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- [00:00]
Felix Salmon
What if a marginal gain unlocked greater performance? What if an insight in data could change everything? At Aramco, our focus on detail helps us deliver reliable energy to millions across the world. Because margins aren't marginal, they're where we can truly push the limits of what's possible. Aramco, an integrated energy and chemicals company. Learn more@aramco.com this message is a paid partnership with Apple Card this is Felix Salmon from Slate Money and I'm here to tell you about Apple Card. Even as a seasoned traveler, things can still get stressful, which is why I use Apple Card on my international trips. And with 2% daily cashback on every purchase with Apple Pay, I'm actually earning daily cash as I travel. Instead of coming home feeling like I've drained my bank account, I come back with cash back I can put toward my next trip. Apply in the Wallet app on iPhone subject to credit approval Apple Card issued by Goldman Sachs Bank USA Salt Lake City Branch terms and more at Apple Co AppleCardBenefits we're lost.
- [01:17]
Katie Charlewood
It feels like we're going round in circles. I'm gonna ask that man for directions. Hi there. We're trying to get to the state fairgrounds.
- [01:25]
T-Mobile Advertiser
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- [01:32]
Katie Charlewood
How is there signal out here?
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- [01:46]
Katie Charlewood
Actually, can you pull up the way to a T Mobile store?
- [01:49]
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- [02:27]
Katie Charlewood
Hello delicious friends and welcome to who did what Now? The history podcast. That is not your history class with me, your host, Katie Charlewood, history harlot and reader of books. I want to apologize for my voice. It is not fully back, which is part of the reason why there's been a delay in getting this first episode out for the. The Hollywood History Month. That, that is, that is reason number two, because I lost my voice at a Murder She Wrote festival. Because of course, that's when all the wildest parties happen. And so that was. That was an amazing, wonderful, fantastic thing. So much fun. I. I am looking forward to next year. Like, the jog with Jessica is just a core memory of my life now. I have. I don't know the last time I felt such unadulterated joy. So I lost my voice. But also, as many of you know, I hand write all of my notes for my podcast episodes. And in. In my haste of packing, I. I'm trying to be organized. I was trying to be organized and somehow I managed to lose my passport three times. Like the morning of me traveling. And so I'm pulling my house apart. My mum came to my house after I left and cleaned it because I was. I just left everything everywhere. She, like, I left the place in just such disarray that my mum came up and was like, you know, if you ever need help getting organized, I can help you. And I was like, I'm a grown up mom. I can do it. I could not do it. So I managed to leave behind, like, my book with the podcast episode written in it. I left it behind me. I remembered my laptop, I remembered everything else. I did also remember the passport, but I was, I was everywhere. My friend Zaher and I, we were in Zaher, not Zahar, because she was like, oh, you know, like the desert. And so obviously in an American accent, it's Sahara. And in my accent it's Sahara because that's how it's pronounced. And I'm sorry. I'm sorry. So like, Zahara and I, we were up in Mendocino. We were in Santa Rosa. Really good. Oh, was enchiladas. No, it wasn't enchiladas. It was burrito mole burritos. It was really good. Really good. We ate in some amazing places. We were in Vegas. We were in. We were in. Oh, goodness. I was in so many places there. There will be a video coming out of all of my travels because I was just everywhere. But, yeah, so two reasons. One, I forgot the book and I also lost my voice. So that made a bit of a difficulty trying to get things recorded. And every day was so busy. Like LA was amazing because we get there because what happened was Sarah Hester Ross, she's usually in Vegas, but she was on tour and I was like, okay, I need to go see her live, because I have to. And it turned out she was going to be performing in LA when I was in la and I was like, yes. So booked her. Then as it turned out, the Netflix as a joke fest was happening and so we had planned lots of stuff for during the day. I went to the Labra Tarpitz. Oh, I'm so happy. But we had like all this stuff planned and then the evening we had no plans and so we ended up just booking a bunch of comedy shows. We went to Trivial Comedy. Brendan Scannell was just so funny. So funny. I'm hoping to catch him at Fringe this year. Sarah Hester Ross is also going to be at Fringe, so book your damn tickets. She's amazing, okay? And if you don't think she's amazing, you're incorrect. That's just, that's just facts, okay? But yeah, everything was amazing and I, I'm probably gonna do a jibber jabber episode where I talk about all of the amazing fantabulous stuff that happened on my travels because things are happening because I mean, I say it was a full holiday but there's some things where business related and so information will be coming out soon but I can't talk about it. But anyway, with that I know what you're thinking. You're thinking, Katie, quit your jibber jabber and fact me and fact you I will. But first we've got to get our source on. Our sources are Mary Pickford Rediscovered by Kevin Brownlow. Sunshine and Shadow, An Autobiography by Mary Peckford. Mary Peckford, Canada's Silent Siren, America's Sweetheart by Peggy Diamond Levy. The Genius of the Hollywood Filmmaking in the Studio Era by Thomas Schatz Screening out the Past the Birth of Mass Culture and the Motion Picture Industry by Larry May the Talkies American Cinema's Transition to sound 1926-1931 by Donald Crafton. And of course, we have our old favourites, biography.com and history.com. are you sitting comfortably? Good. Then let's begin. Mary Pickford was born Gladys Louise Smith on 8 April 1892 on 211 University Avenue, Toronto, Canada, to John Charles Smith, the son of English immigrants and Charlotte Hennessy, who was an Irish immigrant. Gladys was the first of three children born to the couple. She would have a younger sister, Charlotte, known as Lottie, and a brother, John Charles Jr. Also known as Jack. Gladys's mother. Charlotte, being from Ireland, was unsurprisingly, Catholic. But to appease her Methodist husband, the children were baptized in the Methodist faith. This wasn't exactly the most stable of childhoods. See John Charles Senior had money troubles. His family had money that ran out by the time it came to his generation. Basically loads and loads of kids. Generation after generation, money just kind of disappeared, I think. Disappeared. It was spent. They spent the money and they didn't earn enough back. So John Charles senior didn't have an occupation. He had plenty. He bounced around from job to job. Stagehand, store clerk, bartender, and of course, a couple of underhand dealings here and there. He was also fond of a drink and tended to spend most of his wages in the pub. So he was in so much debt that in the middle of the night the family would often have to abscond to avoid the unholy trinity of bailiffs, debt collectors and landlords. Now, with three young children, this is a tough life. Charlotte Hennessy, now, she wasn't fond of a drink. In fact, she was a pioneer, which is basically an Irish version of a teetotaller. So she just didn't drink. And she was also very vocal about her disapproval of the devil drink. So. So she's looking after the kids while he's out drinking all of his wages. One day, John Charles Senior just scalpels, he just buckers off, leaving Charlotte to fend for herself and their three young children. So she does what any woman in her situation would do. She tells everyone she's a widow and starts earning money. So here's the thing, being a single parent in this time is fine as long as your spouse is deceased. So she ends up taking on sewing work and even sends the children away to live with relatives for a while while she gets everything settled. So at one point as well, her mother, Grandma Hennessy, moves into. Now, I'm not sure if this is before or after the son in law's swift exit, but she's there and she's helping out. So not only is she doing sewing work, by the way, she's a seamstress, but she's also renting out the good bedroom to single female lodgers. So she's like just earning the money where she can, and when she's doing that, she's bunking in beside the kids. Now, John Charles Senior left when the kids were young and this is how you know, like just how young they were. Because when Gladys is five years old, he is brought back into their life only to actually die. This time he had been working as a purser on the steamship Niagara when something goes wrong and he gets hit in the head with a sort of metal pulley. It's a workplace accident and they send