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Canada Day: Toronto-born Mary Pickford, seen in Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm (1917, Aircraft Pictures).
At the time of this photo still, she was the richest and most famous actress in the world, described by a contemporary writer as ‘the best known woman who has ever lived, the woman who was known to more people and loved by more people than any other woman that has been in all history’.
Virtually forgotten today, partially due to having become a recluse later in life and partially due to the simple passage of time, which is sinful given that she was more than a mere actress, but a pioneer in the young film industry, co-founding United Artists in 1919 alongside (future husband) Douglas Fairbanks, Charlie Chaplin, and D.W. Griffith. All household names of the time themselves, though — best I can tell — only Charlie Chaplin might be recognised by a majority of folks today, and even then maybe only a majority of older people, as very few younger ones would know or care.
I sometimes wonder whether that contributed, among many other factors, to Miss Pickford's depression in later life: knowing that even the most beloved public figures are eventually forgotten by the audiences that once adored them.
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