Mary Pickford - Parte 1: A ACTRIZ CINDERELAMary Pickford was born Gladys Smith on April 8, 1892 in Toronto, Canada. Her mother Charlotte was Irish Catholic. Her father John Charles Smith was, by reputation, a staunch Methodist with a weakness for alcohol. Within five years of Gladys’ birth the Smith family counted three children: Gladys, her little sister Lottie, and baby brother Jack. In 1898 when Gladys was nearly six, her father died from an accidental blow to the head, leaving his family without savings or income.
Mother Charlotte took in boarders and sewing work. It was a boarder who suggested Charlotte might earn a little money by putting her children on stage. Despite her misgivings about the moral character of “theater people,” within weeks Gladys, Lottie and even their mother were involved in a production at the Princess Theater, just a few blocks from their Toronto flat, that paid the family, by one account, $8 a week.
Little Gladys loved it! From early on it was clear that she would be the star of the family. The playbill for one show promised: “Baby Gladys is a Wonder.” Over the next nine years Gladys appeared in vaudeville sketches, melodramas, and road show productions that traveled through the northeastern United States.
The developing woman was frugal, hardworking, and kind to all who met her. Other adjectives that applied were bright, willful, and ambitious.
Elsie Janis, another child star three years older, recalled meeting “Baby Gladys,” at Shea’s Theatre in Toronto. “She was a very grown-up baby,” Janis later wrote. “She would gaze wide-eyed at my array of dresses, hanging on the dressing room wall, a different one for each performance, and two performances a day. ‘Mother,’ she would say plaintively, ‘do you suppose I will ever have pretty dresses like those?’”
By the age of 15, she was mature enough to travel on her own, and she was setting her own goals. Gladys decided that she should work for one of New York’s most famous producers, David Belasco. It seemed like a thousand to one shot for a teenage road show performer to break into Broadway, but she did it. It was Belasco who insisted she find a new name. In the summer of 1907 she cabled her mother in Canada "GLADYS SMITH NOW MARY PICKFORD - ENGAGED BY DAVID BELASCO TO APPEAR ON BROADWAY THIS FALL."
Mary Pickford appeared in the long run of only one Belasco play, The Warrens of Virginia, before she discovered the movies. “Flickers,” they were called in those days. The typical film was a single reel, eight to twelve minutes long. Often the script, called a “scenario,” was a simply idea in someone’s head, or an outline of shots on paper. Scenes were improvised with minimal dialogue (which of course the audience would never hear). “Intertitles,” just long enough to explain what could not be revealed by mime, were written after the film was edited. These films were shown in storefront “Nickelodeon” theatres, which would run a program of five or more “flickers” in rotation for an admission charge, as the name implied, of a nickel. It was rudimentary fun, but in 1909 this infant medium of “flickers” was changing in leaps and bounds. Some directors, a man named D.W. Griffith at the forefront, were attempting to adapt classic literature to this twelve-minute pantomime; in his first year as director Griffith produced a one-reel version of The Taming of the Shrew.
In April, 1909 Mary Pickford walked up to the Brooklyn brownstone in which the American Biograph Company had set up their studio and asked for a job.
D. W. Griffith arranged an immediate screen test for her, applied her makeup personally, and gave her a small part in a scene for a film that was shot the same afternoon. At the end of the day he invited her to dinner, and when she declined he asked, “Will you come back tomorrow? Our pay for everybody is five dollars a day. We pay only by the day.”
“Mr. Griffith, I’m a Belasco actress and an artist. I must have ten,” said Mary. According to her account of this meeting, Griffith laughed and agreed.
What happened next was a whirlwind tutelage that quickly developed into a genuine, if often volatile, collaboration. Griffith worked quickly. A film shot in June was released in July, and before the year was out, forty-two films were released in which Mary had a role: more than one a week. Within months Mary had convinced Griffith to use her younger siblings as well. But it was Mary who got all the attention, all the raises, all the important roles, and none of the fame. Biograph actors were never identified by name. Director D.W. Griffith was the star.
