Sparrows (United Artists) (1926)

For Use Ahecu^of the Run of the Picture. Steel And Concrete Cells Protect Negatives Of Mary PickforcPs And Douglas Fairbanks’ Screen Successes—Automatic In Action And Heat Turns On Water. Advance Stories for Newspapers “SPARROWS” CALLED MARY^ GREATEST Famous Star Seen As Impish Hoyden And Tender “Little Mother” In New Film. Mary Pickford, who has made a score of screen masterpieces and bought plea¬ sure to millions, has just completed a picture which is said by many critics to be the best of her career. The picture is “Sparrows”, a United Artists Corporation release, and it comes to the . theatre on 4. The role of Mama Mollie offers to Mary Pickford a splendid opportunity. At times she is an impish, mischievous little hoyden, and yet again the tender mother heart yearning over the sor¬ rows of the babies and comforting them with stolen dreams and magic kisses. There is no fine raiment for “The World’s Sweetheart” in this picture,.no gorgeous costumes nor fairy princes. Quainter than Annie Rooney, sweeter than ever, until the very end of the picture, she is tattered and torn, bare¬ legged, ragged, but radiant. There is not a dull moment in the story, and the picture is brimming with comedy. It has punch and thrills and suspense—everything a successful pic¬ ture needs, and in addition it has the one and only Mary Pickford. FUN AND DRAMA IN MARY PICKFORD FILM “Sparrows” Bids Fair To Achieve Splendid Popularity Of “Little Annie Rooney.” Following closely on the heels of the popular “Little Annie' Rooney,” Mary Pickford’s newest photoplay “Sparrows” coming soon to the. under a United Artists Corporation release, bids fair to duplicate “Little Annie’s” success. Dt is brimful of comedy and human interest that is bound to please those fans who did not care for “Our Mary” in pretentious costume dramas. “Sparrows” is the story of a baby farm, harboring nine wistful scraps of humanity who are at the mercy of a flinty-'hearted old villain and bis half- crazed wife. The children range in age from mete babies to “Mama Mol'lie,” a girl of twelve, whose heart yearns over the unfortunate little waifs. This role offers Mary Pickford one of the most sympathetic of her career, for it gives her an opportunity to be all of her most charming selves. She is adorable as the impish little hoyden, amusing the children by her merry pranks, and equally appealing as the tender little mother. In rags and tat¬ ters “The World’s Sweetheart” is ir¬ resistible and she forsakes them only briefly ait the end of the picture where everything ends happily, of course. Bictorially the picture is one of the most effective Miss Pickford has ever done. The action takes place on an island farm in a southern swamp. There, in the midst of moss hung trees, in the shadows of an old colonial house gone to decay, a story of rare dramatic interest and human appeal is unfolded. There are thrills aplenty in the pic¬ ture. An encounter with live alligators during the stirring escape of. Mama Mol'lie and her little band across the treacherous swamp forms one of the most exciting sequences. Humor and melodrama intermingle convincingly in “Sparrows” making with Mary, a com¬ bination to intrigue the interest of the most jaded picture fan. MARY PICKFORD’S NEW FILM HER GREATEST “Sparrows^’ Again Presents Famous Star In Rollicking Juvenile Role. Rollicking Mary Pickford is back again! The famous little star, whose screen masterpieces have delighted millions throughout the world, has produced an¬ other great picture—which has been called her greatest—and it is coming to . Mary’s newest picture is “Sparrows”. It deals with ,the adventures of a band . of youngsters on a baby farm. While there is a little message in the picture, as there is in all good pictures, “Spar¬ rows” first of all is entertainment and the sort of entertainment that Mary Pickford fans like. Mary is cast as “Mama Mollie,” the little girl who mothers the forlorn children on the baby farm. She pilots them through many adventures provid¬ ing much laughter, many thrills and not a few tears. That is Miss Pickford’s unfailing recipe for an evening’s entertainment and in “Sparrows” she is said to have one of the best pictures she has ever made. The locale of “Sparrows” is in a swamp country of a southern state. Here on an island farm the little scraps of humanity are kept by a cruel keeper and his wife. How they finally over¬ come the obstacles placed in their path and find their way to a happier life makes up a story as thrilling and as interesting