Screenland (Oct 1923-Mar 1924)

about her in her pictures. But there were young men around Santa Barbara' who wanted to ask Mary to dances and there was James Kirkwood, her director, who found her attractive. Those around the studio knew .that Mary sometimes kicked up a fuss at home. But the queen of the family and the master mind of the home was 'still Ma. . . . . \ „ Santa Barbara was a pretty place to live but there is no denying the fact that the American was no longer a wealthy and prominent firm. Mrs. Shelby decided she had picked the wrong pay envelope. Amid threatened lawsuits, she withdrew. "The Second Mary Pickford" J^^Letro was expanding in the field and decided it couldn't get along without a second Mary Pickford. Although Mary Miles M inter had never done anything more strenuous before the camera than shake her curls, Mrs. Shelby bagged an excellent contract for her little daughter. The youthful Mary still went on playing the pretty child and the charnring innocent. Life was all sugar — before the camera. Sister Margaret Shelby, who had acted a little, stopped work. Grandma, who could handle Mary, became prominent in the household. Some of Mary's emotional gifts, suppressed before the camera, began to assert themselves in real life. C One of the last pictures taken of Mary Miles Mintcr and her mother, who have been separated by a bitter quarrel. over. Mrs Charlotte Shelby didn't have to be told twice that she had been handed an oil well, a block of Standard Oil stock and the Russian Crown Jewels. I Too Young for Beaux B, Mama with the Brains ut it takes the brains of a promoter to push a profitable opportunity. Mrs. Shelby had the brains. Mary was a child, not yet of age, and she couldn't have guided her own destinies. At that time Paramount wasn't looking for another Mary Pickford. It had the original under contract. Opportunities for big money were more limited than they are now. But the American Film Company did have a new bank-roll to spend and Mrs. Shelby showed them one way of spending it. Dolls and Golden Curls TThe press agents turned loose on Mary Miles Minter. She was just a child, still playing with dolls. Just a pink and white and gold little girl. Just a carefully guarded little rich girl, with plenty of chaperones and private tutors. Mary lived in Santa Barbara, away from the Hollywood movie colony. So far as the world knew, the birds and flowers were her only playmates, just as the subtitles said Lt was a strange life. She had few friends. She wasn't encouraged to cultivate people. She had few suitors. She was supposed to be too young to have beaux. She had to battle against plumpness. It was just one sweet picture after another in the studio. But it was no sweets in real life. The film executives who met Mary in business conferences had many kind things to say about her. The poor kid sometimes wanted to break loose. She wanted to say things, but she didn't know how. Like most stage children, she was rather patient and docile. But there were misunderstandings with her mother and tearful flights to her grandmother. Ma Knew What She Wanted T o give Mrs. Shelby her due, she knew what she wanted and she knew how to get it. She was out to beat the world. She was out to capture Mary Pickford's crown. Mary Pickford left Paramount and Adolph Zukor was the third movie magnate who was looking for another Pickford. Mrs. Shelby's chance had come. The contract with Adolph Zukor was a masterpiece. The sum total of its terms was that the company was to pay Mary Miles Minter $1,300,000 in return for which a plump, blonde pretty girl agreed to allow the cameras to shoot at her while she was romping about some scenery. Nobody has ever been able to say positively that Mary can act. Mr. Zukor never thought (Continued on page 99)