MARY PICKFORD

Ashburton Guardian, Volume XL, Issue 9197, 7 January 1920, Page 2

MARY PICKFORD

HER SHREWD BARGAINS

Writing;,iu the',Lo)ulcm " Daily Ex r press " of the ' celebrated moving-pic-ture actress, Mary . Pickford, .Liuigworth North suys-:— i: havQ .seen tliis little lady a score'. ol: times, but i luiyo. never pene-r 'iratcd the secret of her artifice. Novcr in life or on tbo "movies" was such a natural girl as this, with her innocent, exquisite, face, her slow, dazzling smile, her biji lucent eyes, her tender gravity, her quick t^iety,. her melting pathos, her winsome air_of being queen.of all the roses and lilies in the' world's garden of girlhood. •, Will it shook her admirers to know that Mary Pickford is the cutest little business 'woman in two continents, that her solo aim in lift- is to accumulate by her art as much of the i;oot of all evil as her dainty hands can pick; that she is the hardest pf shrewd bargainers and the most cautious of investors ? Here is the story of her life at first hand. It may help to reveal why she looks like an angel and thinks like a money-lender who is. dissatisfied with the meagreness of his' first £1,000,000. Mary is earning a baro £300,000 a year now, and is still desirous', of betterincr herself. .; .

■•.' The. best known, best loved,/;, best paid girl in ■•.the. world to-day began life' in a factory at Chatham, Ontario. Mary was Gladys then—Gladys Smith. The' stage names' came later. At Chatham there was a cinema ■ centre; and the child from the factory spent every leisure minute there, till she was as Veil known as tho permanent pianist. . She gave imitations before her mother and the family friends of things she saw oh the films. Those impersonations were quite •■ wonderful/, as may be imagined, and the manager of the Chatham cinema was not long in giving her a chance. Mary (no one has any use for the Gladys' now) made good from the word go. ' Canadians are quicker spenders than Englishmen for, good investments, and in a little while the new prodigywas ■ making' £1000 a week. She did not get vainglorious or extravagant. She had her lunch every day; in a cheap little restaurant off Broadway. It was a. restaurant frequented by film artists, but they pqid no attention to Mary Pick ford,* although thev knew perfectly well who she was and what kudos and dollars she was making, and she paid no attention to them.

An enterprising American manager, Sam Shannon, askdd her how much she would require to appear in "Odds and Ends." Her telegraphed reply was a model of keen-edged terseness: "Mary- Pickford would consider £2000 a 'week; Salary for personal,staff. Manager to provide all costumes and guarantee 52 weeks; £40,000 to he deposited as guarantee of good faith." In her early twenties Mary Pickford is empress of the cinema world,! a world greater than that conquered by Caesar or Napoleon. Jn remote Burma, on the verge of the African jungles, away in mysterious ■ unknown China, she sways her millions of subjects. She is proud of this, but slie is just as proud of swinging her millions of dollars. I am told that Mary Pickford has not a cent involved in cinema properties outside her own immediate orbia, and that all her capital is in New York bonds.- Tt has been hinted that she is a stiff bargainer. She is so insistent on having her due monetary rights that she fights for them tooth and naill,, and, in the event of coming across a Jiarder negotiator than herself'ji.Cjflil|^suni} £hnt-sluv is .being robbed. °" .'. ■. -'M'-'- J ' It has been rumoured from time to time that, Mary Pickford is leaving the cinema stage. Possibly she is concentrating on »/fortune.that will cover a. long life; of leisure and 'luxury'. It is difficult' to imagine, however, that such a vivid and terrific worker' and financier' "will ever ■contentedly seek a garden and 'eat lotiise^ with' expensive gold tips. •" "' . ' ' *' '