Mary Pickford, America's Sweetheart

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D.I. Fine, 1990 - Biography & Autobiography - 342 pages
For some sixty years the name Mary Pickford has evoked an image of golden curls and angelic innocence. In this first major biography of Hollywood's first superstar, film critic Scott Eyman looks beneath the facade to what critic Leon Edel called "the portrait within" and reveals a woman fifty years ahead of her time: a woman fifty years ahead of her time: a woman who acted, wrote and produced: who created the star system in Hollywood; who, along with Douglas Fairbanks, Charles Chaplin and D. W. Griffith, founded United Artists. She was also a woman whose career made it impossible for her to live with the man she loved, and who paid and paid for her prodigious success, paving the way for the later successes of such stars as Jane Fonda and Jessica Lange. Until now the reality behind the name Mary Pickford has remained elusive, mysterious. The highest paid and most famous woman of her era, she never appeared before the camera after the age forty, opting instead to produce films in the last fifteen years of her career for United Artists. What drove this diminutive Canadian to become consumed by her career and to assume power in a way that was unheard of for a woman until half a century later? And why did she then walk away from that eminence adn begin buying up all her old films with the intention of burning them? Scott Eyman examines, indeed recreates, the life of Mary Pickford, interviewing countless men and owmen who knew her well. Included is an intimate portrait of her marriage to Douglas Fairbanks, whom she never stopped loving, and to Buddy Rogers, who survives her to this day. This "living" biography also includes a complete filmography, listing all of the films she made from her days at Biograph in New York City through her efforts with United Artists. -- from dust jacket

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Contents

Introduction
1
Chapter One
8
Chapter Two
28
Copyright

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About the author (1990)

Scott Eyman is the literary critic of the Palm Beach Post and has written for numerous publications including the New York Times, the Washington Post, and The Wall Street Journal. He is the author of numerous books including Lion of Hollywood: The Life of Louis B. Mayer, Print the Legend: The Life and Times of John Ford, Ernst Lubitsch: Laughter in Paradise, John Wayne: The Life and Legend, and Pieces of My Heart with Robert Wagner.

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