie Chaplin and Douglas Fairbanks Sr.

They should make a movie about the marriage between Pickford and Fairbanks, because their superpower couple status resonates today more than ever. At the time they met and married, there was a World War and pandemic. Also, entertainment was going through a transitional period, like now, so it's all relatable. Vaudeville was on its way out, being replaced by silent films... which would soon become obsolete, too, by the late 1920s. They could title it PICKFAIR. Can you imagine the gorgeous costumes, the production design, the music, the cars, etc.

She actually was a really remarkable woman, and very much a star. Disagree with the whole premise of "recognizable" but still, bitch had an impact on her times and even our times. I still think in some ways she invented stardom, which is a hell of a thing.

Yeah - well, Burt Reynolds was the biggest movie star of the 1970s.

These blips of stardom don't last in people's memories through the generations.

Hold my champagne, Mary.

She never did anything particularly notable.

They had "faces" but honestly, the only real stars from that era who are still stars are the Marx Brothers. Those bastards are still famous, and I challenge anybody not to recognize Groucho or Harpo.

How come some major stars (like Marilyn) become legendary, even mythical? While others (like Pickford) are mostly forgotten?

Fucking a Kennedy and then dying. It's one way to do it r45

Rare pic of Mary Pickford smiling with her daughter-in-law, Joan Crawford.

R47 Did she not like Joan or something?

That doll-like hair and makeup doesn’t suit her face. She should have gone with an Anjelica Huston type look.

hated her, from the stories r48. But honestly, is 100 year old gossip reliable? Who really knows. Joan was crazy ambitious, though, and snagged her little boy, so ... maybe?

I’ve heard of Mary Pickford and her husband Douglas Fairbanks, and their legendary home Fairpick, but I couldn’t pick either one out in a police lineup.

R34 - I don’t disagree about Elizabeth ll, and in a multiple choice test I’d pick her over Pickford as well; but I think what the poorly worded and unverified statement is trying to say - (using grossly simplified, completely made up numbers) is:

In 1920, with a worldwide population of 100 million people, 90 million recognized a photo of Pickford - giving her a recognition level of 90%.

In 1980, with a worldwide population of 200 million people, 150 million recognized a photo of Queen Elizabeth, giving her a recognition level of 75%

Looking at it this way Pickford “wins” even though the gross number for Elizabeth is higher.

Is this true? - I have no idea, a statement like this is pretty arbitrary no matter what the actual statistics may say.

What I do know is that the kind of celebrity that the early film stars achieved was quite literally like nothing the world had ever known before. Since we’ve lived our entire lives in the later iterations of that world I don’t think we can really understand how different “fame” was in 1925 compared to what it had been in 1900.

Fairpick? FAIRPICK? I hiss in your general direction r51!

[quote] They had "faces" but honestly, the only real stars from that era who are still stars are the Marx Brothers.

Really?

[Quote][R47] Did she not like Joan or something?

Apparently, r48, according to this article:

[Quote]The actor’s notorious family, including his actor father and “It Girl” stepmother Mary Pickford, thought Crawford was too trailer-trash and believed she spent more time “refining” herself by learning how to dress and how to speak French than she did on the relationship.

Damn, r54, you are right of course. Charlie Chaplin very much also. Be a clown, be a clown, all the world loves a clown People!

Mary's was the among the first botched Hollywood facelifts.

I actually picked Elizabeth the First r52, for the "gone but definitely not forgotten" category. But I very much agree with your last paragraph. I really think that between them Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks helped invent this very weird new thing: celebrity. I think people were honestly shocked when they visited London and there were really crazy crowds. People knew Victoria was famous, and Abe Lincoln and Lillie Langtry, and some others. But this was some weird new thing in the world. People who felt like they knew these movie stars in some bizarre new way and just HAD to see them.

R39 here. I forgot to mention that shortly after meeting in 1918, Pickford and Fairbanks toured America together to promote war bonds for WWI and Pickford, in fact, got infected with the Spanish Flu around the same time. Also, they were both married to other people, so it's all juicy. The founding of United Artists (a game-changer in Hollywood) by Pickford, Fairbanks, Charlie Chaplin, and DW Griffith occurred in 1919. They got married in 1920, so the 1918-1920 period would make for a great biopic, IMO.

R55, if that article you quoted calls Mary Pickford the “It Girl”, then it's not too reliable. The “It Girl” was Clara Bow.

