This very nice scrapbook is predominantly from the 1930s and features a wealth of interesting articles, photos, news stories, and more with topics such as a Pickford Lasky Logo competition, Mary's short-lived Screen Stars' Shop, the filming of Secrets (1933,) her radio career, her favorite films, her marriage to Buddy Rogers, the death of Douglas Fairbanks, the short story Little Liar written by Mary, numerous ads for Mary Pickford Cosmetics, and also two pieces of sheet music for Daddy Long Legs (1919.) The clippings contain photos by K. O. Rahmn, George Hurrell, White, Campbell Studio, Lindstedt-Phelan, Preston Duncan, and beyond. It would be nice to comment on each page, but that would be quite a chore.
Not to go off on a tangent, but because both pieces of Daddy Long Legs sheet music in this scrapbook are so abundant in the world, it's worth mentioning that they ultimately resulted in one of Mary's many, many lawsuits. In a nutshell, the Broadway Music Corporation version was agreed to by Mary; the Waterson, Berlin & Snyder Co. by her mother Charlotte and her lawyer, Dennis F. O'Brien (some reports published at the time reverse this, but the court records show otherwise.) Broadway was promoting their music as Mary's official song to exhibitors which was stifling Waterson's sales. Mary, at the behest of her mother, told Broadway to stop as she preferred the Waterson version, but the damage was done. This was perceived as a breach of contract on Mary's part and so Waterson stopped paying royalties. Mary basically sued Waterson for said royalties and (bizarrely) won, but it seems the judgement was overturned on appeal.
This scrapbook was donated to the MPF.
There were also a number of loose articles / ads along with this scrapbook. Donated to MPF.
No comments:
Post a Comment