Mary Pickford

Just watched the "American Experience" episode on Mary Pickford. Having not yet watched a movie of hers in its entirety, I was fascinated seeing her life and career unfold in chronological order from her first role on the road with her siblings Jack and Lotte when she was just 12 or 13 to her stop on Broadway with an audition for the legendary David Belasco to acting for fellow movie pioneer director D. W. Griffith to driving a hard bargain with movie mogul Adolph Zukor to become Paramount's biggest star at the time to forming United Artists with Griffith, Charlie Chaplin, and her eventual second husband Douglas Fairbanks, and, finally, to her later decline after talkies and aging made her a recluse in her mansion, Pickfair. We also hear about her first husband Owen Moore, a fellow actor who couldn't handle his wife's popularity and her third and last one Buddy Rogers who helped his wife handle retirement to the end of her days. We also hear Ms. Pickford in her few talkies and in an interview she conducted in 1957. Then there's her acceptance of an honorary Oscar from her home. She didn't look bad but having been been out of commission for a decade, she probably seemed pathetic to both the theater and home audience. Had she not peaked during the silent era, maybe she would have adjusted in talkies. Now that I've seen this, I hope to see some of her movies. So, all in all, this was a fine episode of "The American Experience."