Casper Daily Tribune Newspaper, June 12, 1921, Page 11

‘stage debut at the age of five; how David G Broadway... and the days in ‘wealth of detail by the world’s sweetheart. Th: ‘who set them down on paper and who supplemi ford’s words own. inte: g im What_o' ‘:nowledge,” reveals about herself. Never before has an authentic biography of this kind be ‘ished i whose smiling face is known to millions and whose charm reese gaan Our Mary— This is her-own, her real story. Mase eet eee rt cae oa of her mother’s wi ‘ . “Muvver,” Mary had asked, “what nA peter . It was a problem the widow had not yet ame had come within the experience of Mrs. ly in Toronto. Hennessy by name, days. iven harlotte it to. Until What; indeed, were they to do without their daddy? Mary G! wen then, aged five—would b only was ‘Mary G wise beyond her rents would be a tower of ‘tical and helpful and fertile in a creativ i i nati 'e * Whatever. happened, however Taek tae tures the mothe It was as well that this was so, jm cheering, hel co-worker, pnly three and Ji pothing else for a lor= time to come. b ‘The fa! had been an ambitious young Englishman {Toronto and Bi an amateur athlete of no mean. grirtts: he refused to treat seriously the accident which 00 late, t Homeward bound across Lake THE FATAL INJURY By spar, eee on his arrival at home he still had a dull ‘01 juence. severa! ys ed—ani a ereed 60 Mil exanabantiptirb®. the: tarally’ physician insistence that eg join his ship and resume his duti, each da: it the bedside of the dying man. It was late even for an operation. ‘the .déath ot her father, Mary takes up her own story. “MY LIFE” As Told by MARY PICKFORD By HAYDEN TALBOT E WERE , Of course, but not so poor as one writer made it appear, lother did do sewing for money and she did take in roomers—but she never ran a boarding house! And that's what But it isn't true. We never had boarders. ‘ re I'l admit Ican’t see much difference between roomers and boarders, it when that articlé appeared I know it made mother very angry and ~ Ft set. And, I suppose there is a difference,:when you come to think.’ bout it. . One of our roomers, knew the manager of the local stock company. e had taken a fancy to me, and had encouraged m¢ to recite my pieces r him. One day he went to my mother and told her he was sure his lend the manager ‘would e-me a job in the theatre, if my mother aian’t obfect pe: Tash 8 : = ‘Thank heaven for my mother’s good common sense at just that moment! Not that I haven't thanked heaven many times since for that ame common. sense with which she is abundantly gifted—but I'm espe- thankful it showed itself right then. I suppose most mothers, niin these. more enlightened days and in cities Jess provincial n'Toronte, would object strenuously to the idea of their five-year-old @aughter’r ~ving on the stage. ~ = The Stage As I Found It 2 But to such mothers I'd like to say a word right here and now. And speak trom experience. J = There are many worse places than the stage and many worse environ- Ments than actor folk create. 3 Age 3 I was In the world of the theater for ten solid years. In that.time I ‘played many parts, in many companies, under the worst possible kind of But in all that tim iB havecinment Wis ROCESEE Beate ‘hevér ‘was ‘conscious ct an unspoken though pJotiplace in the best home on earth. much of my inherent falth in human nature. To unfailingly kind and considerate—even r gRronically profane (but who forebore to swear in my hearing) aid to those women who, to make easier the pain of realiza- tion of quasi-fatlure, had turned to smoking and drinking (but who never Smoked nor drank in my presence)—to’these actor folk I am-and ever 1 be grateful, 5 ; tee they all, without prearrangement, without perhaps. cee) tention, conspired togetuer.in a common purpose to make my girlhood stic as a girl's can be. Wherever they are A Visit to the Manager S - he manager herself. He was kind to me, and the very first time he put on’a play that course I was exquisitely. thrilled at the’ age I had “acted”—in neighbors’ co of y That performance stands out !ndelibly in my mind even now. It was the most-wonderful thing I ever went through.” I ani ‘sure nothing Beain will ever equal the joy that was mine that niché I wasn’t a bit &fraid,—I loved it, \ It-was fairyiand taken bodily out of fatry books and made real to me— for me to enter and leave, to live in a while, and then returp to the mun- done sphere—only to dream of the gorgeous mysteries that lived behind the tootlights! TAT? zi Fi Fifteen Dollars a Week 3} Not a whit less wonderful was that first salary envelope, with its crisp, Rew five-dollar, bille—three of them} Fifteen dollars! « ig most Aes ea seas received from More than eo ee with her needle in: the sam length of s than masvelpaal = SE Ess Be a oe can vamember now that the wonder of it all struck mo chiefly be- fause tHe money was Teal—real money to come from a land of perpetual frake-belleve! 