The living room at Pickfair, 1143 Summit Dr., Beverly Hills, California
Pickfair was the legendary Beverly Hills estate of movie stars Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks. During most of the 1920s, they were Hollywood’s power couple and an invitation to Pickfair was a golden ticket. But most of us non-A-listers never got a chance to peek inside. This photo gives us a glimpse of Mary and Doug’s living room. I don’t know enough about décor to know what style this is, but it looks very “European Grand” with lots of knick-knacks that needed lots of dusting. Those extra-long curtains framing the right-hand steps worry me. I bet more than one luminary tripped over them.
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This is an early photograph of Pickfair living room unlike the appearance of the room when (previous to March 29, 1976) Mary Pickford, who helped with her then husbands,Douglas Fairbanks Sr., found the Academy) received an honorary Oscar from Academy president, producer Walter Mirisch. Gene Kelly was the master of ceremonies of the television broadcast which her then husband, Buddy Rogers attended. The gates of Pickfair appear slightly different than when I visited Beverly Hill several time in 1955-1956. Then the gate posts were more wooden and painted pink and blue. The later owners of the property who razed the original mansion claim that the gate are all that remain of Pickfair. The iron gate (not the gate posts) is not a part of the original Pickfair. Such a tragedy to destroy this legendary mansion where many famous people stayed. Prince Phillilps’uncle, Louis Mountbatten and his wife spent their honeymoon there.
Mary Pickford tried to prepare herself to attend the night she received an honorary Oscar. She purchased a new wig. But years of inactivity had left her unable to walk. The filmed presentation was previously recorded in the Pickfair living room that had seen so many famous visitors over the years. Even though she was still able to attend to her extensive business interests with the help of her husband, Buddy Rogers, and her trusted advisers. She had signed her will and also a subsequent codicil initialling with “MPR,” The magnificent columbarium containing her remains and those of many of her family in a locked area of Forest Lawn in Glendale bears the name, Mary Pickford Rogers, America’s Sweetheart, the name given her initially by the father of Sid Grauman on the marquee of his New York cinema.
Mary Pickford tried to prepare herself to attend the night she received an honorary Oscar. She purchased a new wig. But years of inactivity had left her unable to walk. Even though she was still able to attend to her extensive business interests with the help of her husband, Buddy Rogers, and her trusted advisers. She had signed her will and also a subsequent codicil initialling with “MPR,” The magnificent columbarium containing her remains and those of many of her family in a locked area of Forest Lawn in Glendale bears the name, Mary Pickford Rogers, America’s Sweetheart, the name given her initially by the father of Sid Grauman on the marquee of his New York cinema.
The actual presentation was filmed before March 29, 1976 when a camera crew and Walter Mirisch came to Pickfair. Mary was still able give the crew instrictions. “Don’t cross light me” which tended to show the “bad side” of her face. Over the years Mary Pickford had learned just about everything there was to know about making a motion picture often from those who pioneered the technique.
Thanks for all that great info, Charles. I’ve gone back and added the footage of Mary getting her honorary Oscar. She may have been rather infirm by then but she still knew how to light her best!
This was the beginning of the end. She began to “go down” and Buddy and Kemp what’s-his-name take her to the Santa Moinica hospital after about three years where she had a final stroke and died.
“”A person hates to see part of an era, a very famous era,
the Pickfair, just sort of disappear very suddenly. But
it’s my feeling it’s not the end of an era,” said Matty
Kemp, longtime associate of the late silent film star.
It was not the house itself but Miss Pickford and Fairbanks,
as well as the company that Tinseltown’s “king and queen”
kept, that made Pickfair what it was, said Kemp, who runs
the Pickford Co., which continues to handle the late actress’
films.
“The glamour came from the people, the celebrities of the
day. You name them – Valentino, Swanson – that’s where the
glamour was at Pickfair.”
Miss Pickford made her first movie in 1909, “The Violin
Maker of Cremona,” directed by D.W. Griffith. She was in
more than 100 silent films, including “Polyanna” and “Poor
Little Rich Girl,” before making her first talkie, “Coquette,”
in 1929. It won her an Oscar for best actress.
She followed that with “Taming of the Shrew” and “Kiki”
before ending her career with 1933’s “Secrets.” The motion
picture academy gave her a special Oscar in 1976 for contribution
to the industry.
Pickfair was built shortly after Miss Pickford married Fairbanks
in 1920. What was once a stable in the country and then
a hunting lodge was transformed into a gracious home that
– with some exaggeration – became known variously as the
Buckingham Palace of Hollywood or the White House.
