Mary Pickford: First Million Dollar Movie Star
In the days before women had the right to vote, one of the most powerful players in Hollywood was a diminutive blonde with corkscrew curls.
Mary Pickford began her career appearing in “flickers”, short films shown in Nickelodeons. The actors were considered as hired help. They weren’t given any billing at all and earned next-to-nothing. By 1916, Pickford was not only the first major movie star; she was the most famous woman in the world.
Canadian native Mary Pickford, born on April 8th, 1892, in Toronto, Ontario began her career in 1909 working for the Biograph film company in New York City under the direction of pioneering director D.W. Griffith. She joined Famous Players in 1913, which later became Paramount Pictures.
During this period, Pickford began to make feature-length films, and by 1916 she was making $2,000 a week plus a $10,000 bonus for each complete film. Doesn’t sound like a lot now, but back in the day the average salary was just under two grand a year.
Even still, Pickford knew her worth and understood the studio was paying her a pittance compared to what they were raking in from her pictures. No-one could play the poor but principled heroine with the same approachability and believability as Mary Pickford, and she knew it.