3 Perey te ¢ * Had the salaries these players ‘recelved been d= unreal as the roles they played, as the'gloriously happy, artificial lives they led—behind the footlichts—I should have felt that they were to be envied above all ipsOpie. To share in their joyous hours, and eed paid for it in actual coin the realm—well, it was quite too wonderful! > At first my Cacia came infrequently. For weeks at a time the stock Sompany's bill would fnclude no child's part. At such times I would be fearly disconsolate. But then would come the “call"—that beautiful, pro- fessional word that above every other means most to your actor—infinitely ore than @ mere summons to work, a rvtification that salary-drawing {s © ioe Se co —until, 1 was fifteen—I worked In the theater. T gave my work all the enthusiasm, alf tho study, all the zeal which a child tn love With what it fs doing will give. “Is it too much to say that in thls period I learned my business, and ed it thoroughly. I wonder! In any event I amile often when I think of the many wise gontiemen, Sith large tortoise-siell spectacles who sigh deeply and give vent to pro- found rogrota that motion pictures should havo recruited thelr most suc- feeestul stars from among the ranks of amatcurs with no knowledge of the “orld of the spoken drama! Unquesticnadiy sof a few men'and women without experience in the oken drama have reached important places In the silent drama, As the wed mother did sewing and kept roomers, of her i how she jumped from rs stan living in:¢cheap hotels and sending home half of her oar er mene pads Tage the old Biograph studio; her These and other incidents, pathetic, humorous and heroic, are described with a ey were narrated to Hayden Tal ents, in another Pa Bony ick with his ns of the famous actress. Mgiete have! attempted-to tell about Mary Pickford from second-hand The Loss of Their Daddy That Preceded Mary’s Story are we going to do wivout daddi 101 ith—daught and object of a dozen suitors’ affections in her recent school Of vastly greater importance, she was intensely prac- knew that Mary Gladys would be ‘or the other two chil —Lotti just learning to walk—meant only constant care and froable, and aetiT ees purser on: a steamshi yi ability and overflowing with aos ‘inally resulted in his deat Ontario he had been fooling about with some of his brother of- icers, high j on deck, As he cleared the obstacle his head struck agai i - i i mh tore of the blow knocked him out for a few minutes. eke ipoags Tse he. he ain in his head, but dismissed it laughingly as of the pain grew worse: The medica! man Promptly, and 8 a purser on tl frantic wife, suddenly shocked into a realization of the truth, Tn any event, the truth is that we did not ever, at any time, take in - first appearance on Miss Pick- now few problems worthy the iter of a well-to-do Trish fam- strength for the mother. Not between ood health and untik it was Reluctantly he ely over-rode bound voyage. thered emi- ie Buffal But it was too late for human science to avail new art grows in richness and more and more proves its right to exist as a distinct and separate thing—undoubtedly there will be many new lumi naries whose experience will be confined exclusively to portrayals of roles before the camera. But for the life of me I cannot see why this should be held against the art. And now at least it is not true that motion pictures include only actors to whom the spoken drama is a sealed book. e Uptilted Scorn of Movies I realize the prejudice that exists against motion pictures—compared ‘with the spoken drama. Ofie would have to be deaf and blind not to realize it For ten years I, myself, looked upon the “‘movies” with all the uptilted- nose scorn which only ignorance can excuse. In those days, of course, motion picture theaters were of the cheap. peer show type. The pictures themselves were absurd crudities. But the fact remains that in those very same days I was learning—as Gladys Mary Smith—all the rudiments of acting which subsequently were to enable me to win my present position in the film world—-as Mary Pickford.” ot, Series : | Whe Real Mo ‘ But {t isn’t I, the I, the public cares about. It isn’t to see me they pay their money atthe box office, I know it isn't. Would you like to know what really happens any night in ahy home in any town where 2 picture of mine is being shown? Wéell, after supper fother tells father that she is taking the children to a picture show and asks if he would like to come along. “What's the picturé” asks father. “A Maiy Pickford) picture,” mother says. night and says {t's good.” “Not for me,” says father. “Mary Pickford bores me ft death—just bunch of curls and no brains! I don’t like that kind of;etuff. I lke « man’s story with’ something’to {t.” 4 “How can you say auch awful things, daddy?" protests ten-year-old Ruth, ¢aughter of the house, “I think Mary Pickford's 'dorable.” “ “Sometimes shele good,” volunteers