She worked primarily in stock company melodramas in Toronto and tours across Canada. Pickford only attended school for three to six months, with Charlotte Smith educating her children at home. Pickford once quipped that road-side billboards taught her how to read. She had no real childhood.
In 1907, Pickford traveled to New York City by herself at the age of 14 to seek work, when the Canadian stock company production tours grew too demanding. She decided that if she could not be a Broadway actress, she would become a dress designer and quit show business. She managed an audition with a famous stage producer/mogul, David Belasco. Belasco and Pickford came up with the name Mary Pickford (Pickford being her paternal grandmother's name) and he cast her in his Broadway production of The Warrens of Virginia. The play was successful, and Pickford's acting improved. She later claimed that this experience taught her to act with heart and feeling.
Turned to Film
By 1909, Pickford was lured by the movies. At the time, movies were still regarded as cheap entertainment, far inferior to the stage. Her mother urged her to try movies because the family needed the money if they were to stay together.
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