The Washington herald., 1921-06-17
Mary Pickford Decided She
Must Become Real Star
."MY LIFE. /"
BY NARY PIcKFoRD.
(cspyright. issi., :
tosn.iausd from Yssterdaya

And I-Gladys Smith of Toronto,
with eight years Of big and little
parts in unimportant road COM
panies--I had arrived. at the con-
clusion that the time had come for
me to blossom forth as Broadway
star!
The very best was barely good
enough for me. The best theater in
the biggest city with the principal
part mine-anything less than these
would set me down a failure! And.
incidentally. my future In the thea
ter must be guided by no one else
than the greatest managerial ge-
MUS of the country! could consent
to allow my star of destiny to shine
under the direction Of none other!
Sought David Belasco.
All this / kept most secret-even
from my mother. 1t was too won
derful, too tremendous to talk
about. And so when we came in off
the road and took up quarters in a
little theatrical boarding house !
began what developed into a daily
pilgrimage that extended over the
blistering hot summer months-ai-
ways without SO much as the tiniest
bit of encouragement-a daily pill
grimage to the outer office. beyond
which. somewhere, dwelt the idol
of my dreams-prince of producers,
maker of stars-David Belasco,
/ knew my theater pretty thor
oughly, even at 10. II had been
eight years my business to come to
know it. knew that in Belasco
was personifed the greatest and
best and finest things that existed,
Electrically speaking. 1 was bent
on having him show me how to ex-
press those things.
willing to Prove Fitness.
realized / might fail. but 1 knew
that IL had II in me he would bring
II to the surface. felt / was get
ting on in years! Don't smile. Age
is a relative matter. At 10 had had
more actual. downright hard WORK
crowded into my life than many a
woman OF 40.
tried not to be too impatient.
was willing to face another PERIOD
Of struggling as long as l had al
ready known-and wait until / was
81 to come into my own as a rec
ognized star. / felt-and not unrea-
sonably, surely-that eight more
years were none too many, under
the guidance Of a master like Be-
lasco. to prove my fitness for really
big things in the theater.
But, of course, the difficulty was
in convincing Belasco that IL was
worth eight years Of his time to de-
termine this question! At least that
was what / had supposed the diff.
fculty would be-in the thousand
days and nights I dreamed about It.
before first went to his office.
Baked By once Boy.
But very quickly discovered that
this WAS by no means the only diff
fculty in my way. A much greater
one existed in the person of a very
young, very self-important offics
boy, seconded by a naughty stenos
rapher-the first bulwarks, station
ed in the outer office. against any
intrusion on the peace of their en-
ployet.
Day after day, week after week,
never succeeded in getting further
than that outer office. Far into the
night I would plan new schemes
that might succeed against the
brutally Indifferent minions in the
outer ONCE. And the next day
would put them all into practice
only to be told again the same
thinly-veiled. insolent reply:
"Nothin' dom! Mr.. Belasco amt
seein' nobody today"
Ito BE Ce.tinuedJ