Johnny, his father’s son. hope they got @ good fight in thie picture—or something’ “Take the children, mother, and enjoy yourselves, ing himself in the evening paper. > And there it fi The next day, and for weeks to come—until another “Mrs, Morrison saw it last “Gee, I * gays father, bury- of my pictures {s in that town—I hold no place at all in the concerns of the family. Why should I? After ali, it is very wonderful, of course, to have prorof come te you every day that your work is appreciated and that characterizations ‘you have tried hard to make effective have been favorably accepted—but I /should be very *tupld and frightfully conceited if I tool any of it seriougly—any more seriously than it deserves, Tt ts all very well, I supposse, but !t would be the rankest nonsense to take the phrase ‘World's Sweetheart” literally. At most it can mean nothing more than that the roles I play are naturally and necessarily the kind that ‘evoke the largest pussible measure of sympathy and affection from the audience. ’ r - But it isn’t me, the real me, they sympathize with or love. It's the girl of the author's imagination, the unreal character I try my best to make ;. seem real. ae i Y’ve never played. part that even faintly resembled myeelf, It woul: be stupid of me to think of doing such @ thing. It would make such Mary Pickford puzzling over the answer to a difficult letter. She has so many letters—thousands and thousands of them—that they keep her busy dictating to her secretary in many spare minutes. completely uninteresting characteriza- tion. That is the reason I hold firm- ly to the opimon that nobody in the world—outside my family ard personal friends—can have the slightest inter- est in my real individuality. 1 hold this to be true in the case of every acter, Our Private Affairs. To be one’s self “on the screen or on the stage is not to act at all! Wherefore an actor who really wants to. amount to anything in his. pro- fession tries always to be as differ- ent as possible—in every role he plays —from his real self. Doing this, and in the doing es- tablishing one’s actor-eelf in the af fections of one’s audience, makes it most inadvisable to destroy all the Musions so created by deliberately showing one’s self to be quite a dif- ferent person in real life. But altogether aside from the mat: ter of good judgmext, there is the matter of right to be considered. How much’ right kas the public to know about the personal side of the men and women wo furnish their amusement? I realize perfectly that we ore all servants of the public— put isn’t Our obligation to our public pald when we give to our work the best that’s in us? I can understand that public pol- fey demands that the innermost se- crets. of a statesman’s life be made public property, since the weil being of a people Is in the balance, But for us who at most are unimportant purveyors of entertainment for @ pass inte hour or ao—shoutd this bearing of our inner selves be necessary? 1 think not, Public policy does not de- mand {t. And from the actor’s stand- point, good taste rebels at the thought. On the other hand, every tiny de- teil of my professional career belongs to the public which has been so gen- erous to me, There !s nothing I am ret resdy to tell about my work— and {t ism tale not too poor in de- il. inaemuch as since T was 6 al- most #1 I've known has been work, ‘That Mary Pickford belongs to the lic—und about her I am glad to there ts to be told. tell ail (To Be Continued) Here js a photograph of Mary havirg her portrait painted by Matteo Sadona, famous Italian portrait. painter, When the painting Is finished it will be hung in the National Galleries at Washington, D. C. “How I Got the Story” By HAYDEN TALBOT |. f°: {NOTH—To induce Miss Pickford to narrate, word fer words the story of cher remarkable career; Hayden Talbot, the world-famous journalist, || he travelled) nearly: 6,000 miles, from Lend Talbot who some yoars ago came to America to get for London readers and succeeded, and who was the first journalist. to enter Germany after the warjand to write a> yemarkabio series af ‘arti- Below he gives an intimate glimpse of the way co-operated with him, once he had sticceeded in wiin!ng her consent.J ch “Miss | Pickford is a real. girl.” ‘The speaker, one of the depart- mental heads of the vast business or- ganization whose sole reason for be- ing is the world-wide appeal of a slip of a girl to tenis of millions of cinema patrons, was concluding his appraisal of his employer—Mary Pickford. Unwittingly, perhaps, he epitomized the most. striking characteristic of the little screen idol. For, above everything else that is just'what Mary Pickford is—a real girl, ‘Those whose acquaintance includes actor folk will appreciate the ‘signifi- cance of this statement. by recalling the trait common to almost all mum- mers, a seemingly ineradicable .ten- dency to act at all times, to live un- real roles in real life. In