Kathleen A. Feeley - Mary Pickford: Hollywood and the new woman

PRAISE FOR

Lives of American Women

Finally! The majority of studentsby which I mean womenwill have the opportunity to read biographies of women from our nations past. (Men can read them too, of course!) The Lives of American Women series features an eclectic collection of books, readily accessible to students who will be able to see the contributions of women in many fields over the course of our history. Long overdue, these books will be a valuable resource for teachers, students, and the public at large.

COKIE ROBERTS, author of Founding Mothers and Ladies of Liberty

Just what any professor wants: books that will intrigue, inform, and fascinate students! These short, readable biographies of American womenspecifically designed for classroom usegive instructors an appealing new option to assign to their history students.

MARY BETH NORTON, Mary Donlon Alger Professor of American History, Cornell University

For educators keen to include women in the American story, but hampered by the lack of thoughtful, concise scholarship, here comes Lives of American Women, embracing Abigail Adamss counsel to Johnremember the ladies. And high time, too!

LESLEY S. HERRMANN, Executive Director, The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History

Students both in the general survey course and in specialized offerings like my course on U.S. womens history can get a great understanding of an era from a short biography. Learning a lot about a single but complex character really helps to deepen appreciation of what womens lives were like in the past.

PATRICIA CLINE COHEN, University of California, Santa Barbara

Biographies are, indeed, back. Not only will students read them, biographies provide an easy way to demonstrate particularly important historical themes or ideas.... Undergraduate readers will be challenged to think more deeply about what it means to be a woman, citizen, and political actor.... I am eager to use this in my undergraduate survey and specialty course.

JENNIFER THIGPEN, Washington State University, Pullman

These books are, above all, fascinating stories that will engage and inspire readers. They offer a glimpse into the lives of key women in history who either defied tradition or who successfully maneuvered in a mans world to make an impact. The stories of these vital contributors to American history deliver just the right formula for instructors looking to provide a more complicated and nuanced view of history.

ROSANNE LICHATIN, 2005 Gilder Lehrman Preserve American History Teacher of the Year

The Lives of American Women authors raise all of the big issues I want my classes to confrontand deftly fold their arguments into riveting narratives that maintain students excitement.

WOODY HOLTON, author of Abigail Adams

Lives of American Women

Carol Berkin, Series Editor

Westview Press is pleased to launch Lives of American Women. Selected and edited by renowned womens historian Carol Berkin, these brief, affordably priced biographies are designed for use in undergraduate courses. Rather than a comprehensive approach, each biography focuses instead on a particular aspect of a womans life that is emblematic of her time, or which made her a pivotal figure in the era. The emphasis is on a good read, featuring accessible writing and compelling narratives, without sacrificing sound scholarship and academic integrity. Primary sources at the end of each biography reveal the subjects perspective in her own words. Study Questions and an Annotated Bibliography support the student reader.

Dolley Madison: The Problem of National Unity by Catherine Allgor

Lillian Gilbreth: Redefining Domesticity by Julie Des Jardins

Alice Paul: Perfecting Equality for Women by Christine Lunardini

Rebecca Dickinson: Independence for a New England Woman by Marla Miller

Sarah Livingston Jay: Model Republican Woman by Mary-Jo Kline

Betsy Mix Cowles: Champion of Equality by Stacey Robertson

Sally Hemings: Given Her Time by Jon Kukla

Shirley Chisholm: Catalyst for Change by Barbara Winslow

Margaret Sanger: Freedom, Controversy and the Birth Control Movement by Esther Katz

Barbara Egger Lennon: Teacher, Mother, Activist by Tina Brakebill

Anne Hutchinson: A Dissident Womans Boston by Vivian Bruce Conger

Angela Davis: Radical Icon by Robyn Spencer

Catharine Beecher: The Complexity of Gender in 19th Century America by Cindy Lobel

Julia Lathrop: Social Service and Progressive Government by Miriam Cohen

Mary Pickford: Hollywood and the New Woman by Kathleen A. Feeley

Elizabeth Gurley Flynn: Modern American Revolutionary by Lara Vapnek

WESTVIEW PRESS was founded in 1975 in Boulder, Colorado, by notable publisher and intellectual Fred Praeger. Westview Press continues to publish scholarly titles and high-quality undergraduate- and graduate-level textbooks in core social science disciplines. With books developed, written, and edited with the needs of serious nonfiction readers, professors, and students in mind, Westview Press honors its long history of publishing books that matter.

Copyright 2016 by Westview Press

Published by Westview Press,

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All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America. No part of this book may be reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

Every effort has been made to secure required permissions for all text, images, maps, and other art reprinted in this volume.

Westview Press books are available at special discounts for bulk purchases in the United States by corporations, institutions, and other organizations. For more information, please contact the Special Markets Department at the Perseus Books Group, 2300 Chestnut Street, Suite 200, Philadelphia, PA 19103, or call (800) 810-4145, ext. 5000, or e-mail .

Series design by Brent Wilcox

Set in Adobe Garamond Pro by Cynthia Young

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Feeley, Kathleen.

Mary Pickford: Hollywood and the new woman / Kathleen Feeley.

pages cm. (Lives of American women)

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 978-0-8133-4806-3 (e-book)

1. Pickford, Mary, 18921979. 2. Motion picture actors and actressesUnited StatesBiography. 3. Motion picture producers and directorsUnited StatesBiography. 4. Women motion picture producers and directorsUnited StatesBiography. I. Title.

PN2287.P5F44 2016

791.4302'8092dc23

[B]

2015031904

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Table of Contents

CONTENTS

Mary Pickford was one of Americas first true modern celebrities. She began life as Gladys Smith, one of three children of a mother left impoverished when her husband deserted the family. Before she was ten years old, Gladys had become the main support of the Smith family, working as a child actress in towns and cities across North America. As a teenager she began a career in the newest form of entertainmentsilent filmand she rose to stardom in both silent films and talkies as Mary Pickford, Americas Sweetheart. Beautiful and petite, with blond curls, she became the symbol of demure, white, middle-class, American girlhood. She became one of the highest-paid movie stars of her era, with a salary matched only by Charlie Chaplin and her second husband, Douglas Fairbanks. If she is remembered today at all, it is as the fresh-faced, charming girl who won filmgoers hearts.