as can be imagined. Plenty of comedy lightens the more drab sequences and there is action from the opening scenes to the final fade out. Cast as the ragged little girl, “Mollie” Miss Pickford finds a role that is ideal for her talents. She manages the' tots with a skilled hand, and outwits the cruel keeper who thinks more of his pigs than the little children. Miss Pickford is supported by a splendid cast including 1 one of the most remarkable bands of little children ever assembled in a picture. “Sparrows” is a United Artists Corp¬ oration release. Not all the precious wealth of Hol¬ lywood is draped about the necks of feminine stars, hauled in armored bank cars or tucked away in bank safes and safety deposit vaults. Reinforced steel and concrete cells, built on the various motion picture lots of Hollywood, hold tin cans containing millions of dollars worth of celluloid strips—otherwise known as motion pic¬ ture negative. There are ten of these cells or vaults on the Pickford-Fairbanks lot. They are in two rows, the steel doors facing each other, just a few feet from Doug¬ las Fairbanks’ dressing rooms. Each vault is ten feet square and eight feet high, built of concrete a foot thick and protected by double steel doors, with combination and key locks on each. An elaborate overhead sprinkling sys¬ tem guards against fire. If the temper¬ ature in the vaults should reach 170 degrees, the overhead pipes spill forth great quantities of water, the air vents are automatically closed and an alarm is sounded—all without the touch of human hand. And the water would not injure a foot of negative, for each roll is packed in oiled paper in a tin box which is sealed with waterproof tape. These ten vaults on the Pickford- Fairbanks lot contain about ten million feet of negative, including most of MARY PICKFORD HAS TIME CLOCK HABIT Famous Screen Star Punches Studio Work Recorder As Any Other Person. Mary Pickford is a producer of pic¬ tures as well as an actress. She owns her studio and has her own producing company, yet she punched a time card all during the filming of “Sparrows” her new United Artists Corporation release which comes to ., just the same as every laborer on the lot. Furthermore, Misp Pickford’s time cards showed that she spent more actual time on the lot during the making of the picture, than anyone else. She usually arrived between 7:30 and 8 in the morning, in order to make up and don her costume so shooting could start at 8:30. Usually it was 8 in the evening before she left for home. Miss Pickford’s time cards read: MARY GLADYS PICKFORD Principal child role in “Sparrows” Fairbanks’ pictures and every single one of Miss Pickford’s since she was in piotures, with the exception of eleven pictures made while she was with Fam¬ ous Players. Even the early Biograph pictures in which Miss Pickford appeared when she was an extra, playing at $5 a day, are included, for Miss Pickford bought up the negatives after she became a star. Her earliest efforts in “The New York Hat,” “Beasts at Bay,” “An Ar¬ cadian Maid” and others costing but a few hundred dollars and made with the crude technical effects of that day, are alongside “Dorothy Vernon of Had- don Hall” which alone cost a fortune, and “Rosita,” “Little Annie Rooney,” and “Sparrows,” her latest picture. The negative cost of these four pic¬ tures probably runs high in the millions, and these precious negatives are all that the company has to show for the money expended. If they were destroyed, no more prints could be made. That is the reason for the double steel doors, the overhead sprinkling sys¬ tem and an elaborate watch system day and night. MARY PICKFORD NOW A BANK DIRECTOR And Special Watchman Watches His Step Before Ushering Ragamuffins Out. The grizzled old watchman in the Federal Trust and Savings Bank, Hol¬ lywood, Calif., is watching his step these days. He is very courteous to every ragged little child who wanders into the bank. He takes good care to ascertain who they are before he escorts them to the ■ big brass doors. The reason for this caution lies in the fact that Mary Pickford, coming to .. in her newest photoplay “Sparrows,” United Artists Corporation release, was recently elected a director in the bank. She is now one of the few women bank directors in America, and the watchman never knows when she might come to a directors’ meeting in costume. As Miss Pickford usually wears the clothes of a little girl, and a ragged little girl at that, in her pictures, the watchman is playing safe and taking no chances.