And what the hell, let's throw WC Fields and Mae West in there. But I guess all of them made that transition to the talkies. Still think Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks were special (in the good way) when they were at their height of fame. In fact, they kind of invented that kind of fame.

[quote]They had "faces" but honestly, the only real stars from that era who are still stars are the Marx Brothers. Those bastards are still famous, and I challenge anybody not to recognize Groucho or Harpo.

I don't think she's had much staying power. Those from a similar era with more: Greta Garbo, and quite a few men, not just the Marx Brothers. I'd say Charlie Chaplin, Buston Keaton and Rudolph Valentino are more recognizable (more than Douglas Fairbanks, too)

Then Joan Crawford / Bette Davis - maybe Jean Harlow - in the 30s. Oh and Fred and Ginge.

Every one of them had/has a more lasting legacy that poor Mary. I might even argue Gloria Swanson, as well.

Not that I'm an expert but I'm 66 and I know all of the above better than Mary (who I'd never heard of, even as a movie-buff child)

I think that would totally work r59. That was such a transition for the whole world in so many ways, but one of them was the invention of Hollywood as we know it today. I think with truly clever writers and director and producer it could really be a great thing.

NO WAY!

In the 90 minute YouTube biography of MP, narrated by the monotonous Jamie Lee Curtis, it is reported that Mary Pickford was the most famous woman in the world for well over a decade. This was before TV or radio. She was known the world over. So it's all relative to time and technology.

Marilyn, Madonna, Princess Diana, and Miss Kay Lenz have all surpassed Pickford's level of fame in more recent times.

Perhaps she is one of the most recognizable when put into the context of her time.

Gloria Swanson is a special case, cause of Sunset Boulevard and Joe Kennedy. She has a special kind of fame.

But really, r62, as a movie buff child, you had never heard of Mary Pickford?

If they wanted an early but readily recognizable American woman in photographic era,they should have picked Mae West.

No - not till I was in my 20s or so and bought a book about silent films (they were seldom shown on tv when I was a kid - but a lot of Laurel and Hardy - and plenty films from the 30s.) Silent films were just not shown where I lived. You still don't see many, do you? I think I bought a dvd of Nosferatu a couple decades ago.

Nosferatu. Damn, I still love that movie. I would watch it tonight, if I find it.

100 years ago, yes.

Nosferatu is still listed on Shudder, I think.

[quote]Marilyn, Madonna, Princess Diana, and Miss Kay Lenz have all surpassed Pickford's level of fame in more recent times.

But staying power is the key. Can anybody last a century or two, or ten, or twenty?

What percentage of people know Miss Kay Lenz?

Not me r74

The other thing we now overlook, R59, (or just think of as a Norma Desmond cliche) is that silent cinema was truly a universal language - the films could be, and were, screened worldwide. While it was simple enough to translate the inter-titles that wasn’t even entirely necessary since, illiterate people could follow and enjoy them as well. So Pickford, Chaplin et al had a HUGE audience - they were literally global phenomena.

R74, Do deceased ex-husbands count?

Yup, that definitely helped r76. But mostly it was this new thing in the world: close ups. I honestly think people were just blown away by it. Even the greatest theater star was so small down there, and then suddenly everyone was HUGE. It was something weird and new.

Yes global.

If Chitragore or Ding Dong TX had a cinema, one supposed.

I'm in a mood so I am going to go on and on about this, so anyway, the movies just changed everything so much more than we can realize these days. People who might have been just performers once upon a time became STARS. Take a few minutes and think about that word. STARS. Huge, sometimes divine things in the Sky where God lives. This was a thing. This was new.

She looks like Stevie Nicks in Op’s photo

I've stated this before, but it's relevant to the discussion: My English grandmother used to say, "America doesn't have a monarchy, so they created the film star." After Pickford and Fairbanks got married, they were known as the King and Queen of Hollywood. When they honeymooned in Europe, they were treated like visiting royalty. Throngs of crowds clamored to see them.

There is absolutely something to that r82. The movie star is a weird and often kind of stupid thing, but of course so is royalty. The idea that somebody is just so amazing because they are famous is a silly thing, but it is in our blood, and has been since we invented the movie star. Your grandmother is right.

"We taught the world a new way to dream" about sums up the impact of movies in their infancy. They were the internet of their time. That being said,I doubt anyone under 60 has even the vaguest idea who Mary Pickford was. I was an old movie buff in my youth (werent we all,must have been a gay thing) and I had never heard of her till later in life.

