Motion Picture Classic (Jul-Dec 1928)

BRuie the^^Jj^viesi Break Destinies in Hollywood Mother-Mad America "The American public has a mother complex. The case '■ of Mary Miles Minter proved that to the producers. Overnight, her company lost a fortune when the stock of Dimples-and-Curls went down after a newspaper quarrel with her mother. Thereafter, movie mothers were treated cautiously, and the real reign of petticoat politics began in Hollywood. "When the history of the motion pictures comes to be written," one of the biggest producers admitted not long ago, "the most important figure in the industry will be found to be Charlotte Pickford. She guided her own daughter's astonishing career with a firm hand, and in ?o doing established precedents that made careers for hundreds of other girls. If there had been no lotte Pickford, there might have been no great screen stars." At a time when the movies did not feature players' names, and big salaries were unheard of, this little Toronto widow stood firm against the most powerful men of the industry. The salary she named as the price of her daughter's signature on a contract blank made them purple with rage. They argued, stormed, threatened — and she stood firm. "It's all right," she told them calmly, "Mary and the rest of us will get along somehow, even if she doesn't make any more pictures for you. We've always managed. Anyway, she's been working pretty hard — a vacation will do her good." In the end, of course, they capitulated. They knew, even then, that Mary Pickford was worth whatever they had to pay to get her. With her signature on the first highsalaried screen contract, Charlotte Pickford becjueathed stardom and fortune to hundreds of future picture actresses. To the end of her life she was Mary's adviser and business manager and no deal involving the daughter was ever put through without the mother's consent. The influence of another uncrowned ruler of Hollywood's Matriarchy, "Peg" Talmadge, the witty Irishwoman who is the mother of Norma, Natalie and Constance, can hardly be overestimated. The Gish girls' picture.s — representing millions of dollars — have always been secondary to the health of their frail mother. "We didn't want to be movie stars," Marceline Day confessed to me once, "Alice and I wanted to finish high st:hool, but mother insisted on our trying the pictures first. She has done it all." 1 The mothers of Betty Bronson, Virginia Lee Corbin. ipe Velcz. Gloria Swanson, Madge Bellamy, Jacqueline gan, Leatrice Joy and many others have probably had ire to do with their careers than any other person. It mothers are not the only feminine rulers of Holly{Continiicd on page 88) ! !i' IS Top to bottom: The late Mrs. Charlotte Pickford, mother of Mary and Jack; Lupe Velez with her mother; Constance Talmadge and mother, "Peg" Talmadge; Betty Bronson with her mother, and Adolphe Menjo u with his former wife 81