such as these the mark of the actor is as) plain to see as the oderiferous aura enveloping the fishmonger, however far moved from his market stall. Not so Mary Pickford. Yet. perversely enough, the lttle girl with the deep blue eyes and wist- ful, serious manner {s strongly op- posed to letting her world of wor- shippers know her as she is. As “Tees of the Storm Country,” 29 “Pollyann: as the pathetic heroine of “Daddy Long Legs’—as a: screen artist and nothing else would Mary Vickford be known. Often as she narrated her story to me, faint smile overspread her features. In the twinkle in her eyes was just the suggestion of the m chievous heart of her. At these mo- ments, I glimpsed the Celt in ‘her— Ceit that kept altve laughter in the heart of this 17-year-old girl—in spite of 22 years of the harfest kind of work. No printers’ ink in all the world can do justice to this wonder woman. To use it {s as incongruous as would be the use of blacksmith's tools on a Swiss watch. The finest vellum, an old-world quill pen—these the nde- quate equipment and then the grace of a Byron, the poetry of a Burns, the sentiment of @ Barrio, the fitting mental qualifications for him ‘who the lkeness of the girl (and pays) would Iimn to whom a world owes great tribute. The Real Woman. She told me many things and I ap- preciated and understood her view- point. He would be a very stupid man indeed who failed to appreciate and understand anything she said And yet— How is one to teil the story of Mary " agphotograph studio without stopping Race Question: A Big Problem Before Nation American Melting Pot Will Be Put to Severe Test in Assimila- tion of ‘Many Races Which Have Made This Their Home ORE immigrants passed through Ellis Island the other day than t any tima since the illiteracy test werlt into effect in Febru- ary, 1007, says Frederick Boyd Steven- son of th Brooklyn Eagle. The number was 3,071. Ifthis ratio were continued we should have an immigration to this country of something like. one million a year. In 1905, 1908, 1907, 1913 and 1914 the immigration figures mounted above the one million mark, but during and after the war they decreased very perceptibly. In 1920 they. bagan to come back, the figures reaching 430,000. The new immigra- tion bil! adopted as a temporary meas- ure until we can take an account of stock and know just where we stand. restricting tmmigration to three per cent of nationalities now in this coun- try, will cut down immigration fo the time bein, But @ very important point is right here: Since 1820, when vais govern ment first began to keep atcownt ~¢ immigration figures, 33,630,060 als have come to the United Sthtes, and there are today in the United States 14 million alien born. > Also of vital importance if Movie Queen Tells Her Own Story Th. aan eat Ruths ete ee a {gorse this point: Im this country today there are 36 racial groups speaking 42 languages. Here is the bare outline of the figures. Now, if we look at the future of America from a purely analytical basis we must assume that American nationality is rapidly fading into the past and that new races from all parts of the world are taking its place. Thorefore—providing we allow immi- gration to flow unrestrictedly in the future, as we have allowed it to flow in the past—we arrive at one of two conclusions: There must be an assimi- lation of people and cohesion of terri- tory; or a segregation of peoples, a disintegration of nationalism and a division of territory. The Race Question. The race question, therefore, is the greatest problem that confronts ug to- day because upon that depends almost solely the problem of tomorrow, Our first query should be: Will these 36 racial groups in the United States mix in the melting pot? And right on top of that query, wil! come this: If all the racia! groups what will be the result of the assimilation and what will be the quality of the new blood? The sustaining stock ofthe United States were the English, Irish, Scotch, Dutch, German, French, and later the pk Scandinavians, All of these stocks came fs to this counery with their full vigor. They ware-nat the exhausted remnants of former civilizations. | They came with the American. idea before to Los Angeles: It was: Mr. |] they landed ig this country. |- They Roosevelt to talk || were Americans the moment. they landed, There was no nevessity, for “Americanization” societies to in which Mary || Americans out-of them. They did not have to wave flags and sing “The Star Spangied Banner” to show their pa- triotism. They went to work. They amalgamated, They intermarried with one another and with the Armericans already here. They went into the Pickford—however scrupulously one may try to remember always that the tale must be confined to her reel, not real personality——and banish from | “melting pot,” and there was no bub- one’s mind the thousand and one| bling over: They formed the typical warm, human, fascinating, magnifi-| American