Today’s Birthday: MARY PICKFORD (1892) a Movie Star

Mary Pickford (1892)

One of the first movie stars, Pickford earned a reputation as “America’s Sweetheart” by playing a series of innocent, curly-haired young women on the silent screen. She was also a shrewd businesswoman. After cofounding United Artists, she came to exert a profound influence on the film industry as one of the most powerful figures in Hollywood. In 1927, she became one of the original founders of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. For what role did Pickford win an Academy Award? More… Discuss

Published on Jan 10, 2013

“AS IT IS IN LIFE”, starring Mary Pickford, is one of the hundreds of drama films directed by D.W. Griffith in that incredibly rich and innovative period of his tenure at Biograph, from 1908 to 1913. It is also one of the most singularly beautiful works he created during this time, demonstrating his especially sophisticated use of depth and movement within the frame.

The story itself is unremarkable: a poor father finds work at a pigeon farm, after being forced to beg and explaining that he has a daughter to feed. He is reunited with an old sweetheart, whom he intends to marry. Upon realizing that he can’t support both a wife and a child, he sacrifices the relationship in order to take care of his daughter.

Years later, the daughter returns home from school and greets her aging, worn father, vowing to care for him in his old age. However, when she falls in love with a young man, it tears her relationship with her father apart. Feeling broken and betrayed, the father goes away. Later the boy and girl are married, and the girl – now a mother – is reunited with her father, who rejoices over his new grandchild.