him to his Last known address. And there he stays until he dies of a cerebral hemorrhage. So he is under Charlotte's care for six months. And, yeah, then he dies. So, I mean, at least now Charlotte doesn't actually have to pretend to be a widow anymore. That being said, the family had been living hand to mouth for quite a while, and now. Well, now they had to bury him. And that isn't free. So, yeah, Charlotte goes to work in a factory and tries to send the girls to school. Unfortunately, Gladys caught everything going. Diphtheria, pneumonia, consumption. Right. Like, that's tuberculosis, by the way. And also, two things I want to say. These diseases should not be making a comeback. But also, I just want to talk about consumption Chicago for a second sidebar. See, the thing about consumption is that it makes you really thin and pale and, like, people would pretend to cough into bloody handkerchiefs because it became very trendy to look like you were dying, which is not dissimilar to the current trend. Okay, the current trend of, like, the skin and bones. Like, people are out here looking like Skeletor on a bad day. Like, what is that about? Sorry, I'm losing my voice. So I can't really complain too loudly, but, like, no, let's not have that happening. I don't. I don't appreciate that at all. I think we. We should, you know, have healthy people. And I'm not saying that as someone who is a bit husky, right? I'm cuddly, I'm soft. That's who I am. But, like, no, let's. Let's not. Let's not have people starve themselves because they think that's what humans should look like. Like, you have organs in your body, guys, it's fine to have them. But, yeah, Gladys is catching every bloody thing going again. Tuberculosis, pneumonia, diphtheria. Like, these are the diseases that cause a lot of death. And typically areas of poverty, like the ward. The area where they lived was called the ward. These were big killers. And Gladys may have missed a lot of school, but at least she was alive. And this lack of a steady education, though, meant that she hadn't quite learned to read or write. Now, the family may have been struggling, but Charlotte made sure that her eldest daughter was seen by a doctor, probably because they were so often quarantined, but still, Grandma Catherine Hennessy was so concerned for the kids and grabbing the opportunity, got a priest to baptize the children, just in case, because remember how they were Methodist. She's like, no, no, no, no. We're claiming These, they're Catholic now. Like if they die, we want to make sure they go to the right heaven and not the pits of hell. But anyway, Irish Catholics, everybody. But back to doctors. There's this one doctor, Dr. Smith, no relation, and he wants to adopt Gladys. He and his wife had no children of their own and so they think that this is their opportunity. And at first Charlotte refuses, but then she thinks that this could be something for Gladys, a healthy, wealthy home. But she doesn't want to make the decision for her. And so she takes Gladys over to meet Dr. And Mrs. Smith. Again, no relation. And they are like a bit overzealous, shall we say. Like they already have this room done up for her. It's like freshly painted, it's got toys. Like they think they've got this in the bag. Because of course, what impoverished child would not want to go live with this wealthy family and have all of their needs met? Especially a child who has been living in poverty and often went to bed hungry. They tell this 7 year old Gladys that if she becomes their daughter, she'll have her own room, she'll get a real life pony, she'll have meat at every meal and she'll have pie for dessert and even ice cream. Like she'll have a full belly and have lots of treats. And now this is a seven year old girl and she's only partly taking this in. And on the way home she's so excited, she's telling her mother how she'll make sure grandma gets the biggest slice of pie at dinner and how she'll let her brother and sister take turns on her pony and she'll share all her toys and how everyone's gonna have their own room. And that's the thing, right? Charlotte has to nip this in the bud because it's clear that Gladys does not fully grasp the situation. And so her mother tells her that if she agrees to be adopted by the Smiths, then she will be their daughter and not hers anymore. And that if she goes to live with them, they will be her family now, not her. And this seven year old girl is faced with a choice of a good life, a full belly every single night, away from the disease of the ward. But it meant saying goodbye to her mother forever. And while she is not having that, like many youngins, she has a lot of attitude and she stomps her feet and tells her mother that she's not going anywhere, she's going to stay with her. Like it reminds me a little bit like in my head of Heidi the book, Heidi. I know I've read the book, but I don't remember reading the book but I know I have read it because I know I did. But there's sidebar. There's this scene in the movie and I think Shirley Temple plays Heidi. I could be wrong, but there's this scene where she's like, I don't want to go with you, I want to stay with grandfather. And I'm like, this is what it reminds me of. It's just that. Absolutely not. This little kid's just going, eh, eh, I'm staying here. And like for Charlotte this is a double edged blade because she loves her daughter and she knows that she cannot give her this life. This is a chance for her and you know, but she wants her to have and make an informed decision about it. And like this is really, really tough. But here's her daughter going, absolutely not. I will stay in the ward with you, thank you very much. I love that she just blankly refuses. She doesn't want to be adopted, she wants to stay with her mother. Now Charlotte, at this point she's definitely struggling. She's trying to make ends meet and she's renting out rooms, as you know. Now again, typically this was to single women. But When Gladys is eight, a room is rented out to a married couple, Mr. And Mrs. Murphy, the husband was the stage manager at the Princess, a local theatre. And there was a show, the Silver King, and it needed a couple more kids in it. So Gladys and Lottie, 8 and 6 respectively, got to work earning $8 for each performance. That's over $200 per child in today's money. So they do that and when the show returns, like because shows would go on tour and so there would be a principal cast that would travel round and then if they needed extras for scenes, they would just like hire local kids because it was easier, especially for non speaking parts. So when it goes on tour and it comes back to Toronto, she goes back hoping to get more work. The absolute self confidence of an eight year old, right? She says to the company that she wants the main part now. And just to clarify, this is a speaking role, right? This is where she has to learn a script that Gladys cannot read. She's illiterate, right? She gets it, she gets the role and then when she's nine, she gets the part of little Eva in Uncle Tom's Cabin. Now she's touring. Gladys and Lotte are going around Canada and the U.S. sleeping on trains, eating mouldy food and having a chaperone. Who didn't actually do much chaperoning. Gladys changes her middle name to Melbourne because she thinks it sounds better than Louise. So she's now Gladys Melbourne Smith. She's nine years old and she's like, I need a better name, I'm just going to change it. So Gladys wanted to improve as an actress and she worked at it. And eventually all three of the Smith children were acting. And so they continued doing this for a while. And when I say a while, by the time Gladys is 15 years old, she's in New York City and she's like, I think couch surfing at this point. And she decides that she needs to up her game and that she has to be on Broadway. So she tries to pitch herself to David Belasco, the king of Broadway. He's a writer and a producer and she tries all this stuff, showing up at his office, sending letters, even sending pictures of herself, like headshots with all these different expressions, right? She's playing chess instead of checkers. And so she finds an actress friend of Belasco. This actress was doing a show at a theatre that Gladys had worked at before. So she gets a doorman to sneak her in backstage and a crew member introduces her to the actress's maid, who gets her to provide an introduction to. To Belasco's assistant, right? So she's like, you speak to you, speak to you, speak to you to get me in, right? And it works. So Gladys is petite, she's young and she's pretty and she demands to see Belasco like she's in the office, right? And she's screaming that she needs to see him, that her life depends on seeing him. So again, she's teeny tiny, right? And Belasco, he is so impressed by this show of force, he agrees to meet her after a show and they meet and they have a chat and he goes, ah, Gladys Melbourne Smith. I don't like it. And so he decides to change her name to Mary Pickford. And so Mary Pickford is about to enter the scene.
