Michael J Francis

Mary Pickford had just celebrated her 20th birthday when news of the Titanic's sinking reached New York in April of 1912. This week let's explore how Mary's life influenced the making of the 1996 film Titanic and later I will offer a DVD of one of Mary's recently restored films.

On this day, 50 fracking years ago. Star Wars began filming. #starwars

In 1926, while filming The General in Cottage Grove, Oregon, Buster Keaton’s friends would show up from time to time during filming to pull some harmless pranks. Please enjoy this slightly blurry image of Lew Cody surprising Keaton one day on set. #busterkeaton #charliechaplin

@pickfan1918 I’m sure we do. Lol.

@RealMFrancis It is beautiful. We must share a mutual friend.

So, in 1922 artist Christian von Scheidau did the portrait of Mary Pickford I posted previously titled "Five 0' clock" and he painted Doug Fairbanks Sr. as Robin Hood that same year; and then...he did another potrait for Mary. At least I think he did...

@pickfan1918 I got to see it in person!

That painting I will post tomorrow.

@pickfan1918 “Gloria Swanson to be the next Mabel Normand!” Would have been a wild headline! Lol!

@RealMFrancis I think it was Gloria Swanson who said "I don't want to be a second anybody" when a studio head thought she could be a second Mabel Normand.

(1/3) She was dubbed by the Thanhouser Company as, “The Second Mary Pickford,” during Mignon Anderson’s six year contract with that film studio. Mignon was quoted as saying, “I was supposed to look like Mary Pickford, I really didn’t.”

(3/3) She was born in Baltimore, Maryland in 1892 to a theatrical family. It was while working as a clothing model, Edwin Thanhouser discovered her.

(2/3) On this day in 1916, her film, “The Woman in Politics,” was released. Mignon played the character of, Dr. Beatrice Barlow, a woman with a conscience, medical training, and the courage to expose grafting and criminal politicians to rid her city of boss rule.

(4/4) Dorothy said, “I don’t dream often, but I can honestly say that when I do, the dream always comes true.” In 1922 she would star with Rudolph Valentino in “Moran of the Lady Letty” and then with Jack Holt in her final film, “The Lone Wolf” in 1924.

(3/4) She was described on screen as being able to display remarkable versatility, covering parts from comedy to the heaviest emotional roles. Her early acting career started in vaudeville and quickly began playing the leading ingenue rolls on the stage.

(1/4) Writer Richard Bishop, of Motion Picture Magazine in 1922 said, “Dorothy Dalton is an extremist and you like her. She is different - very different.”

(2/2) Not just any silent films. Films that celebrated top talent like Douglas Fairbanks, Constance Talmadge, Dorthy Dalton, Richard Dix, and Wallace Berry.

(1/2) Victor Fleming, the director known for The Wizard of Oz and Gone with the Wind passed away on this day in 1949 of a heart attack. What not many people know is that Fleming started out directing silent films in the early 1920s.

@pickfan1918 It’s so fascinating! He was quite remarkable.

@RealMFrancis I was aware of the properties of orthographic film but did not know about the velvet curtain trick. Fascinating history!

(1/4) By 1941, James Wong Howe was not just Hollywood’s only Chinese director of photography, he was recognized as one of the greatest camera artists of the world. He would focus more on composition, rather than just lighting a room.

(4/4) Howe discovered that if he had Mary look at a black velvet curtain during close-ups, the reflection gave her eyes the desired results. He was never out of work from that day forward.

(3/4) Orthographic film would tend to read the color blue as white, causing blue-eyed actors of this time to appear washed out during close-ups.