I work in film production. It’s obvious that film language must have arisen in part from dream language, but I often wonder how much effect film language has had on the way we dream when compared to the dreams of someone from 150 years ago.

Ah, but Betty Buckley was magnificent when she sang that line, R84. It's an inspired song when Streisand isn't drecking it up. I was 13 years old when I saw this. I was born in 1983. 39 years old.

But I know who Mary Pickford is. I thought we all read all the great biographies of Golden Age stars and Hollywood history? I tried my best in University. Royal Conservatory.

Weren't the Barrymores famous though? On stage, before films.

At least in London or New York, there were stars of stage. And Sarah Bernhardt, Josephine Baker, in Paris? Etc. that I don't know about.

WHET Lillian Gish, and the other Gish girl?

Well there's famous dear, and then there's famous r87

Dorothy R88? Lillian went on to character roles in films like Duel in the Sun and The Night of the Hunter.

Don't know about Dorothy.

R87 stage stars weren't universal, like movie stars became. They were usually famous only regionally/nationally.

Even though she is not remembered by most people nowadays, Mary Pickford was not only the biggest movie star of her time, she was, literally, the most famous woman in the world.

And though everyone is absolutely determined with a willful passion to ignore this point, her fame was different from what had come before. She actually had a different kind of fame from what others had before.

Another vote for this lady. She's even on money and stamps

Millions of people have her face in their wallet...

Princess Diana was more famous worldwide than Queen Elizabeth will ever be.

I tried to watch Pickford movies and they were so boring.

I can watch Buster Keaton and Charlie Chaplin and even Clara Bow. I can also watch silent horror movies.

But the Pickford movies were soooo boring.

She was one of the first and biggest film stars. I think she was the first to be called "America's Sweetheart." She's recognizable in the way Charlie Chaplin is recognizable I assume a lot more people would know who Chaplin is. But that look of hers, the long blonde hair with the sausage curls, was her trademark, makes her instantly recognizable to some.

Clara Bow was once so popular, a new film would fill theaters to capacity several times a day, every day.

At the age of 28, she retired to Nevada and died at 60.

R98 Not me. I always knew Charlie Chaplin. He’s an easy Halloween costume. Mary Pickford?? I don’t think so.

I’m 34. I don’t think I’ve ever seen her mentioned on TV or anything, I probably discovered her through Wikipedia.

There’s truly nothing on her today. It’s not like she has many documentaries or books or movies about her.

You have to be really gay to know Mary Pickford.

And with someone like Clara Bow, who’ve I’ve known about, her photos are always somewhere. She was a glamour girl of the 1920’s so she’s all over Pinterest and Tumblr. I knew her before that but people can identify Clara Bow before Mary Pickford.

Mary Pickford doesn’t even look like an actress. She looks like someone who sunk on the Titanic.

Clara Bow and Mary Pickford were both kind of deformed looking from undernourishment as children. Mary was from Toronto, Canada. That slutty one - Norma Shearer was Canadian too. So was L.B. Mayer. From New Brunswick.

Eva Tanguay was the ugliest. Now from what I’ve heard, she was the one of the first “celebrities” and pre-dates Hollywood. She was like the vaudeville Madonna.

[quote] You have to be really gay to know Mary Pickford.

Actually, you'd just have to know about movies to know Mary Pickford. The beginning of movies, the first movie stars....anyone interested in film history would of course know who Mary Pickford was.

R103, Portrayed on film by DL fave Mitzi Gaynor.

MARY!

Haha! You're all wrong it's... Oprah

I've never seen this woman but I've read a bit of the memoir by Douglas Fairbanks Jr.

He says that his ugly father was obsessed with his own body. He had a special gymnasium in the house where he would play with dumbbells NUDE!

(he sounds like that old fraud Kirk Douglas)

OP, I don’t think they mean that she is widely recognized today. I think they mean that she was one of the most recognized ever at one point in time. Like Ricky Nelson was a household name once upon a time and one one of the most popular teenage idols, but not today, just during his time.

Ricky Nelson? Come on. What a stupid comparison. Who was he?

Mary PIckford was recognized all over the word at a time when there was nothing but newspapers and silent films to create and share an image.

^ And the Whoopi narration - a more lively biography.

