Mary Pickford: Queen of the Movies

Dressing the Part: Mary Pickford’s Use of Costume

DRESSING THE PART 109 Pickford in Little Annie Rooney (1925). DRESSING THE PART Mary Pickford’s Use of Costume BethWerling C C lothes may make the man, but in the case of Mary Pickford , they definitely helped define the filmmaker. The silent film actress and producer—who had once considered a career in the fashion industry—played a pivotal role in selecting the costumes for her films. In fact, the depth of her involvement (particularly in the 1920s) highlights her brilliant producing skills as well as her realization that clothes were key to the art of storytelling. Pickford was surrounded by costumes and dressmaking as a child. Her widowed mother, Charlotte, supported her children as a seamstress ; later, when the family began to act in the theater, she cleaned and maintained their stage attire. Indeed, all actors were expected to provide and care for their own costumes, unless they required military uniforms or period fashions, which were rented from an agency. Pickford , who often toured without her mother, remembered cleaning and repairing her theatrical wardrobe during the “few hours [she] had for outdoor exercise.”⁄ She learned that all actors, whether they worked in a humble stock company or on Broadway, would be better equipped to play a greater range of roles if they maintained a vast and varied wardrobe. Some savvy performers even supplemented their income by renting out their clothing to other actors. In 1909, when Pickford joined the New York film studio Biograph, she discovered that the operation kept a small rack of secondhand clothes for the actors. Stored in the basement near the chemicals used to develop film, the garments often reeked of fumigant. In addition, the studio wardrobe was not a good fit (literally) for Pickford’s petite body. In an unusual move, director D.W . Gri≈th authorized the purchase of a store-bought outfit costing $10.50 for the actress’s appearance in The LonelyVilla (1909). This seemed crazy to Pickford, who admired the fine stage clothes worn by the actors in Broadway’s best productions, equating them with the art form’s beauty and prestige; however, she did not think the down-market world of movies merited such an expense. Only a few years later, Pickford’s attitude had changed. The actress, by then one of the film industry’s brightest stars, had become a major proponent of the cinema’s relevance and artistry. She viewed even simple costumes as an integral component of a quality production and, from an actor’s view, an important tool for getting into character. In 1913 she became one of the first film actors to have a contract requiring the studio to provide a proper wardrobe. The same clause was reiterated in her legendary 1916 contract with Famous Players.¤ These negotiations represented a noteworthy change. In those days, many actresses were contractually obligated to furnish their own costumes. Pickford, who preferred to save money rather than wasting it on “garments that are hung in the closets to feed the moth,” had succeeded in shifting what could be a heavy financial burden from the actress to her employer.‹ Dressing the Part 111 A beautifully costumed Pickford in the 1929 feature The Taming of the Shrew. The actress used a gown she wore in DorothyVernon of Haddon Hall (1924) as a prop in the background (draped over the trunk) of this bedroom scene. By 1920, Pickford was producing and distributing her own movies. She was also spending more time and money on each film, eventually releasing one prestige picture every year. In addition, she wanted to expand her onscreen repertoire. Throughout the 1910s, she had played youthful, homespun characters (guttersnipes, immigrants, orphans, and slaveys) with increasing reluctance, finally declaring (with a sense of drama), “The sky grows cold and a chill wind springs up in my soul [when I think of portraying] another of those ragged little girls, or tattered boys, instead of doing a Pauline Frederick part in gorgeous gowns all plastered over with jewels.”› Not surprisingly, she began to play more glamorous roles in her future productions. For these, she hired experienced costume designers and allocated generous wardrobe budgets. During this period, the American film industry—originally based in New York City—settled in Hollywood. Unfortunately, the West lacked the costume rental agencies, department stores, and secondhand clothing shops that were plentiful in the East. In response, studios increasingly turned to fashion...