Sparrows (United Artists) (1926)

SPECIAL STORIES - m - T Like a Fairy Godmother, the World’s Sweetheart Offered Wealth and a Home Like a Royal Palace. But the Poor Hollywood Tailor and His Wife Shook Their Heads Note to Exhibitors: There are a number of stills among the black and white photographs, obtainable at your exchange, that any live-wire editor would willingly use for a layout in connec¬ tion with this special story. BABY MARY LOUISE MILLER is just two years old and she lives in Hollywood, home of the movies. She has spent two-thirds of her short life in front of cruel Kleig lights in the studios and much of the remaining time playing on the concrete floor of her father’s humble clothes pressing estab¬ lishment. Baby Mary, is still playing on the cold concrete floor, when she might be traveling in state through Europe with Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks. The love her father and mother held for their only child and the realization of Miss Pickford that she should not insist on adopting a child so tenderly cared for by her own parents, alone prevented Mary Louise Miller from becoming Mary Louise Pickford. Baby Mary, happy with her few toys, does aot know what she missed. Mary Pickford does. It was one of the disappointments of her life that Baby Mary was not an orphan. When Mary Pickford started to make “Sparrows,” her latest picture, she needed ten children and a baby. The ten children were easily found. The baby presented a real difficulty. More than two hundred babies had been duly inspected before Miss Pickford saw Mary Louise. She was signed for the part at once. Little Mary and Miss Pickford were soon fast friends. For eight months they worked together, day by day. Miss Pickford was never happier than when making scenes in which she held the baby, and Little Mary’s chubby arms were entwined about her neck. Then more difficult scenes were taken. With the baby tied to her back, Miss Pickford waded through swamps, climbed trees and experienced real dangers when alligators were used and huge dogs chased them. Never once did the little child whimper. She seemed to place a trust in Miss Pickford that could not be shaken. One day Edward Miller, the baby’s father, was driving to the studio when his small car was struck and turned over. The driver, his daughter and his wife escaped injury, but the parents were badly frightened. White and trembling he approached Miss Pickford on the set and said: “Miss Pickford, if anything should happen to me and my wife, I want you to care for Little Mary.” “I certainly will,” the famous star responded. “And she shall have every¬ thing I would give my own daughter. 1 am only sorry that I can’t have her anyway,” she said with a laugh. That gave Miller something to think about. He talked it over with his wife earnestly. They realized what it would mean to Baby Mary to have such a home and the advantages Miss-Pickford would give her. But they could not give up the child. “It might be different if we had an¬ other,” Miller said in his broad Eng¬ lish accent. “But Mary is the only one we have, and she came after we had been married for twelve years. She means too much to us.” Reports persisted that Miss Pickford still wanted the baby and had offered a million dollars to the parents for her. She only laughed at such rumors. “It isn’t what I would give to have a sweet baby like Mary,” she said. “But there is another side. I can ap¬ preciate what a sacrifice her parents would make to give her up. I couldn’t ask them to do it. And it would be terrible to take such a baby and then, after having her for my own, have to give her up through circumstances that might develop later. That would be so difficult that it would not be worth while.” And then Miss Pickford revealed a secret few know—that she came very nearly being adopted herself, when a little girl. Her mother had been left a widow, with three small children and an invalid mother to support. Sickness had taken all the family’s savings. A doctor, also named Smith (the Pickford family name) ha4 been very good to the fam¬ ily and was very fond of Mary. He wanted to adopt her and give her a good home and the best education possible. Mary’s mother agreed, and it was left to her to decide. They went to the doctor’s fine home, iooked through the house, and enjoyed a fine dinner. Mary was promised a dog, and perhaps a pony, too. “Won’t we have fun, mother!” she exclaimed. Her mother explained that she would not be there to enjoy them with her, that she would be caring for Jack and Lottie and their grandmother. “Then I won’t stay,” was the firm and final decision of Mary, and the in¬ cident was closed. Mary thus lost the fine home, the education and luxuries of life, includ¬ ing the privilege of being known as Mary Gladys Smith, or perhaps Mrs. Gladys Jones. But she gained the op¬ portunity to become Mary Pickford, the famous star. “That’s what I thought about Little Mary,” Miss Pickford said. “I might be depriving her of just such a chance by adopting her. But I would not con¬ sider it, if her parents did not fully agree. “It is marvelous to find such parental devotion as that of the Millers. If they care that much they are going to be real parents to her. So perhaps it is all right. I’m looking forward to see¬ ing a lot of Little Mary, anyway, when