- [23:41]
Felix Salmon
This message is a paid partnership with Apple Card. This is Felix Salmon from Slate Money and I'm here to tell you about Apple Card. Even as a seasoned traveler, things can still get stressful, which is why I use Apple Card on my international trips. And with 2% daily cash back on every purchase with Apple Pay, I'm actually earning daily cash as I travel. Instead of coming home feeling like I've drained my bank account, I come back with cash back I can put toward my next trip. Apply in the Wallet app on iPhone subject to credit approval. Apple card issued by Goldman Sachs Bank USA Salt Lake City branch terms and more at Apple Co AppleCard benefit.
- [24:26]
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- [25:46]
Katie Charlewood
Mary Pickford comes back to edition. And thanks to a combination of nerves and the wrong material, she absolutely blows it. It's like the worst audition ever. Like, everything was just wrong. But Belasco, he sees something in her and he asks her if she wants to be an actress. And Mary Pickford is like, I am an actress. I want to be a good actress. So she gets some training and appears on Broadway for $25 a week. But she is frugal, right? She spends as little as she can and sends the rest home to her mum, Charlotte. So, yeah, $25 is $700 in today's money. But yeah, she's like a real penny pincher. She's really, really careful when it comes to money. Like, she eats the basics. And by the basics, she's mainly eating bananas and milk, which, I mean, honey, honey, please, that's. I'm gonna say that's too much potassium, right? You know how sidebar, you're not supposed to eat, like, is it 37 bananas in a row or you'll just die of potassium poisoning. Like, it's just too much banana. Like, I wouldn't be surprised if there was like a mass banana milkshake murdering situation. Like it's out there somewhere. But yeah, like that's again, you need to eat more than just bananas and milk. That's not a fully fleshed out Diet that's not good for you. Anyway, she's in the Warren of Virginia, which ran for 18 months, which is pretty good. But after that she needed work, and her mother thought that doing some motion pictures would help earn some cash until the next show came around. And Mary, like a lot of actors of the era, she was embarrassed. To her, this was a step down from being a real actress. But it did pay $5 a day. So why let pride get in the way of, you know, not being destitute? So she goes to Biograph Studios and ends up in a meeting with DW Griffith, who looks up at her from the mass of papers on his desks and goes, are you an actress? And she's like, yeah, on Broadway. Just finished a run with Belasco himself. Name drop. Next thing she knows, she's in a basement for a screen test. Now, I want to make it clear that this is like the 1900s. So any aspiring actors out there, if, if at any point the person making the film wants you to go down to their basement, do not go down to their basement. Like, this is a life skill that I am providing to you. Do not go with strangers into their basements. I feel like this is something I shouldn't have to share, and yet it feels like something I definitely have to share. But yes, Mary Pickford is in a basement filming a screen test. She's thrown into like a pile of makeup and an old frock and told to act now. Old timey cameras were loud, the lights are hot as hell, and she's got no real direction. And yet again, like, history is repeating itself here. She completely tanks it, but she does get work as an extra. And she's there eight hours. And Griffith, well, he wants her back the next day and she doesn't want to do it, but she's young and she needed the money. But she just goes back and she's like, not for five bucks a day. I'll take ten. And she wanted a twenty five dollar a week minimum. And Griffith, like, this man, he just appreciates her audacity. He's like, yeah, sure. And so she gets her first proper role, a person who eats bad food and vomits. What is your first role? Pukey girl. Food poisoning, Lass. Like, it's great. Staphylococcus oris, lady. Like, it's, it's, it's definitely, it's definitely an endeavor. So at one point, she's putting a scene for a new picture with Owen Moore to confirm she's 15 and it's meant to be a romance. Scene in she's so awkward, which unsurprisingly. Yeah, because she's 15, this scene does not go well. Anyway, it's fine. She's working and she ends up doing 51 movies in 1909 and another 35 movies in 1910. But she plans to be a great actress and she clocks that stage acting is very different visually than screen acting. And this is going to sound weird to anyone who's seen a talkie. No, not a talkie, but a silent movie. Anyone who's seen a silent movie and it's going to sound like a strange statement, but you need to tone it down, right? So basically she realized that, like, you know, expressions, they needed to be neater and you needed to be expressive without being cartoonish because you would do like big movements on stage because you have to be seen and heard at the back of this, you know, theater where for here it was a much smaller situation. People are getting close ups of your face and so your movements, they need to be more precise, more definite. And so, like, she's really working on this. And also she's now courting the guy from her terrible romantic screen test earlier, Owen Moore. And yeah, yeah, he's. He's older than she is. And Charlotte hates him. She really, really does hate him. And so when Griffith and the crew end up heading out west to film, well, she is more than happy that he is left behind. So, like, they end up heading out to California to film. This is shocking. I know what everybody left. Was it anything to do with Thomas Edison being a deck? Maybe it was. Maybe it absolutely fucking was. And I will cover him at some point when I'm doing my series on asshole men. But not today, like. But how will you know how to choose, Katie? I will just pick an era. So, yeah, so Owen Moore, he does try and join, like, everybody who's heading out west. Like, he shows up at the train station. But yeah, he's left behind because he thinks, right, that he's going to show up and that herself is going to just like stomp her feet and make a big scene and demand that she'll come with him and cry. But no, that doesn't happen. And so he's left at the train station while the rest of them go off to California to make movies. So like many other film companies, Biograph headed to California to Hollywood in basically Los Angeles. Now, there was nowhere to stay in Hollywood, so they'd film there during the day and then head back down to Sunset Boulevard, which was like a dirt road at the Time, right? What's amazing is, like, I finally saw Sunset Boulevard, like in real life. Sidebar. I finally saw it. And it. I mean, it is what it is, but it's like imagining that that was just one single dirt road where people stayed. And now you've got like the Chateau Malmont and just like all of the things. The Laugh Factory on Sunset Boulevard. The Laugh Factory and other places that I definitely remember and wasn't overwhelmed by the entire situation. But yeah, it was originally just this one road. But anyway, by now I'm sure you'll be aware that Mary can now read and write. Like, she worked so hard to be able to do this. And as an adult, when you've lived years being functionally illiterate, the fact that she can do this is fcking amazing. And the fact that she was able to do this and she worked to be able to do this is very impressive. And we should be