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that made
The beloved "Little Mary" in "Caprice" the picture which brought her into prominence.
IF a motion-picture player in these days is a star, he or she deserves the honor. No actor or actress can be popular now unless it is by merit — the public demands ability ; and, shown that ability, it usually is appreciated. At present there are two classes of motion-picture players — those who won fame on the legitimate stage and have deserted the boards for the screen, and those who came to pictures unknown and worked their way to fame. It is with the . latter class that this article is to deal.
As mentioned above, the public is, as a rule, quickly responsive when a new player displays ability and is proven worthy of credit. It is for this reason, probably more than any other, that the majority of the actors and actresses in the pictures who have reached the ranks of stars, attained that height by their work in some one picture — some one picture when the player's work stood out sufficiently to attract the public's attention.
Very few outside the profession know exactly what film is responsible for the rise of those whose names now appear in larger type on the posters than
the names of the pictures themselves, and it is interesting to look back and see when the people first noticed that the work of our present greatest players was actually the ray of a star.
There are three reasons that stand out above all the others for Mary Pickford being a public favorite. They are D. W. Griffith, "A Good Little Devil," and the Famous Players' first Pickford picture, "Caprice." Mr. Griffith took Mary Pickford from the ranks of the extra players, and made a leading lady of her. She went to the Biograph studio one day, and worked in a picture there under the direction of D. W. Griffith as an extra player. He told her to come around the next day, and when she did, he cast her for the leading role in one of his pictures. This was the beginning of the picture career of Mary Pickford, now the highest-salaried screen artist in the business.
The Universal took Miss Pickford away from Biograph, but she returned to that firm again. Later, she went on the legitimate, playing the blind girl in David Belasco's "A Good Little Devil." This play had quite a good deal to do with the making of Mary Pickford.