Tag: mary pickford

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TIFF: Mary Pickford and the Invention of the Movie Star

Eric Veillette

In today’s Toronto Star, I preview TIFF’s latest exhibit, Mary Pickford and the Invention of the Movie Star, based on the collection of Rob Brooks. Over the course of three decades, Brooks, a Toronto native, amassed thousands of items including lobby cards, posters, correspondence and several personal items once owned by Toronto’s own Mary Pickford. In the article, I mention Pickford’s long-held ties to Toronto. In an early 1920s visit, Pickford was so enamoured by the patients and staff at the Christie St. Military Hospital that they received private screenings of all her forthcoming films. When Sparrows was released in … Continue reading TIFF: Mary Pickford and the Invention of the Movie Star

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The Pickford Theatre

Eric Veillette

By 1915, Toronto’s own Mary Pickford was arguably the biggest movie star in the world. Long before her name graced Canada’s Walk of Fame or her famous curls adorned a Canada Post stamp, her hometown paid testament to her success when a theatre at the north-west corner of Queen and Spadina was renamed the Mary Pickford Theatre. The theatre, later shortened to Pickford, had been known as the Variety for a few years and was originally named the Auditorium when it opened as part of showman John Griffin’s first group of theatoriums in 1906. During World War 1, it was … Continue reading The Pickford Theatre