A Tribute to Super Stars Mary Pickford and Charles “Buddy” Rogers

T hey initially met during casting of the 1927 silent classic, My Best Girl. At the time, she was married to swashbuckler film actor Douglas Fairbanks Sr; he had just done a movie, Wings, which eventually won the first Best Picture Oscar.

During filming, Mary and Buddy’s chemistry bubbled on screen. Off screen, sparks were flying. It’s been said that they kept “rehearsing” a love scene over and over.

But nothing came of the romance for a time, that is, until Douglas Fairbanks Sr’s philandering resulted in their divorce. Soon after, Mary and Buddy became man and wife. They lived in Pickfair and adopted a couple of children, Roxanne and Ronald.

Ho-kay, I’m sure their romance had ups and downs, yes the alcoholism factor etc. but they did stay together until her death in 1979. And in their later years, when asked about his wife, Buddy said, “She’s still my best girl.” Awww…

Could it be? Maybe I love this movie so much because their magnetic attraction/passions for each, forever imprinted on the movie, still seethes from the screen?

Besides, the plot is charming. No cussing (boring!) and not much violence (okay, “Joe” punched a guy in the face but it was to protect his girl, so it was cute :)

Reviews for My Best Girl
Some of Mary Pickford's Silent Movies Free to View

I found this great article on MY BEST GIRL by Felicia Feaster

My Best Girl was Pickford's last silent picture and the first with Taylor, a veteran of Harold Lloyd comedies and an expert at crafting effervescent fare like My Best Girl.

Taylor would go on to direct all of Pickford's remaining films except forSecrets (1933).

Considered one of Pickford's best films, My Best Girl was released at New York's Rialto theater. Its release came at a pivotal time for both Pickford and the motion pictures.

The silent age was largely at an end, and Pickford, who had made her reputation and fortune as one of the silent era's darlings, found adjusting to the new era of talking pictures a fresh challenge. It was a hurdle which she partly overcame with her next film Coquette (1929) in which she played a sophisticated flapper with bobbed hair. The film won the actress an Oscar, an award many saw as an honor bestowed, not just for Coquette, but in celebration of Pickford's entire film career.

After the release of My Best Girl, Pickford decided to radically change her innocent screen image, and cut off her famous curly locks and began to take on more adult roles. As she told an interviewer in a statement that could have easily applied to My Best Girl "I am sick of Cinderella parts, of wearing rags and tatters. I want to wear smart clothes and play the lover. I created a certain type of character and now I think it is practically finished."

Pickford's co-star in My Best Girl, Buddy Rogers, was a straight arrow from Kansas, son of a judge and a Sunday school teacher, and eleven years Pickford's junior. Rogers had auditioned for the role with Pickford, who initially seemed unlikely to pick him for her leading man when she asked him "Mr. Rogers, do you consider me a great actress?" and he replied "My favorite is Norma Shearer."

But Rogers secured the part of Joe Grant and was so visibly infatuated with the married Pickford during the filming of My Best Girl that Pickford told writer/director Frances Marion, "I think he's got a crush on me."

Others also noticed the strong attraction between the two actors, especially Pickford's current husband Douglas Fairbanks, who visited the set of My Best Girl one day. There he saw Charles and Mary filming a love scene and immediately had a strange feeling about it that was "more than jealousy. I suddenly felt afraid."

Those initial signs of a blooming love affair between Pickford and Rogers would eventually spill over into real life when Rogers became Pickford's third and final husband in 1937. The couple were married for 42 years.

Rogers role in My Best Girl ushered in the beginning of the good-looking actor's movie stardom, eventually earning him the moniker "America's Boyfriend." That nickname certainly jibed with Pickford's honorary title as "America's Sweetheart" for the lovable, sunny girls she played in films such as Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm (1917) and Pollyanna (1920). Cecil B. DeMille once said of Pickford "

There have been hundreds of stars, there have been scores of fine actresses in motion pictures. There has been only one Mary Pickford."

Director: Sam Taylor

Producer: Mary Pickford

Screenplay: Hope Loring, Allen McNeil, and Tim Whelan; based on the novel of the same name by Kathleen Norris

Cinematography: Charles RosherProduction

Design: Jack Schulze

Music: Gaylord Carter

Cast:

Mary Pickford (Maggie Johnson)


Charles "Buddy" Rogers (Joe Grant) Sunshine Hart (Ma Johnson), Lucien Littlefield (Pa Johnson), Hobart Bosworth (Mr. Merrill), Carmelita Geraghty (Liz Johnson).BW-80m.

Ooh, I found Mary Pickford Interviews and more info

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NEXT on Shalla's Faves...

Without Lying Down: Frances Marion and the Power of Women in Hollywood (2001)