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Summary: Praise for Pickford: The Woman Who Made Hollywood
Review: "A knockout of a biography."-Newsweek"Just as if a new wing had opened in a national museum or a lost symphony had been restored to the national repertory, . . . Whitfield succeeds in giving us back a memory we thought we didn't want."-The New Yorker "A nuanced, three-dimensional portrait of a complex woman whose story is a fascinating case study of a seminal period in Hollywood."-Washington Post "Will stand as the definitive biography."-Library Journal (starred review) "Whitfield's well-written and enjoyable biography underlines Pickford's interest as an actor, and as a canny businesswoman."-Publishers Weekly "Expertly details the life and career of Mary Pickford."-New York Times Book Review "Not only an illuminating, beautifully written, and finally deeply disturbing exploration of a profoundly unresolvable personality, but an engaging, informative, and richly detailed study as anyone has done on the early days of the movies."-Boston Phoenix "Whitfield is a keen observer of her subject's sense of self-drama . . . [and] shows an irreverent sense of humor."-Los Angeles Times "A happy surprise-smart and tough-minded, yet respectful."-Pauline Kael
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Summary: additional review
Review: "Just as if a new wing had opened in a national museum or a lost symphony had been restored to the national repertory . . . Whitfield succeeds in giving us back a memory we thought we didn't want." --New Yorker
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Summary: Other reviews of Pickford
Review: What others have to say about Pickford:
"A knockout of a biography." -Ray Sawhill, NEWSWEEK
"Whitfield's book is a happy surprise--smart and tough minded, yet respectful." -Pauline Kael
"This is not simply a typical celebrity biography but a 'biography' of the times. . . . Whitfield skillfully analyzes Pickford and her films and delves behind the facade of fame. Though there have been other biographies of Pickford, this will stand as the definitive one." -LIBRARY JOURNAL (starred review)
"Whitfield's well-written, enjoyable biography underlines Pickford's interest as an actor, and as a canny businesswoman." -PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Rating: 
Summary: good in the begginning but then...
Review: Although I've read several books on Mary Pickford, I was still glued to my seat as I read this fascinating biography. This book really concentrates on her relationships with her husbands Owen Moore; Douglas Fairbanks, Sr.; and Buddy Rogers. It is also thorough in covering her family of Charlotte, Jack, and Lottie. My only disappointment was that the not much of the actual making of her films was covered in-depth. The book has a perfect title, as she was probably the most powerful person in Hollywood from about 1915 until the coming of sound.
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Summary: Excellent biography of the biggest female silent star
Review: Although I've read several books on Mary Pickford, I was still glued to my seat as I read this fascinating biography. This book really concentrates on her relationships with her husbands Owen Moore; Douglas Fairbanks, Sr.; and Buddy Rogers. It is also thorough in covering her family of Charlotte, Jack, and Lottie. My only disappointment was that the not much of the actual making of her films was covered in-depth. The book has a perfect title, as she was probably the most powerful person in Hollywood from about 1915 until the coming of sound.
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Summary: AT LAST - A DEFINITIVE BIOGRAPHY ON PICKFORD!!!
Review: Eileen Whitfield, who put 8 years of her life into this project, has at last given us a reputable biography on the career of America's Sweetheart. They don't get much better or more honest than this. The research is meticulous, and the sources well documented. This is many, many times superior to the Eyman book of the early 1990s, which made the mistake of bashing Mary Miles Minter, one of my favourite actresses!
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Summary: Beyond the "Girl with the Curls"
Review: I must recommend this biography by Whitfield, who exhaustively researched Pickford's life and "milestones" in breathtaking scope and clarity. Pickford, like others in her field of the silent era, endured poverty, the threat of separation from her mother and siblings... and worked on stage from the age of five. Pickford's mindboggling success,was the combination of angelic charm, savvy business sense, and being at the right place at the right time.
Pickford was a legend in her own time. A woman so popular she became the first and only celebrity to achieve the title of :America's Sweetheart. In Whitfeild's writing is both well researched and choc-a block full of privite anecdotes throughout; from her Father's accidental death, to working with Belasco and D.W Griffith (secretly marrying Owen Moore at 17), and Zukor, to selling war bonds with Chaplin and Fairbanks (husband #2), creating United Artists (1919) and moving on after the invasion of the "talkies". Also explored are her rivals in the industry (especially Gloria Swanson...Sunset Boulevard would have been all the more poignant had Mary starred in it), and her public loves (Owen Moore, Douglas Fairbanks, and later Buddy Rogers). Most fascinating is Pickford's steadfast devotion to her mother Charlotte, and her unsuccessful attempts to help her brother Jack and sister Lottie, who, like Mary became alcoholics. Through the strength of Whitfields data regarding Pickford, we begin to understand Mary's life from the dual -dilemma of her love of her fame and public, to the hold her career had on every decision she made, and how she at times, was paralyzed, as the "most recognized woman in the world."
Mary became typecast as "Little Mary" and she turned out some of the best movies of her generation with "Stella Maris(1919)
" Daddy Long Legs(1919)" "Little Annie Rooney(1925)" "Suds(1920)" "My best Girl(1927)"
She had great difficulty "growing up" in her roles, (which were met with opposition by devoted fans), and using more mature characters and subjects...this is evident in Kiki (1932) one of her attempts to break from her "girl with the curls" image.
(She eventually cut her curls in 1928 after charlotte died, mirroring a symbolic (umbilical cord) , cutting her past away.
Mary was unequaled at the pinnacle of her career, but her intense celebrity status that had became a source of great adoration, was followed abruptly with detachment and pain as old hollywood moved into "Talkies", and the Iconography of Mary was later constantly compared to Shirley Temple in the Thirties. Mary stopped making pictures alltogether by 1933. This wonderful book charts the ups and downs of her unimaginable career, personal life, with recorded insights from those who knew her best. She was an astonishing woman, and Whitfield, though respectful, brings humor, wit and insight into the biography of America's most mystifying "sweetheart". A +
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Summary: America's Sweetheart Comes Alive!
Review: In a modern world dominated by the movie industry, it is painfully ironic that film's humble beginnings have been forgotten. And equally frustrating is the current near-anonymity of the woman who almost singlehandedly created it: Mary Pickford. In PICKFORD: THE WOMAN WHO MADE HOLLYWOOD, Eileen Whitfield lucidly traces Pickford's early days touring in theater companies, her work with the legenday D.W. Griffith, her rise to the mantle of America's Sweetheart, and her sudden decline with the advent of talkies.The book not only reveals the Pickford story, but it also gives a brilliant insight into the workings of early Hollywood. A must for any film buff!
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Summary: good in the begginning but then...
Review: it gets so boring...i just couldn't finish it...after page 200..
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Summary: For Mary Pickford fans and students of the American cinema
Review: Mary Pickford was a key figure in American cinematic history. She became the first major silent-film actress and went on to become the first major female film executive as one of the founders of Untied Artists. Popular known in her acting heyday as "America's sweetheart", she enchanted moviegoers with her portraits of golden-haired princesses as well as her moving portrayals of sad-eyed waifs. Eileen Whitfield's Pickford: The Woman Who Made Hollywood recreates Pickford's personal and professional life in vivid detail from her poverty-stricken childhood in turn-of-the-century Toronto, through her undisputed reign as mistress of Pickfair (the Beverly Hills estate where she and her actor husband Douglas Fairbanks entertained in the 1920s), to her sadly moving demise in 1979. Pickford is "must" reading for all Mary Pickford fans and students of the American cinema.
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