of today. Reserve Stocks Decreased. But these great reserve stocks of the best in the human race began to. diminish, Their native countries could nat keep on supplying them in the quantities we needed. And, hav- ing practically exhausted the tigra- tory Anglo-Saxon breeds of men, we opened our gates to other races. W. began to get os immigrants, Italians and Armenians and Bohemians and Moravians and Croatians and Servians and Cubans and East Endians and Finnish and Greek and Hebrews and |Magyars and Polish and Portuguese and Slovaks and Spanish and Syriang and Turks and Russians and Rouman- ians and Ruthenians and the rest 42 them until woe now have a jumble of unmixed races and a jarge. of tongues such as Babel never know. Will they mix? On t point hangs the future of America. It is not numbers, then, that are needed So much as the quality of the numbers to build up a strong and cenUy simple qualities that go to make her the best thing given us to know— a” woman” How can I over begin my task, re- stricted she would. have me re- strict it to a consideration of her pro- fessional career—and hope there will he in the telling of the tale any part of the truth I-knew.ebont her? And such truth#! They are too inspiring and clean to be fenied, expression! After Her Divorce. I saw her one day shortly after her return to Los Angeles from the lit- te town in Nevada where she had won her freedom from her first hus- band The local newspapers were full of the divorce, reflecting the whole world’s morbid interest; Reporters by the scoré, in person and over the tele- phone, were clamoring for a state- ment, When she received me in the seclusion of «her littie bungalow 1 found her in the fags and dowdy make-up of the heroine of "'Hop o’ ¥ | virtle nation. When we come to ana- Me Thumb," later to be ronamed| ivgy our population Dave we enough s the bi: ° y (The world’s exhibitors were impa-| 4 tne od Reger thant neh 52 tlently awaiting completion of this What us 2: yhet of the Future? release." The play must go on. The)’ wet then, with all these varying mummer can indulge in no such lux- ury ab a respite éo°long as the carf- era is in working order!) For all the world she seemed like some, poor performing little dog, very tired and very hurt from many un- deserved beatings. And so I was for sparing her that day. We could go on with the Interview later. But she would not have It so. I've spent as much as 15 hours in | racial types in. this country, with all th interlocking and interciashing terests—suppose they all eventually blend, suppose they all unite in one effort to continue the progress end the prosperity of the United Statea, suppose we really do bave a “melting * guppose there be fusion and mation—what manner ef man will be the typical American of the future? Firat there Is the foundttion, That . i - is the Anglo-Saxon blood, ‘The Saxon sia eaigs yee % han noe so orlginally came from the coast lands so. ws ‘e meen the phe) o¢ the Danish peninsula, and the + and his assistents cave in Angies ini maid quit under the strain. 3 sneer Merete Naima. w ege: acte know whe explained’ with that char- i 2 | Jutland, AN this territory was I'm tsed to tt. You can get used to! inany a part of old Bay, Tied mont anything, you know. What #hall/reutonic pure and simple. ‘It is the aha tay’” we..talk, about. today’ {great race of Great Britain and the [present dominant element that must | form the-basis of the Amertean of the And then she added; It only wom-| future tf America Is to endure., en—and men, too, for that matter—| This Anglo-Saxon stock, however, v it is for happiness to} ean serve only as the foundation for necessary {8 youth,| the future populatign of the United ners, It's only when| States, In the early days of tmmigra. A Dream of Happiness. happ we lese the one, the other goes. Andjtion the Anglo-Saxon predominated, for married mon and married women with the Increase in nur&bers youih ya ke, vhen ‘their| came na change of races, Bofore 1880 Years grow manry—they can always|Great’ Britain, Ireland, Germany, live in the hearts of their children.” | France and Scandivavia furnished us ‘There was. 60 @espondency, in ber| with more than three-fourths of the pnes. The soft light in her eyes! ivcal immigration from ail countries. showed plainly enough she had no|lees than one per cent came from thought of being herself in the cate-|-\ustrin-Hungary, Toland, Italy, ius gory cf unhappy women who cannot|sa and the rest G? eastern Kuro, teir destiny. On the contrary] But a change came, In 1902 the im- surance of great happiness to|rigration frem the last named coun wtumined her whole face. [ines was three and one-half times ae And you.” I asked, “You keep) great-as from Great Britain, Ireland, your happiness so" | Germany and Scandinavia, The larg Her eves made answer. There was’ est element in immigration became the no need of the spoken word! italian and next was the Pole,