in awe of her because, like, the odds are not in her favor. But she just keeps gaining Loldi. Like, she just goes for it all the time. And I love that for her. But yeah, so she's like. She sees a gap and she's like, I need to also make more money. And so while she's acting, she's also pumping out screenplays for $15. $15. $15 a pop. Right. So she's earning for every screenplay. So she's. It's basically writing directions more than anything else. Because obviously there's not dialogue, there's the intertitles, which is that sort of black card with the white writing. There's that sometimes, though, depending on the movie, there would be a narrator who would narrate the story. So it all depends on, like, how they're doing that. But a lot of the time she's just writing the story and, yeah, she's selling it and people are buying it. So good for her. Now, remember how earlier I said that Mary Pickford was frugal? Well, she is. She saves her money and she comes back from California with twelve hundred dollars. And like, this is a lot of money. It's a lot of money for the time. I mean, jeez, I'd be happy if I'd saved $1,200 now. But basically, her mum, Charlotte, has to be convinced that the money wasn't from the prop room. She's like, what? Because it's. It's such a huge amount of money, you know, And Mary, she starts getting recognition. And by that I mean, people knew her face but not her name. She was known as the Biograph girl or the girl with the curls and she is raking in the doe. And Owen Moore, that asshole, he's mad about being left behind by Biograph. So he moves to independent motion picture company and well, he wanted to be close to the star, right? The company poached Mary from Biograph, offering to not only double her salary, but hire both her siblings, Lottie and Jack, and have Moore as her own screen romance. She agrees and then marries Owen Moore in secret in 1911. She's like 17, you know what I mean? Like, it's not okay now. This whole thing was a bad move. And I mean all of it. Like, I'm not even talking about like a little bit. I mean, the whole damn thing. The company was outside the movie. Trust and safety was not great. Between dodgy stunts and, you know, things starting to break, shit was not good, right? Oh, oh yeah, that's right. It gets worse. Owen, for all of his charm and swagger, was a violent alcoholic. Almost as if Charlotte could sniff that shit out. So things were bad. And after 35 films, Mary wants to leave. She takes them to court to escape her contract and give and goes to make five films with her shitty husband for Majestic. She ends up separating from him and ended up back on Broadway. But at this point, she misses the movies, right? And, and she's recognized. People recognize her in the street and it's. She's one of the first sort of really big moments of parasocial relationships. You know, it's that really big cultural connection where people connect with a famous person, where you start learning about them and you see them in all these things and you think you know them and you, you feel that you have a relationship with them. It's like it's a one sided relationship, parasocial relationships. And this is that sort of start of it. That's the boom. And she's one of the first people, like, because she was so careful in public, her Persona, that of the ingenue, she projected that and she protected that image. Like in public she didn't smoke, drink or even dance. Like she wanted to protect this image so much. And so after the plays Runge and her return to Broadway and her and Griffith were at loggerheads, and so she ends up signing with Famous Players. Moving Pictures at the time were like short. Initially they were much shorter, but now they were feature length. And Mary, she's America's sweetheart, the ingenue, so innocent and young and they really, really lent into that in Famous Players, designing sets to make her appear smaller. They had bigaches and perspectives. Sidebar. Again, if you've ever watched the Lord of the Rings, I don't know if they have it in the regular one, but in the extended edition, they have this documentary called Bigachels and Miniatures. And it shows you how they use forced perspective to make people seem smaller, if they have them in the same scene or. Or how they have, like, smaller scenes, like, designed for one character to look larger, and how they have, like, larger sets for a character to seem smaller. And they did this back then. It was all part of force, perspective. It's really, really interesting as someone who's watched probably hundreds of hours of DVD features from Lord of the Rings, it's really good. It's really good. And perspective is a very interesting thing for me personally. But she is making money. Like, she is making money. And she goes from making $1,000 a week to $2,000 a week. And at this point, she's moved Charlotte out to live with her, right? She lives with Charlotte and she brings her out in public, right? So she's seen in public, not with her husband, Owen, right? Not with him. She's seen with her mother. And that really sort of cements and solidifies this public Persona of hers, of this ingenue. But she's shrewd, right, and always paying attention. And she is very aware that the studios are making big bucks, not the actors. And Mary is a massive star making good money. And her contract is almost up. She's offered a million dollars, but she wants control. She demands either half a million a year or half the profits on all Mary Pickford movies. She gets her name above the title. She gets to choose her roles, which director and final say on the cast. And she wants to be a producer. She wants a private studio for her own division, Pickford Film Corporation. And they say yes, right? I think she may be the first actress to have her name above, like, the title. And Charlie Chaplin, Charlie motherfucking Chaplin, who is again, also going to be a topic at some point, but his studio was negotiating with her, offering her a million when he was earning 350,000, and she turned it down and still made more money than him. And he is pissed. He is so angry. He fcking hates her so much. Like, the two of them did not go on. And she's like, oh, you think I'm being unfeminine by negotiating for my future? Well, that's a wee shame. That's a wee shame. She is well aware that acting for her will not last forever. And so she's being safe and secure. And she's still quite young and in her early 20s. And this is when she meets actor Douglas Fairbanks when she's 23 and he's married and nine years her senior. I mean, she's also married, separated, but yeah, still legally married. And her estranged husband Owen is seen stalking the streets of Los Angeles with a gun looking for Douglas Fairbanks. I mean, I mean, that's not the wisest option. And so Douglas Fairbanks, who is really good friends with Charlie Chaplin and Mary Pickford all start hanging out together. They're seen together in all these places and everyone's like, oh, what a fun little trio. Oh great, they're seeing each other. And the thing is, Douglas and Mary were seeing each other. Those two were together. And Charlie was there as a foil to just kind of be like, look, we're just good buds, the best of friends just hanging out. Which I'm sure he was delighted by. But of course they are doing this and you know, it probably would have been a bigger deal, but then World War I happened. We're lost. It feels like we're going round in circles. I'm going to ask that man for directions. Hi there. We're trying to get to the state fairgrounds.
