Do you know who this is?

Not everyone will remember her, but she was “America’s Sweetheart” 100 years ago.

Mary Pickford (1892 – 1979)

Pickford stood only about five feet tall and was known as the “girl with the curls,” playing a child in silent films until she was almost 30 years old.  But this little woman was a powerhouse!  Not only was she a favorite in Nickelodeons all over America, but she was a mogul herself, opening a movie studio with fellow stars of the time. She broke major ground in Hollywood, a world so male dominated in her time – and many might argue still is male-dominated.  I just finished reading a bio on Mary Pickford after watching an amazing documentary on Pickford on TCM, so I plan to feature her more in depth in a blog post in the future.

But since it’s Women’s History Month for a few more days, I thought I would feature some fierce feminists of classic Hollywood.  Keep in mind that feminism is simply the belief that women deserve the same rights that men do. These women just wanted to stand shoulder to shoulder with men and make movies.

It’s hard to remember a time when there was a huge gap in equal rights for women, but Mary certainly did. She was making movies even before women won the right to vote in America.  And she certainly participated in that movement herself.

Pickford was the epitome of femininity for the period with a perfect head of golden ringlets. Don’t let the ringlets fool you though. She didn’t just want to be in movies.  She wanted to make them too and became a founder of United Artists and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

If you’ve never seen a Pickford silent film, check one at TCM or look for the documentary on her life.  Silent films can be very mesmerizing, almost like watching a moving piece of art.  And Pickford’s movies were art forms, although she wanted to destroy them as soon as the talkies came out in fear of being ridiculed for an obsolete medium.  Thankfully someone talked her out of doing that. I’d recommend watching “Sparrows” (1926), a tense Southern Gothic film that Pickford produced. It’s one of the great treasures of the silent era.

Frances Marion (1888 – 1973) – actress, writer, director, producer

Fun fact (or maybe not-so-fun fact): only about 11% of movies made today are written by women, but over half of movies made before 1925 were written by women. Why? Maybe because writing was never considered glamour work and there was little to no recognition for writers until this woman made her mark on Hollywood.

The most prominent of classic Hollywood’s lady screenwriters, Frances Marion scripted several Mary Pickford’s most popular vehicles and the two of them became a force in Hollywood together.

Then she joined the team of top MGM writers. Marion excelled in nearly all genres, from gritty prison dramas like “The Big House” (1930) to comedies like “Min and Bill” (1930) to passionate literary adaptations like “Camille” (1936).

…A little off-topic side note:  Remember “Camille” was that movie that Annie went to see in the 1982 version of “Annie.” So this was probably my first glimpse of a classic movie.  And it featured legendary Greta Garbo.  The reason it was probably featured was because supervising editor of “Annie” Margaret Booth was also the original editor of “Camille” (1936).  Wow!  That’s an amazing career.

But Annie fell asleep and many 80s kids like me probably did too.

I’ll feature more ladies over the last week of Women’s History Month.