3 Hours of Mary Pickford. Interesting life for sure. Incredible fame AND hard work. A pioneer and mogul.

R102/R103 Pickford, Shearer, Mayer, and Tanguay were all Canadian-born but moved to the US as children, made their fortune there, and resided there to the end of their long lives. So how Canadian were they?

Viewers were startled at Mary Pickford's appearance when she was awarded an honorary Oscar in 1976.

99.9% of people never heard of her.

Exactly, r30, and they said that in 1997, not 2022.

Personally, I'm not sure that many knew who she was in 1997, either. Pickford died in 1979 and by 1997, she hadn't made a movie in nearly 70 years, and cable wasn't showing many of her movies. TCM was new and stuck with more popular films and relegated silents to one or two, shown late on Sunday night/Monday morning.

She was a huge star but celebrity fades quickly. She's remembered now because there's a lot of interest in old films these days, but I still doubt many would know her name off the top of their head; if asked, they'd probably say something like "that old silent movie actress."

They wanted Pickford for "Sunset Blvd" Already a has been in 1950

Mary Pickford was literally the first movie star. Before her actors were not credited in films, but the audiences demanded to know who the girl with the curls was. Most of the posters here have no sense of social history. Mary Pickford was a huge star from the 'teens through the end of the twenties, and a celebrity through the 30s and 40s. There was a 20s revival in the 1950s which kept her in the public mind, the there was the nostalgia/revival house period of the 1970s. I was not the only kid with a Mary Pickford poster on the wall, and the posters were frequently in restaurants and boutiques. Her image did not fade with her career.

Actually, the person who brought up Lillian Gish makes a good point. Two actresses from the same period with similar popularity, but even though Lillian Gish continued to make films into the mid-1980s and frequently appeared on talk shows, far more people would recognize Mary Pickford over Lillian Gish. This is because Mary Pickford had a look.

This is because Mary Pickford had a look. She was as recognizable as Charlie Chaplin, W.C. Fields, The Marx Brothers, etc. Which, you notice is an all male list. Other than Mae West, there are very few women who had a look that became a archetype. Basically any blond girl with long curls was a "Mary Pickford". "Mary Pickford" was used a descriptive term through the 1970s, either for a type of hair style or a type of person.

The other thing is that silent movies were a universal language. The films were shown all over the world. Mary Pickford films were particularly popular all over the work because she was so easily recognizable and her films were wholesome. A great deal of other silent movies were banned in foreign countries (particularly no-European countries) because of content. The other thing to remember is that silent films continued to be shown through the 1940s in many foreign countries. Mary Pickford may have been off the screen in the USA during the 30s and 40s but she was still a popular actress in Burma.

All that's true, pumpkin, but that was a 100 years ago. Nobody knows who she is now except a handful of old queens on DL

R118 how weird to say "100 years ago" and literally mean it. When I was a teen, "100 years ago" was the 1890s. That seemed like ancient history compared to the 1920s. I guess 'cause so much changed from the 1890s to the 1920s. It's also kind of like how I felt about the 1960s. As a kid, it looked like ancient history, because film/photography/TV were still predominantly black-and-white until the mid-'60s. But the '90s have always been in living color. I wonder how Gen Z view the 1990s? Does it seem archaic to them like the '60s did to me?

R120 No, the 90’s are being revived by Gen Z. They’re bringing all the fashion back.

Gen Z has unfortunately made tight pants out of style. It’s officially back to loose and baggy like the 90’s.

[quote]Nosferatu. Damn, I still love that movie. I would watch it tonight, if I find it.

If you ended up doing so, R70, you will have watched it on its 100th anniversary!

OMG! Me and my friends ❤️ Mary Pickford 💯

Hahahahaha!

Squee!

Billy Wilder seriously considered Pickford for Sunset Boulevard but I forget whether she turned him down or whether he never made the offer.

I do remember that he was seriously flummoxed over the casting and it was George Cukor who suggested he go talk to Gloria Swanson.

Wilder considered Pickford for SB because Norma's character was partially inspired by her. Not based on, but partially inspired by. Pickford had become an aging alcoholic who rarely left her mansion. I doubt he ever actually offered her the role.

But couldn't you see Pickford floucing down those stairs at the end of the film, in her pinafore and curls as Little Mary. A totally different movie but chilling...

[quote]sausage curls

Mmmmmm. Sausage.

[quote]Eva Tanguay was the ugliest. Now from what I’ve heard, she was the one of the first “celebrities” and pre-dates Hollywood. She was like the vaudeville Madonna.