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Katie Charlewood
Nah, I'm just kidding.
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Katie Charlewood
How is there signal out here?
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Katie Charlewood
Actually, can you pull up the way to a T Mobile store?
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Katie Charlewood
See, the thing about war sometimes is that it can be a very good income maker. So Mary is not only making propaganda movies, I mean, sorry, patriotic movie shorts, but she's also selling war bonds. And she even auctions off one of her famous curls for the war effort. So she's again, she was known for years as the girl with the curls. But like, a lot of those curls wear wigs. Do you wear wigs? Will you wear wigs? And she is wearing wigs. So yeah, she is wearing wigs and she has hairpieces and all this kind of stuff. But she ends up auctioning off one of her curls, whether or not it was like a real curl from her head or one of her wig curls. Hmms to say. But the proceeds of that auction goes towards the war effort for the Allies. Now, after the war, she divorces Owen and Fairbanks, he gets divorced because his wife is like, I'm sick of this shit. I'm not going to deal with this anymore. You're clearly in a relationship with this woman. I'm divorcing you. So two big Hollywood divorces, right? One would assume that this would not end well for either party. However, America's just like, oh, it's America's boyfriend and America's sweetheart. Oh, wow, They've found each other. Yay for love. Surprisingly, both of them come out of this unscathed. Like, when she divorces owen, he demands $100,000 for a settlement, which is like, like, that's over one and a half million dollars today. And she's like, fine, just take it and go. Now, the two of them, they get married literally days after her divorce is finalized, right? And that's what, 19, 20? And it's like days between her divorce and him, like, like, oh, my goodness, they end up being referred to as the King and queen of Hollywood. And they end up, like, traveling to Europe for their honeymoon. And so, like, they get absolutely, just absolutely rioted by fans in, like, Paris and London. And when they do, like, return to Hollywood, it's just like, everyone's just like, so excited. Now, here's the thing. During the First World War, there was a flu going about, and Mary ends up catching it because of course she does. Now, obviously she survived, but like, just felt like I'd throw that in there for you. And here's the thing as well, is that it wasn't just like the fans who loved her. Like she was really loved by like crew members. So the thing about the crew members is that like, she was really nice to like the cameramen and the stagehands and all these other people because she was like, you know, they're the ones who are going to direct me. They're going to let me know if like the lighting guy is going to be like, there's a shadow, don't go over there. Because remember, like, there's no sound. So people can just like shout at her as well. And so she's doing all this and she's like genuinely beloved by like all of these people. So the big studio heads, like they were meeting up because they were trying to like deal with, and this is a direct quote, the excessive pride and cast of actors, basically performers making so much money. And the guys who run the studios were like, we want more of it now. And so they basically wanted to create effectively. Think of it as an oligopoly, but for actors wages. So what they wanted to do was to keep actors sort of fame and salaries low because they thought that with them being so famous and so rich, it kind of gave them too much power. And it got to the point that because this stuff was happening that Mary Pickford would bring a donation bucket on set. And so she would be like, hey, we need this to help actors and actresses and people who needed, you know, extra money because their wages are being held down and their parts are being reduced. And she would like pay attention to who donated and who didn't. So because she was earning loads of money, she was like, she would donate and other people would donate and it'd be like a thing. Now this was a very like informal thing. But eventually like she would end up establishing a formal fund to help actors. But not only actors, you're talking like unemployed members of like the whole movie system, right? So cameramen, lighting men, prop guys, like the whole shebang, you know, not only those who couldn't find work, like stuntmen even who had been injured, you know. And all of this, all of this started like from like this donation bucket. And afterwards it would become like this official fund where people would have to donate parts of their wages, of their salary. And like at this point she's still thinking of the welfare of everyone around her and not just herself. And she's Working hard to protect everything as much as possible. And so at this point, she's like, you know what? I'm sick of these money men. I'm sick of being told what to do. And I'm sick of them thinking that they can just control me. And so she says, fuck this for a game of soldiers. And along with Charlie Chaplin, Douglas Fairbanks and D.W. griffith, who clearly they've made up by now, they form new studio, which becomes part of the Little three, United Artists, basically, where all the independent artists can come work. And it's a really good studio. And so you have the highest paid actors and the highest paid director in Hollywood, right? And they've just made this stand. So they've decided they're going to set up, you know, United Artists. So this is one of the little three. So there's the big five, and the little three. So the big five, you're talking Paramount Pictures, Metro, Golden Mayor, Warner Brothers, 20th Century Fox, and then RKO Radio Pictures. So then you would have the little three, which would be United Artists, Universal and Columbia Pictures. Now, back in the day, a way that a lot of actors got work was they started off doing stunts. Like, I think even was it Kurt Russell started off doing stunts, and that's how he ended up getting, like, his work. I love Kurt Russell, it's just. But, like, Douglas Fairbanks, like, he was known for doing his own stunts and he was like a swashbuckler. And he played Zorro and the Mask of Zorro. And you're thinking, that's an awfully white man. Listen, Antonio Banderas is Spanish, okay? And he's playing like Zorro, too. I mean, he's closer, but, like, still. Anyway, he was, like, super athletic. And he was just known for being, like, this very physical actor. The swashbuckling hero, like Errol Flynn before Errol Flynn. Errol Flynn, also an arsehole who we will talk about later. But Charlie Chaplin as well, again, also an arsehole, but very good with his physical comedy. Buster Keaton as well. So, like, very, very, very clever now, because they're so. I mean, it all depends. Because the way that silent movies were shot, the frames per second, it used to being sort of slower. And when the frames per second, like, increased on sort of the projectors and whatnot, is the projector, you know what I mean? And that's the name of the thing. And so sped up the actions and it made it look more cartoonish. Now, this works for things like Charlie Chaplin and his sort of physicality. But when it came to Serious actresses like Mary Pickford, she really didn't appreciate that because it made her seem silly and jaunty when she's, you know, that's not what was being portrayed. But anyhow, Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks, the queen and king of Hollywood, they. They made a house. They got a house in Beverly Hills, like, and they called it Pick Fair. So it's like half of her name, half of his name. But yeah, I mean, it's so. It's so interesting because, like, they were two of them. Like, because they were like America's sweetheart couple is that they were so very, very consistent with their public Personas. Like, if they went out places, if they danced, they would only dance with each other. Like, they were very specific in the way that they acted. You know, like, when it came to, like, dinners and stuff, they would sit together, which is like, you're not supposed to do that because etiquette dictates that, you know, certain people sit here and you sit opposite and, like, it's a whole thing. But no, no, they demanded to sit next to each other, which is