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Laws of Attraction: Mary Pickford, Movies, and the Evolution of Fame
- The University Press of Kentucky
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LAWS OF ATTRACTION Mary Pickford, Movies, and the Evolution of Fame EileenWhitfield The first of the great film stars, Mary’s rise had been sensational—and more than a little frightening. While preaching a glowing future for motion pictures, I had never prophesied anything like this. Adolph Zukor, The Public Is NeverWrong, 1953 163 Fairbanks carries Pickford on his shoulders as fans surround them at a garden party in London during their 1920 honeymoon. [3.238.62.124] Project MUSE (2024-03-28 18:47 GMT) The pioneers of silent cinema had no idea that the advent of movies would not only reshape entertainment but also spark the transformation of fame itself. Producer Adolph Zukor, whose company made Pickford’s early silent features, first thought that leading theatrical players such as Minnie Maddern Fiske and Sarah Bernhardt would claim screen stardom for their own. But watching live actors is an arm’s-length relationship. The experience of watching silent film is di∑erent : the medium is trancelike, ethereal, and fluid. The performer ’s image is everywhere and nowhere, a nebulous presence made of shadow and light.Viewers sit immersed in the glow of an actor who, if the chemistry is right, can seem both intimate and mythic. Pickford triggered this charismatic bond within a few months of her start in one-reelers. The power of her acting, combined with the newness of film itself, produced a love and wonder that could happen in the medium only once. “From gay to grave,” confessed a critic, “the quick flash of her eyes transports us.”⁄ And audiences became addicted. A stage star is confined to one venue, one play at a time, once or twice a day, each theatrical season. Pickford could leave her imprint on millions around the world, over and over, nearly every day, in the guise of many characters. Her bond with fans reached an almost mystical transcendence in 1914 when Hearts Adrift and Tess of the Storm Country were released. Pickford’s work as (respectively) a castaway and an “expressive-eyed tatterdemalion ” touched the public so deeply that some thought she must possess special, unearthly insight.¤ Rapturous reporters called her an avatar of “tender human sympathy,” incapable of a∑ectation, falsehood, or ego.‹ By the mid-1910s, the actress reigned as “the nearest thing to a universally recognized holy icon,” the ideal daughter, sister, sweetheart, and angel of the filmgoing world.› DuringWorldWar I, Pickford’s work selling Liberty bonds took this numinous image and wrapped it in the Stars and Stripes. By Armistice Day, she represented a shining brand of can-do America to her fans around the globe. So did Douglas Fairbanks, a star whose acrobatic, carefree films had made him a symbol of virility and hope.When he and Pickford married in 1920, the couple became “living proof of America’s chronic belief in happy endings.”fi And, as it turned out, the rest of the world believed the dream as well. The newlyweds honeymooned in Europe, which responded with euphoria. In London, Pickford leaned from a window at the Ritz to greet their fans, “thousands and thousands of them, waiting day and night in the streets below.”fl Their presence routinely brought tra≈c to a standstill. The couple often met with politicians and bluebloods, who (in a nice reversal of the class system) sought their company and asked them for photos and autographs. Such meetings were safer than those in public, where fans showed a “grim determination to pet and fondle [Pickford] or die in the attempt.”‡ At a garden party, the actress was swarmed and almost trampled by fans who tried to pull her from an open car. As police tried in vain to control the mob, the groom staggered forward with his wife on his shoulders; still, strangers nearly dragged them to the ground. Fearing for Pickford’s safety, the couple decided it would be wise to leave England. But almost everywhere in Europe they met similar reactions. In Paris, for instance, a riot erupted in an open market when Pickford was besieged by fans. This time, a quick-witted butcher saved her by locking her in a meat cage for her own protection. Laws of Attraction 165 Opposite: In 1920 Pickford soared above the most celebrated figures of the day, including opera singer Mary Garden, director Cecil B. DeMille, musician PaulWhiteman, and writer H. L. Mencken, in this 1938 caricature by Miguel Covarrubias. © Estate of Miguel Covarrubias. Poster for the now lost...