How DARE you.

I don't care.

Drag in Mitzi's number at R105.

Someone needs to create a movie where Mary Pickford time travels to the present day and becomes the biggest social media influencer for her old timey style and ways and becomes the most famous person in the world.

Indeed, of her time.

When my grandmother as a teen used to moan about not having a new dress or new shoes or something similar, her mother’s regular retort was ‘well we can’t all be Mary Pickford’. Obviously the epitome of aspiration at the time.

When my grandmother was a teen and used to moan about wanting to dance with black men, or something similar, her mother’s regular retort was ‘Well we can’t all be Shirley Temple!’

Is that how she became Shirley Temple Black?

R135 Only when she became an ambassador in Africa.

Shirley wasn't black black, she married it

[quote]an ambassador in Africa.

Mary would've had that job had her last name been Pickaninny.

R138 😂🤣

I think people would maybe recognize the picture as a famous silent film star, but not necessarily know her name.

While I do think people would recognize Garbo, the Marx Brothers, Valentino etc., am wondering how many of the kids under 30 or 40 would or even the stars from the 40's. I think a lot of Datalounge is not far from my age, kid in the 70's - 80's, when there seemed to be nostalgia for the old movies and you would see posters of some of the old stars. I am not sure that exists anymore, or at least not as strongly. I am guessing another reason that a lot of stars are forgotten more is that kids have more selection of what was on TV after school, compared to the 1970s when one of the handful of choices was an old movie that local stations often played between the soaps and the news.

Girls, girls, we're talking about Mary, not Shirley!

(Someone start a thread about Shirley and her love of big cock and the beautiful John Agar with his huge dick and how he beat her when they were married and all that.)

"I hear they dismantled Pickfair." - Iggy "Did you go?" - Debbie H. "No." - Iggy "OH! Shoulda gone." - Debbie H.

Not exactly accurate, but still highly amusing.

R142 It’s been mentioned, keep up please.

Hunky John Agar . . .

One reason Mary is forgotten is that she owned her old movies and kept them from the public all the years she was alive after she retired. She wanted them to be destroyed but luckily, cooler heads prevailed.

I'm 41 and have never heard of her until this thread.

R146 wiki her. Being ignorant is no excuse especially at your ripe age.

R147 Not really the point. The whole point of this thread is that she's supposedly one of the most recognisable women in history. I'm suggesting she most definitely isn't. I'd never even heard her name let alone be able to recognise her.

She's really good in most of her silent films, particularly her last. But she didn't come off well in her sound movies. It's hilarious watching her as Katherine in Taming Of The Shrew, with that squeeky voice.

R148 ur stupid. You do not represent anyone but yourself. I’m 47 and I know she was a famous silent movie actress

During her time of early silent film era (1910s-1920s) where her face was shown worldwide on the big silver screen, magazine covers, newspapers, definitely YES, definitely recognizable. But today all these years later, most average people would not recognize her...

Mary Pickford was Big in her time 1920, give or take, as Madonna was in hers, 1980s-90s, which is a big deal in worldwide recognition terms.

Wait, r141, he beat her with his big cock? Cause on DL, that is living the dream!

[quote] Nobody knows who she is now except a handful of old queens on DL

How old are you? You sound like a really dumb twink.

He may be, r154, but at some point even the most famous fade away.

Still, she is worth getting to know. She was quite impressive and that whole era is very fun to read about.

the Mother, and yeah, a bit about our dear Mary too.

Love this: Mary was playing child parts with the same audience appeal Shirley Temple had later, but when Charlotte took Little Mary into a business conference the child’s mittens were lined with bricks.

@r154, Was that a nerve, cupcake?

I'm actually an ElderGay, so I'm pretty savvy as to what old queens are into

Joan Crawford Bette Davis Lucy Babs Judy Pills China patterns

Need I go on?

That’s ridiculous. Lillian Gish isn’t even really remembered, and her career kept up almost to her death. Mary Pickford? Naw.

The problem with the statement is it is written in the present tense, but "in history" doesn't mean "right now."

A century ago she was indeed the most recognizable woman in the world, today she is mostly forgotten.

If the statement was worded -- "Historically, Mary Pickford was one of most recognizable women to ever have lived, perhaps the most." the point would be much clearer.

^^ ...was one of the most recognizable women..

Typing on a phone sucks. A problem Mary never encountered.