like, not what you did, but they did it. And so, yeah, this sort of very restrictive life for the two of them, it really started getting to Mary. And she didn't drink in public, but she sure did drink in secret. And she would just, like, go drinking in her mother's house on the ground. So they had this like, big Beverly Hills house and then another little house for her mum on the grounds. And so she would go down there and go drinking. And like, the bottles would be labeled things like Listerine, like mouthwash or like ointment. And it would just be like gin, like. And so. Right. She's just, I think, trying to have some control, even though what she's looking for as control is not anymore. Now, Mary would never have any children of her own. Now, there's a theory that she had, what was it she had a miscarriage. And then another that she had an abortion when she was married to Owen Muir. But here's the thing. She could have had issues. She could have had, you know, endometriosis or polycystic ovary syndrome. And we don't know because we don't even know about women's health nowadays. But there's also the possibility that she had. That she did have an abortion. And if she did, good for her fcking heart, okay? Because her life, her choice, you know, and even though she would never have any children of her own. And Douglas Fairbanks, he had a. A son from his previous marriage. To the socialite, the first Mrs. Fairbanks. And they looked after Charlotte's daughter. Not Charlotte's daughter. Yes, Charlotte's daughter. So Lottie, Mary Pickford's sister, her daughter Gwen would basically live with Charlotte, like Grandma Charlotte, and then would also live in Pickfair with Mary and Douglas. So she lived there and then she would go to boarding school and so. So she would look after Gwen. And that's probably as close, as maternal as she got because, like Charlotte, like Grandma Charlotte, super hands on mum, super into it. And Mary, I don't think she got that far, but like she made sure that this kid was cared for, was in her care, you know, and she did, I think, her best. And this is like she's 29 at this point when she's doing all this stuff. And at this point, I think, like more stars come on the screen, like Clara Bow. And so like her whole thing, like I said before, about the reason people, when they transfer to like, you know, silent movies, to talkies, was that a lot of people couldn't do the transition for a bunch of things like the characters they played just fell out of public, you know, preference. And so you had Clara Bow who's just like all moves and she's just. I'm gonna say, I think it was. She was just kind of did a kicking about being a wild child and all arms and legs. And then so this character of the ingenue, which was Mary's sort of wholesome thing, it wasn't that cool anymore. And also Mary's getting older and so that kind of character doesn't really flow as well, like that perception. And so she'd been doing like again, at one point she was like 35 movies a year, like 10 movies a year, whatever. And at this point she moves down to like one a year. So she does one like big acting project per year, which is like enough for her. And like each of her films they did, you know, quite well. But like she's doing all this other stuff. I mean, she was writing scripts, she was doing these bits. She has United Artists. And also when Mary is 34 years old, the Chinese Theatre, which is now known as the Groman's Chinese Theatre, it opened and Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks were the very first people to put their handprints and their signatures in the cement. Now, the following year, Mary Pickford helped found the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, as in, yes, the Academy. And Douglas Fairbanks was its first president. Now, originally in the Academy there's only like 36 members and only three of them were women. So you've got Mary Pickford and then two screenwriters. Basically the idea was to get cross communications, like between, you know, the entire like, system. So lighting people and like stagehand and you know, the script writers can talk to the prop people and the acting can talk to the director. Like it was a whole smorgasbord of communication. And then, then Har and Douglas Fairbanks create the first college level course on the history of filmmaking at the University of Southern California. And so, and they're just doing all this stuff. And eventually she ends up making her very last silent movie, My Best Girl, and she makes it with Buddy Rogers. Ah, it's like, I think it's like one of the best movies like she's made. And it's this beautiful romantic comedy and it's done really, really well. If you watch it at the correct speed, it's like fabulous. Like, and if you look at the way she moves, like, just watch the actors move properly in silent movies. It is a beautiful understanding of just humans and the way they move and all that jazz. Now, this year that this came out, like, for everything that happens, that's good, stuff happens, that's bad. And this is when Charlotte, her mother is diagnosed with breast cancer. And yeah, Mary ends up staying with her for months. And that. One of the last things Charlotte says to her daughter is that you must never think that you ever displeased or upset me. You are the best daughter that any mother has ever had. I'm sorry, I'm getting really emotional about this. But like, like, this is from a person who's sidebar. I, I put my daughter's clothes out for her in the morning. She's nine and she's mean to me usually. And it's like I just had her clothes sitting out and next thing I heard was, thank you, Mommy. Like, what, why are you being nice to me? Why are you thanking me? What is this? What have you done with my daughter? But like, she was just, I don't know, she's been really polite lately. But like to have her mother turn around and just be like, I need you to understand that you were great and you were a wonderful daughter and that I love you. Which is amazing because when people are suffering, when they're ill, when they're in pain, it's far too easy for them to, to become painful, to project everything that they are feeling out in the world. And I'm so glad that she got this. And Mary was so distraught when her mother died that her husband has to physically hold her back from throwing herself out a window. And Mary, like, she goes into, like, this huge. This huge pool of grief. Like, she's weeping, she's suffering. Her mother, the only person who was ever there for her whole life, the person who was always her biggest supporter and who she loved so much, she's gone. And this just. It just shakes her to her core. And so three months later, after all this happened, she just goes and does what everybody does when something or every woman does when something big happens in their life. We cut her hair, right? And she gets. And just chops off, like, all her, like, long curls and gets a bob, right? And the public are incensed, right? They're like, she's basically killed herself. But, like, what she was doing was killing off the image of the girl with the curls, you know, that ingenue, because she's bloody adult now. And so she's finally going into, like, roles that she can actually play. Because, like, she's 33 and she's still playing, like, 11 and 12 year olds on the screen. And so she's like, yeah. And so it's just gone. And so people were just like, oh, no, you've destroyed it. Like, I mean, she's what, 36 at this point? So back when she was 33, she was playing like a child. And then, well, everything changed then because the talkies happened now with the Jazz Singer, it kind of let people know that sound could happen. But also it took a while for the talkies to actually get going. And so, like, she'd gone from, like, the stage to the screen, and now she was going from, like, movement to speaking. And so, like, remember how, like, in the silent movie era, like, the cameras were loud, kind of like a machine gun, right? And the cranking and whatnot. And then, like, people were shouting. You'd shout your directions. People were, like, loud. And then suddenly there's microphones everywhere and you've got to be fucking quiet. And so, like, it's a whole technical issue. Like, it just. Oh, it's like my favorite thing is, like, in the singing of the rain this singing of the rain. Shut up. In Singing Singing in the Rain, Lina Lamont is like. She's trying to, like, talk, and she's moving