Mickey for Photoplay, was hired as Mary’s personal publicist. Cohn prided himself in having friends in high places, such as President Wilson’s personal secretary Joseph Tumulty, and his contacts culminated in Paramount’s sending out pictures of President Wilson saying, “I have to thank you for the opportunity of witnessing Stella Maris, a production which I am sure will hearten the nation at this time of crisis. Its theme of woman’s lofty ideals has an irresistible appeal and its portrayal of all phases of life must be an incentive for good and loving deeds.”28
Even accepting that the president of the United States would allow himself to be used in publicity for a film, how murder and suicide were considered “incentive for good and loving deeds” is beyond comprehension. Still, the promotion underscored two facts: Mary’s image was unassailable and everything, even Stella Maris, was being tied to the war, or, as it was becoming known, “this crisis.”
As American men began dying on the battlefields of Europe, attention to the war effort increased. Frances was shocked when the studio bosses expressed their enthusiasm for the war as a boon to business; people were in need of diversion and “our theaters will be packed to the rafters.” At first, they tried to balance the content of their films to keep their European markets open in spite of the war, but by late 1917 that was impossible. Support for the war had grown slowly and many of the studio chiefs were vulnerable to criticism as immigrants resisting the confrontation against their original homelands. As a result, Mary became a “super-patriot” and theaters were soon flooded with “Kill the Hun” movies. Audiences were urged to “Come and hiss the Kaiser! Everybody is doing it!” and scenarios started to lose all subtlety. With titles like To Hell with the Kaiser, The Kaiser’s Finish, and The Kaiser–The Beast of Berlin, Hollywood had a new villain.29
The exception was once again D. W. Griffith, who was approached by the British government to make a film promoting the Allied cause. “Despising the pro-war propaganda,” Griffith went to England in the spring of 1917 aiming to make “a much more elevated kind of film.” The result was Hearts of the World, focusing on the effects of the war’s devastation on civilians, and it became one the most popular films of the year.30
The press and the movies were the only major outreach mechanisms to the citizenry; the government knew it and the producers knew it. Studio heads had gathered in New York within a month of America’s declaration of war to organize their efforts, and William Brady, as president of the National Association of the Motion Picture Industry, was named chair of the group’s executive committee. Working hand in hand with the government, Brady said, would lead to “the advancement and widespread influence and power for the good of the screen in a common interest.” Adolph Zukor was named to head the committee on bond subscriptions and immediately pledged Famous Players Lasky to buy $100,000 worth of bonds. Who could question the patriotism or the purity of an industry so behind its government in time of crisis?31
While actors were privately assured by their studios that they would receive deferments, the pressure was felt just the same. Paramount’s heartthrob Wallace Reid received his deferment because he had a six-week-old son, but Doug Fairbanks’s stardom was based in large part on his heroics—how could he excuse himself from serving?
He consulted Mary and became actively and very publicly involved in the war effort. He bought $100,000 of bonds himself and after completing Reaching for the Moon, he gave his staff a vacation while he took off with his wife and son on a coast-to-coast train trip to sell bonds. He spent two days in New York making dozens of appearances and by the time the train returned to Los Angeles, it was reported that he was personally responsible for selling over a million dollars’ worth of liberty bonds. The government announced that Fairbanks was more effective serving at home than abroad and no one could doubt his patriotism.32
Mary “adopted” an entire battalion of six hundred soldiers from the California Field Artillery. She announced that she intended “to see to it that the boys receive plenty of tobacco and candy” and when the men went overseas, they were each given a locket “containing a picture of their petite protector.”33
Charles Chaplin was an English citizen, but it was reported that he was “unable to serve” because he was “under sized” with a twenty-six-inch chest. Instead, he joined Doug in his bond selling and other charity events and Mary was the referee when Fairbanks and Chaplin staged a burlesque fistfight in Los Angeles to benefit London’s French American Hospital. When the three highest-paid and most popular film stars appeared together, records were set for bond sales.34
For a while, it worked well for everyone; the stars got the publicity, the government raised unheard-of sums of money, and the movie industry looked like the most patriotic business in the country.
Marie Dressler was another popular attraction at the bond rallies, alone or appearing with “The Big Three.” When Frances accompanied them, she was troubled to see Doug snub Marie, “acting as if she was a has-been” and unworthy of sharing the same platform with them. His snobbishness seemed almost innate and he was heard referring to his fans as “boll weevils.” Frances knew that Mary was very much in love with Doug and worried that their joint public appearances would spur the growing rumors about their relationship.35
Charlotte Pickford agreed with Frances and had not wanted Mary to go on a bond-selling tour at all. First, she was afraid of the crowds, remembering their brush with disaster at the opening of The Poor Little Rich Girl. And she did not think Mary’s image needed polishing. “Our Mary’s” picture was everywhere and her films were making a fortune.
Charlotte went along as chaperon on the bond tours, but when Mary told Owen she was going, he viciously accused her of caring only for herself: “You don’t fool me, Mary, with your patriotic palaver; it’s only a clever publicity stunt to attract more attention to yourself.” Frances believed that Mary truly “felt it was her duty to serve,” and listening to Owen’s sneering remarks, she knew she was witnessing “the last tendril of feeling that Mary had for the man she had married in her teens.”36
There were other effects of the war beyond Charlotte’s control. When Jack Pickford was drafted as a citizen of Canada, he immediately joined the United States Navy, where he was “assigned to the intelligence division and given the task of censoring films for export.” Before he left for Washington, Jack announced his plans to marry his latest good-time girl and the newest Triangle star, the beautiful Olive Thomas.37
Olive had come to New York with a girlfriend on vacation in 1913 and found it so much fun she couldn’t stay away. Still in her teens, she left a husband and a three-dollars-a-week job at a Pittsburgh department store to try her luck modeling. She quickly rose to fame as a Ziegfeld girl and with her long brown curls and a flashing smile, the artist Harrison Fisher dubbed her “the most beautiful girl in America.” Overnight, Olive Thomas could name her price, and Triangle made the best offer.38
Olive and Jack were two of a kind; he had reportedly started collecting lovers at the age of fifteen when he was taken in by the Ziegfeld beauty Lillian Lorraine. Olive’s experiences included her boss Flo Ziegfeld and she had accumulated a substantial jewelry collection as mementos.39
Charlotte and Mary were not at all enthusiastic about Jack’s plans for marriage. His mother said, “You’re too young to be married,” and Mary added, “Please wait until you have built up your career.” As talented as some friends genuinely believed he was, his career was hindered by the Pickford name and his utter lack of discipline. Jack just wanted to have fun and sister Lottie was all for it. “Go ahead,” she said, the only familial voice to encourage the wedding. “Love is all we can expect out of life,” and Jack went off to Washington a married man.40
Poor eyesight prevented Mickey Neilan from enlisting