In January, 1910 Griffith moved most of his troupe to California to avoid the New York winter. Mary went with them, playing everything from Gibson goddesses to Indian maidens. She also wrote a few scenarios, since Griffith occasionally purchased them for twenty-five dollars apiece.
Mother Charlotte took in boarders and sewing work. It was a boarder who suggested Charlotte might earn a little money by putting her children on stage. Despite her misgivings about the moral character of “theater people,” within weeks Gladys, Lottie and even their mother were involved in a production at the Princess Theater, just a few blocks from their Toronto flat, that paid the family, by one account, $8 a week.
Little Gladys loved it! From early on it was clear that she would be the star of the family. The playbill for one show promised: “Baby Gladys is a Wonder.” Over the next nine years Gladys appeared in vaudeville sketches, melodramas, and road show productions that traveled through the northeastern United States.
The developing woman was frugal, hardworking, and kind to all who met her. Other adjectives that applied were bright, willful, and ambitious.
Elsie Janis, another child star three years older, recalled meeting “Baby Gladys,” at Shea’s Theatre in Toronto. “She was a very grown-up baby,” Janis later wrote. “She would gaze wide-eyed at my array of dresses, hanging on the dressing room wall, a different one for each performance, and two performances a day. ‘Mother,’ she would say plaintively, ‘do you suppose I will ever have pretty dresses like those?’”
By the age of 15, she was mature enough to travel on her own, and she was setting her own goals. Gladys decided that she should work for one of New York’s most famous producers, David Belasco. It seemed like a thousand to one shot for a teenage road show performer to break into Broadway, but she did it. It was Belasco who insisted she find a new name. In the summer of 1907 she cabled her mother in Canada "GLADYS SMITH NOW MARY PICKFORD - ENGAGED BY DAVID BELASCO TO APPEAR ON BROADWAY THIS FALL."
Mary Pickford appeared in the long run of only one Belasco play, The Warrens of Virginia, before she discovered the movies. “Flickers,” they were called in those days. The typical film was a single reel, eight to twelve minutes long. Often the script, called a “scenario,” was a simply idea in someone’s head, or an outline of shots on paper. Scenes were improvised with minimal dialogue (which of course the audience would never hear). “Intertitles,” just long enough to explain what could not be revealed by mime, were written after the film was edited. These films were shown in storefront “Nickelodeon” theatres, which would run a program of five or more “flickers” in rotation for an admission charge, as the name implied, of a nickel. It was rudimentary fun, but in 1909 this infant medium of “flickers” was changing in leaps and bounds. Some directors, a man named D.W. Griffith at the forefront, were attempting to adapt classic literature to this twelve-minute pantomime; in his first year as director Griffith produced a one-reel version of The Taming of the Shrew.
In April, 1909 Mary Pickford walked up to the Brooklyn brownstone in which the American Biograph Company had set up their studio and asked for a job.
D. W. Griffith arranged an immediate screen test for her, applied her makeup personally, and gave her a small part in a scene for a film that was shot the same afternoon. At the end of the day he invited her to dinner, and when she declined he asked, “Will you come back tomorrow? Our pay for everybody is five dollars a day. We pay only by the day.”
“Mr. Griffith, I’m a Belasco actress and an artist. I must have ten,” said Mary. According to her account of this meeting, Griffith laughed and agreed.
What happened next was a whirlwind tutelage that quickly developed into a genuine, if often volatile, collaboration. Griffith worked quickly. A film shot in June was released in July, and before the year was out, forty-two films were released in which Mary had a role: more than one a week. Within months Mary had convinced Griffith to use her younger siblings as well. But it was Mary who got all the attention, all the raises, all the important roles, and none of the fame. Biograph actors were never identified by name. Director D.W. Griffith was the star.
In January, 1910 Griffith moved most of his troupe to California to avoid the New York winter. Mary went with them, playing everything from Gibson goddesses to Indian maidens. She also wrote a few scenarios, since Griffith occasionally purchased them for twenty-five dollars apiece.
Sem comentários:
Enviar um comentário