her body, she's moving her head, and they're like. And they've got a microphone and a plant and she's. And they're just like, you need to move this way. And she's like, I can't make love to a bush. That's. That's that seems like a you problem, Leena. No, sorry, bisexual joke today. And so she's just like, she just can't do it. But, like, you have to be, like, standing really still or sometimes in a soundproof box. There was just all of these issues, and then you would have to do, like, reshoots and retakes if somebody, like, coughed or sneezed or moved their foot a little bit and the microphone picked it up and, like. And it wasn't just, you know, it wasn't just, like, accents and, you know, not having a good voice. Like, that wasn't the main issue. It was all the other stuff and how quickly you could adapt to it. And so a lot of the old film stars, they just couldn't, like, do the transition because they couldn't, you know, move the same way and do this. And Mary did not like the sound of her own voice, and she just didn't really want to do it right. And her mother had always said that she was too hard on herself. And, like, straight away, she's like, I can't do this. Because she. Because she wasn't able to do it, like, first go. Like, she just felt like she couldn't do it. And here's the thing. Like, here's the thing, here's the thing. The first audition she did was bad. The second audition she did was bad. And yet she ended up being a star. And if she'd just taken that same, like, third time's the charm, she would have been fine. I. But she's doing her first talkie. She's 37. She's in Coquette, and, like, she ends up just being so stressed that she ends up just firing, like, a bunch of tech guys just, like, out of just being so stressed. And it did well in the box office, and it did win her, quote, her second ever Academy Award for Best Actress. Now, it doesn't become the Oscars, by the way, till, like, 1939, but, yeah, so we're quite away from that now. This award was more like, thanks for doing stuff. And so, yeah, first Academy Award for an actress in a movie with sound. So she had won as a silent film star and now won as a talkie film star. And so she has three more talkies, and they're kind of fine. And then she decides that she's done. She's like, mary wanted to stop doing it before she was, like, told to stop doing it. And so one of the last movies that she ever makes is with Douglas Fairbanks, and it's the Taming of The shrew. Now their marriage at this point is kind of not doing well because he's also a piece of shit and a philanderer, but, right, she's like, not fond of this because, like, the whole point is that they think this is going to get the two of them back on track with our marriage. But she cannot deal with his because his work ethic is lacking, shall we say. He didn't memorize his lines, he would come in late and he didn't take it as seriously as she did. And that's the thing, like, she is super, like determined when she does things and he's just like not doing well with his career. And so he ends up buggering off to like Europe, starting shagging people all over and they end up separating. Was it the same year, I think, as Mary Pickford's last movie? Sort of secrets now. She quietly, very quietly divorces Douglas Fairbanks on the grounds of absenting himself from their home and her society with a lack of consideration for her feelings. So, like, she like files for divorce and then he's like, oh, no, please don't leave me. And he's like groveling and begging and she's like, I'm done. Which is fair. And so like, basically there's a year, like it's sort of a separation is for a year. And then at the end of that year, like, the divorce is final. And so he's begging and groveling and he keeps coming back and asking her to like, not divorce him. And then like even the day before, like the deadline, he's like, please. And she's like, no. And so like, yeah, and after this, like, she wasn't quite the same after this divorce, you know, and she'd like filmed her last movie and yeah, at this point as well, Disney like was considering her to be the first live action Alice in Wonderland. And that's. She's 41, like, that's not happening. Anyway, the project ends up being like scrapped and she just kind of doesn't. Yeah, she's kind of embarrassed by the whole thing and. Yeah, so she just wasn't super keen on it at this point. That being said, she was still like writing for movies and producing and she was just kind of doing things, which is good because Douglas Fairbanks wasn't doing anything. So she writes a novel because she's trying other stuff, which is good. It's good to just try things and you don't have to be good at everything. So she writes this novel called the Demi Window and it's like fine and Then she writes textbooks for Christian Science, which is okay. And so she tries to write, or she does write, I suppose a self help book called I say tries to write because it was ghostwritten. So it's like, why not try God? Anyway, it was. It was. It's not. It's not great. And so, yeah, so she just keeps drinking. Actually, she also has a radio show event evenings at Pickfair. And it was like, all about like food and drink and decorating the house and like, it's the depression girl. Read the room. Yeah, basically it lasts what, 13 episodes before it's like, hey, no. So when she's 45, she ends up marrying none other than former co star Buddy Rogers. Right. Remember from her. Her film My Best Girl. Her, like her last silent movie. And so like, he was like, kind of like so into her and she was like, I'm married. And now she's like, okay, we're gonna do this. And so people start calling him America's boyfriend. Like that's what happens after like the silent movie. And basically, like, it's all good. You know, she just was a bit nervous before they got married. Like she wasn't, I don't think, super into getting married. I think she kind of did it because she felt like she should. Like, he was 33, she's 40 something, and he's like, I really like her. I've always wanted to marry her. And she's like, that's nice. And he adores her and he's nice. And he just like really likes her. And like, because obviously Mary Pickford is such a big deal. Like sometimes they would just call him Mr. Pickford and she's like, that's cool. Whereas when Owen moore was called Mr. Pickford, he was like, let me beat my wife. And so he moved into Pickfair and she's writing a column for the New York Journal, right? And it's about New York. Like, why her? Okay. She's okay. And she's talking about current events, you know, she's talking about crime. She's got interviews with like, you know, the Kennedy family and. Yeah, so you would never guess who actually visits her in Pig Fair. The Duke and Duchess of Windsor. Right. Wallis Simpson and the Nazi king. And so there's just so much going on. I think at one point she even tries to like, diversify and make like a makeup company. Take that, Kylie. And so Jenner, not Minogue. We like Kylie Minogue. You know, you can like Kylie Jenner too. I don't. I don't think I know enough about her, to actually care about her. Um, I just thought it was funny. And also she lied about being like a millionaire. Anyway, so World War II is coming and it comes. And Buddy Rogers volunteers and he's a pilot in the Navy. And while he's out doing that, she adopts two kids, right? She just goes to an orphanage, adopts a six year old boy, and then not even a full year, she then adopts this infant, this little girl, and names her Roxie. Like he's on duty with the Navy. And she didn't tell them that they had a six year old boy and a baby now. And so I'm not sure that that's, that's the best idea. And they're older now. Like she's what, 51 at that point? And yeah, kids need a lot more than just being in a house. But yeah, he's just like, cool, I guess that's fine. And he's like, really good. Out of all of her husbands, he's probably the best. I say probably he was the best. And like, she's getting mean, right? So she's drinking again. And sometimes she would call him Douglas. Now, whether or not that was deliberate or whether that was because she wanted to upset him, hims to say, but like she would like straight up scream at him at parties. Like now she is spiraling. Like she's struggling at this point. She's, she has a disagreement with Helen Keller because she was supposed to do this like, fund for children, deaf and blind children. And there was also supposed to be like