Mary Pickford was married to the sexy ass Buddy Rogers. Cutest of the cute boys. 18 years her junior. Likely still dead now though.

^ They're all dead and FORGOTTEN

Again, it needs to be said: anyone who knows about movies knows who Mary Pickford is. If you're ignorant about movies you probably wouldn't know who she was. And probably would not know who Rudolph Valentino was. Or Clara Bow. Or Mabel Normand. Or Gloria Swanson. )r Colleen Moore. Or Theda Bara. Or Pola Negri. Or Buster Keaton. Or Harold Lloyd. Or John Gilbert. Or Norma Shearer. Or Douglas Fairbanks. Or Lon Chaney. The list could go on and on.

People into film history even semi-seriously know who Mary Pickford is very well. They know of her contribution to the Hollywood film industry, not just as a famous actress of the era.

Mary was very active for over twenty years after she retired from the screen in charitable organizations and was a very productive and important spokeswoman and advocate for a number of causes.

Lillian Gish only died in 1993 and worked up until 1987. She is certainly known to the many actors alive today who worked with her and knew her personally. She endowed a very important artist's endowment, The Gish Prize, that gives each winner over $350,000. I'd say everyone who has won knows damn well who Lillian Gish was.

R105 That is a very generous glamorized version of her!

In real life she looked like Janis Joplin and couldn’t sing!

[quote]Joan Crawford Bette Davis Lucy Babs Judy Pills China patterns

We're also into correct punctuation.

100 years from now, will Meryl Streep be forgotten?

Well, will she?

Speaking of Mary Pickford and firsts, isn’t her brother and his wife Olive Thomas considered the first tabloid stars?

I don’t know if it was William Desmond Taylor’s murder or Olive Thomas’ death that came first but those were the first two Hollywood scandals. And Fatty Arbuckle.

"We're also into correct punctuation. "

Some people like to walk around with big sticks up their ass. To each his own

[quote]Lillian Gish only died in 1993 and worked up until 1987. She is certainly known to the many actors alive today who worked with her and knew her personally. She endowed a very important artist's endowment, The Gish Prize, that gives each winner over $350,000. I'd say everyone who has won knows damn well who Lillian Gish was.

According to director Lindsay Anderson, one day during the production of "The Whales of August" he said to Lillian Gish, “Miss Gish, you have just given me a perfect close-up.” Gish's co-star Bette Davis observed, “She should. She invented ’em.”

R170 - I’d say Gish was both a better actress and contributed more to the then evolving languages of filmic storytelling and film acting than Pickford — but Pickford was the far bigger Movie Star.

I’m wearing my Mary Pickford tshirt tinight.

I've never read or heard Joan Crawford comment on or be asked about Mary Pickford in interviews, at one time her step-mother-in-law.

When she married Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. I bet Joan never imagined that nearly a century later she would be more famous/legendary than either of her megastar parents-in-law, who are largely forgotten today. Mary probably never thought the day would come. However, all it takes is a popular movie or musical to bring her back to the limelight. Ten years ago, most people didn't know who Alexander Hamilton was. After a couple of centuries, he's finally a household name.

F174, Right! Revive "Biograph Girl" now!

Fuck you! Biograph Girl is about ME!

R176, not it isn't. By the way, note that the character of "Mary Pickford" is specifically mentioned on the playbill.

Fuck you, I was the Biograph Girl first! I was the first movie star!!! And fuck you, Mary Pickford!

[quote] I'm in a mood so I am going to go on and on about this, so anyway, the movies just changed everything so much more than we can realize these days. People who might have been just performers once upon a time became STARS. Take a few minutes and think about that word. STARS. Huge, sometimes divine things in the Sky where God lives. This was a thing. This was new.

Sarah Bernhardt was a star before the movies arrived.

[quote] Mary Pickford was married to the sexy ass Buddy Rogers

But did Buddy display his 'sexy ass'?

R108

[quote] He says that his ugly father was obsessed with his own body.

His buttocks were prettier than his face

OMG! When I was a kid she was Uber popular.

She was quite popular with the Lyft crowd too, r182.

Pickford always played kids, and infantile girls and virgins. Rather boring.

Do I get credit for knowing who Louise Fazenda was?

Louise Fazenda had as little class as Mayo Methot.

Is this Mary at Malibu with Googles Brent

Pickford was the original “Pick Me” girl.

She is extremely popular with gen z.