I go back to Hollywood.” Mary and Douglas have gone to Europe, to enjoy a much-needed vaca¬ tion after a strenuous year before the camera. When they return they will build a new home in Beverly Hills, on the mountains overlooking the sea. And that home will probably include a nurs¬ ery, for sooner or later Miss. Pickford expects to adopt a little tot or two who do not have parents and who need a home. But Mary Louise Miller will not play there. She is playing on the concrete floor of the pressing and cleaning shop in Hollywood, and occasionally calling “Mama Mollie,” the name used by Miss Pickford in “Sparrows.” STUDIO CARPENTERS TAKE THEJPOTLIGHT Carpenters at the Mary Pickford studio, the humble “men behind the sets” who get no share of the spotlight ordinarily, came into their own when Miss Pickford made “Sparrows” her successful picture coming to the. The final scenes show the erection of an addition on a big Southern mansion. This was where the carpenters “did their stuff.” They sawed and hammered in big league style while the cameras ground, and not a single workman muffed his lines or caused a “retake.” The carpenters were honored by special sideline music while in the scenes. Jim Brennan, chief musician for Pickford, picked out an air that he thought was suitable to the scene. It was: “Drill, Ye Tarriers, Drill.” GARDNER BECOMES AN ACTOR IN HOUR Jack Messingham is an expert gard- ner at the Mary 1 Pickford studios. He grew the corn and potatoes in the midst of the swamp in Mary Pickford’s new¬ est photoplay, “Sparrows” now at But Jack is an actor now. He be¬ came an actor in one hour while “Scraps” was being made. When the company got out of the swamps and into, the beautiful South¬ ern estate shown in the close of the picture, a “contractor” was needed to boss a crew of workmen in the scenes. Jack was chosen and stepped into the picture with Roy Stewart, the leading man, giving Roy a close run for the honors. When opportunity knocked at Jack’s door he met her en the front steps. TURNS LONE WALNUT INTO SMALL FORTUNE Co-Director On Mary Pickford’s New Film, “Sparrows,” Has Peculiar Experience. Tom McNamara, the well known car¬ toonist, claims the honor of possessing the most profitable walnut grove in California. A few years ago, McNamara, who collaborated with William Beaudine in the direction of “Sparrows”, Mary Pickford’s latest picture coming soon to the.erected a new home in Hollywood. He had visions of shade and decoration with profit so he planted a walnut grove around his house. Though he expended considerable effort and money in raising the trees there were no walnuts forthcoming and year after year the Yidetide season found the cartoonist’s family patroniz¬ ing the neighborhood grocery for their nuts. One night McNamara was awakened by a great thump on the roof of his house. He bad visions of housebreakers and clad in his night attire went out to investigate. He found that one lone wal¬ nut, the only one his trees had borne in four, long, weary years had fallen off the tree and rolled down the roof with a great clatter. This episode was the inspiration for a story, which he sold for many times what the crop of a ten-acre grove of walnuts would bring him. And so Mc¬ Namara maintains that his walnut grove, though nutless is the most pro¬ fitable one in California. “Sideline music” is usually played by a string orchestra on movie sets. Mary Pickford has sideline music deluxe dur¬ ing the making of “Sparrows” when the entire Swedish choral club of Chi¬ cago, on a tour of Hollywood, sang for her one afternoon. “HOW TO BE HAPPY THOUGH MARRIED” Famous Editor Interviews Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks and Learns About Marriage From Them. By JAMES QUIRK Editor of Photoplay Magazine (Suggested for women’s page feature) I have never ‘known of a more successful marriage than that of Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks. It proves that a man and woman can have their own careers and be happy. Each has a separate organization. Each tries to help the other, yet neither tries to interfere or force opinions. They are happy and everybody else on their “lot” is happy. Mary says Doug is the best producer in the business and Doug says Mary is the most marvelous combination of feminine sweetness and brains. And I think they are both right. “What’s the secret?” I asked Mary. Before I got the last word out she blurted at me: “It isn’t any secret. I love Doug and Doug loves me. And while we don’t go around cooing and billing like a couple of turtle doves, he proves it to me every day by his actions, and I try to do the same. “We make a business of being happily married. We are partners and we play the game like partners. I tell you—remember the theme of Doug’s ‘Thief of Bagdad’—‘Happiness Must Be Earned’—that’s it. You must earn your happiness or you don’t get it. We both work at happiness.” Seems simple, doesn’t it? I was leaving—was outside the door of her bungalow on my way over to play with Doug, his director, and one of the boys in his office, and then Marry called me back. “I forgot to say,” she whispered impishly, “that Doug and I have never been separated for a single day. “We take no vacations on our job of being happy.” Miss Pickford’s latest production, “Sparrows,” comes to the. theatre on.