“It was as famous as the White House in Washington,” said
Kemp. “Mary, during her reign as the queen, she was the
most popular woman in the world. My God, there wasn’t anyone
that didn’t know Mary Pickford.”
An invitation to Pickfair meant you had arrived. Rudolph
Valentino and Gloria Swanson were just two names on a startling
guest list: Maurice Chevalier, Anna Pavlova, Charlie Chaplin,
Clark Gable, Joan Crawford, Norma Shearer, Jack Dempsey,
Albert Einstein, Amelia Earhart, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Henry
Ford, Babe Ruth, Lillian Gish and H.G. Wells.
Miss Pickford was 86 when she died in 1979. Her marriage
to Fairbanks had ended in 1934 and she hadn’t made a movie
in nearly 50 years. But the mystique of Pickfair lingered
on until the end.
Her third husband, actor Buddy Rogers, several times called
reporters to the mansion to dispel rumors that Miss Pickford,
who became reclusive in the mid-1960s, was locked up. She
spoke from an upstairs room, using a tape-recorded message
or telephone.
“I’m feeling so good that I’m ready to go back to work,”
she said in one such interview in 1978. The mansion at that
time was reported to be “in splendid repair, fully staffed
and brimming with legend.”
After her death Rogers decided to sell Pickfair and built
himself a new house on a portion of the property. He called
it Pickfair Lodge and still lives there.
Rogers, who was out of town Friday, sold the house to Jerry
Buss, owner of the Los Angeles Lakers, for $5.4 million
in 1980. He sold it to Miss Zadora and her husband in 1988
for $6.67 million.
The couple announced last July that they were embarking
on a two-year remodeling project to transform the house
into a Renaissance-style Venetian palazzo with tile roofs,
leaded windows, balconies and verandas. The demolition work
has been going on since the beginning of the year.
Now, however, only a separate guest house-servants quarters
and the old house’s living room remain standing. The rest
had simply begun to crumble.
“I understand they ran into some problems with the foundations,
termites,” said Kemp. ”
Termites and later that Pickfair was haunted were feeble excuses that Pia Zador and husband Miklaus used.
Martin,
This interior shot is begging to be colorized . . .
Also I remember seeing this shot and many more like it in a bound library copy of old Vogue magazines
J
It looks like a good room for a cocktail party, of which I’m sure there were many.
I wonder if that unusual long footstool in front of the sofa was for Mary to put her feet on , since she was so short. That would be convenient for her.
You’re right, Nina – it’s very cocktail party ready! And yes, I assume that foot stool was because Mary was so short and needed something like that to be comfy.
Pickfair is fascinating in that it was not only the home of celebrities but a celebrity in its own right.
The video of Mary and the house is great. I love seeing the approach to the front door and a few of the interior spaces. It’s a shame what’s happened to the property; it’s not recognizable. Anyone who has access to Architectural Digest archives can check out the April 1990 edition. There are a couple of pictures of the interior, including Pickford and Fairbanks standing in front of those infamous curtains, and a great overhead shot taken in about 1920.
Hi Todd – yes, we’re lucky we’ve got that Oscars footage and that it’s in color! I’ll see if I can dig up those Architectural Digest shot!
Eileen Whitfield’s book is about the best biographyof Mary Pickford I’ve found, and I have just about all of them. It is reasonably objective as much as it can be for people writing about America’s Sweetheart tend to gush. Ms. Whitfield’s book is well researched unlike most of the others.
Even Mary herself in her 1955 autobiography published by Doubleday, “Sunshine and Shadow”….well you find a copy and form your own oponion. Enjoy for you will.
Mary found the title for her autobiography in the words of an old English Ballard written by Frederick Weatherly called “Danny Boy.”
Mary’s mother, Charlotte Hennessey Smith (Pickford) like Mary was born in Toronto, Canada, but Charlotte’s family came from Ballyduff, County Kerry, Ireland.
Many during Charlotte’s later life (advising and investing for Mary) said that Charlotte Pickford was the smartest woman in Hollywood.
“Pickford: The Woman Who Made Hollywood: Whitfield, Eileen …
http://www.amazon.com/Pickford-Woman-Who-Made-Hollywood/...
Eileen Whitfield recreates Pickford’s life in meticulously researched detail, from her trying days in turn-of-the-century Toronto through her reign as mistress of Pickfair, the legendary Beverly Hills estate at which she and Fairbanks entertained the world’s elite, to her sadly moving demise.”