this whole thing and it didn't happen. And then Helen Keller became an issue. She ends up, like, kicking her best friend out of her house. Like things are just not going well, but like, but she's still like, seeing people and she's still kind of doing things. Like she meets Amelia Earhart, she meets like the Eisenhowers. Like, she just does like all this stuff. And like, she ends up selling her last like, piece of stock in United Artists in 1956. That's when she's 64. And that's like her last connection to like, her and the movies. And so she starts focusing more on her charity work, right? So she ends up like, serving with like the Eisenhowers on the White House Conference on Aging. And her and Mamie, like, they're traveling across the US selling saving bonds for a while. And when she's 69, so four years after this, she gets an honorary doctorate of humanities from Middlebury College for basically all of her good work and her charity work. And a year later she gets one from Emerson College in Boston. And basically they're talking about all of the good shit she did. And so all the work she's done for, like, all of her charity work, all the work she's done for ageism and all of the work she did in the industry. So she was just like, like raising money for like ambulances during the World War and everything. Like, she's doing all this stuff. And so the art is really fun that she starts. You know, it's basically that sort of charity that she creates where people, you know, certain actors, they would have to donate like 1% of their salary to go towards, like the unemployed actors, like your cameraman, your lighting dudes, all that shebang. And so, like, she would also do like radio benefits. And then. Right. The motion picture Country Home, it basically, you know, had a screening room in it as well. And so it was built as a place for aging actors to live. And it also had a hospital that was added to it. And Mary Pickford is the, you know, the founder of this. And she was also. She also helped create a Jewish retirement home. And basically she admits to house. Well, to everybody, she admits that she did this, but basically she made some insensitive remarks towards a Jewish actress. And basically it was, you know, she said something anti Semitic at one point, but then she was like, I need to fix this because that wasn't cool. And so she invests in ensuring that these Jewish people, like, who have been in the entertainment industry, that they have the appropriate care that they need. And so she wanted to make sure that she was able to do this. And yeah, at least she did the fucking right thing in the end. And I think that's important now. The very last time that she's out in public was there was a Mary Pickford, like film retrospective and it was held in Paris and the French government invited her over and she's 73 at this point. And they showed 50 of her movies at the proper speed because, like, what had been happening is it had been shown in that sort of quicken speed. And again, she didn't appreciate that. And then she saw her acting being appreciated as it was meant to be shown, and nobody laughed. Everybody watched her do this. Everybody loved and appreciated and enjoyed her work. And that meant so much to her more than anything else had. And this was an amazing thing for her. And after this, this is where she starts becoming withdrawn basically for the next, I think it's 15 years and she just sort of pulls away sort of hermits herself. And she went from being this huge star to being forgotten effectively. And that's. It's kind of one of the reasons I wanted to do this month, because I know I talk about, like, big, horrible things quite a lot of the time. And when it comes to women's history, I think it's too easy to forget people, because people is what makes history. And when it comes to someone like Mary Pickford, she did so much to create the industry, and not create it, but, like, create the industry we know today, even, and how she was instrumental in so much of it, and it destroyed her. And I think we should appreciate people for their art, especially when they work to better themselves. And she really did with. You know, she wanted to make sure that other people were cared for. And I think that's the most beautiful thing. And we dismiss her, and we dismiss so many people. And we act like art isn't important when. Like, when people have the opportunity to create, they do. And we get to appreciate it and love it. And I think that it's just gorgeous, really. And over the years, you know, we see all this stuff in Hollywood. Like, I remember I was in the Hollywood River Cemetery, and Douglas Fairbanks has this massive fucking marble. It just bothers me. Anyway, but when she's 84, in 1976, she receives an honorary Oscar for her contribution to the moving picture industry. And, like, it's interesting, though, because, like, they film her in her house and she's wearing this wig, and you can see her movements as she's still doing that sort of very Mary Pickford moves. And her speech is a little sort of slurred, and it feels quite. I don't want to say predatory, but, like, it feels very manipulative. And it caused a huge backlash because people were like, how dare you do this to this woman? Because, you know, she's clearly, you know, advanced in years, and that's. That's how they are. And. And, like, they're not wrong because her mental health was declining so much, and she was not always lucid. Like, Douglas Fairbanks Jr. Would come visit her and she would think that she's talking to his dad, you know, and she'd forget, and she'd be. She'd forget she wasn't married to Douglas Fairbanks anymore, and she'd forget that she was married to Charles Buddy Rogers. And Buddy did his best to care for her at this point. Like, he stayed married through all this, and he does his best. He's got staff. He's trying. And he cared for her until the end. But then on the 27th, of May 1979, she suffers a stroke and is rushed into hospital. Two days later, she passes away. On the 29th of May, 1979, as a result of complications from the stroke, She is interred in a locked section of Forest Lawn Cemetery. Her mother Charlotte, her sister Lottie, and her brother Jack had been interred there previously. Now, a lot of her, like a lot of her money, a lot of everything that she had that she was a trust that was set up for her niece Gwen's kids. So like that was there and then a few things were, you know, given to like the Smithsonian and stuff. And then a lot of the other stuff was just sold, you know, and a lot of her work has just been destroyed over the years. Sometimes by, you know, like those film, old films was flammable and so stuff would just get destroyed by air and then sometimes by combusting. It's a whole thing. But if you do get to watch some of Mary Pickford's stuff, it's. It's so good when you actually see how she moves. It's not pantomime, it's. It's acting, but just without the words. But so ends the story. Mary Pickford. And I do hope that you'll get to see her stuff at some point. And yeah, I guess it's time for recommendations. So. For watching sparrows. Watch the sparrows. It's just. You can, you can still find it. There's still clips, I think. So watch that for reading. For reading. Okay. The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo. Just. I just think it's a. It's a good little trick for you. And for listening. You know what I am still listening to? House Tour by Sabrina Carpenter. I think it's a bop. I don't care. And with that, I'm going to bid you good evening. Adios. Au revoir. Au revoir, my friends. Bye Bye.
- [92:27]
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- [93:43]
Katie Charlewood
acast powers the world's best podcasts. Here's a show that we recommend. Hi, I'm Shin Yi Pai. Five years ago, I sat down in front of a microphone with a simple goal to share stories from the Asian American experience and to do that by talking about everyday objects. Now, 10,000 Things is headed into its fifth and final season and we've got a new set of stories about coming fully into oneself, weird and wild and inspired. Tune in to the final season of 10,000 things from Acast Creative Studio Studios, a podcast about modern day artifacts of Asian American life and the stories they reveal. Listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, or wherever you get your podcasts. ACAST helps creators launch, grow and monetize their podcasts everywhere. Acast.com.