Mary Pickford - Legacy

Legacy

The Pickford Center for Motion Picture Study at 1313 Vine Street in Hollywood, constructed by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, opened in 1948 as a radio and television studio facility. The Mary Pickford Theater at the Library of Congress is named in her honor. Mary Pickford Auditorium at Claremont McKenna College is named in her honor.

There is a first-run movie theatre in Cathedral City, California called The Mary Pickford Theatre. The theater is a grand one with several screens and is built in the shape of a Spanish Cathedral, complete with bell tower and three-story lobby. The lobby contains a historic display with original artifacts belonging to Pickford and Buddy Rogers, her last husband. Among them are a rare and spectacular beaded gown she wore in the film Dorothy Vernon of Haddon Hall (1924) designed by Mitchell Leisen, her special Oscar, and a jewelry box.

The 1980 stage musical The Biograph Girl about the silent film era features the character of Pickford. In 2007, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences sued the estate of the deceased Buddy Rogers' second wife, Beverly Rogers, in order to stop the public sale of one of Pickford's Oscars.

A bust and historical plaque marks her birthplace in Toronto, now the site of the Hospital for Sick Children. The plaque was unveiled by her husband Buddy Rogers in 1973. The bust by artist Eino Gira was added ten years later. Her date of birth on the plaque is displayed as April 8, 1893. This can only be assumed to be because her date of birth was never registered – and throughout her life, beginning as a child, she led many people to believe that she was a year younger so she would appear to be more of an acting prodigy and continue to be cast in younger roles, which were more plentiful in the theatre.

The family home had been demolished in 1943, and many of the bricks delivered to Pickford in California. Proceeds from the sale of the property were donated by Pickford to build a bungalow in East York, Ontario, then a suburb of Toronto. The bungalow was the first prize in a lottery in Toronto to benefit war charities, and Pickford herself unveiled the home on May 26, 1943.

In 1993, a Golden Palm Star on the Palm Springs, California, Walk of Stars was dedicated to her.

She received a posthumous star on Canada's Walk of Fame in Toronto in 1999. In 2006, along with fellow deceased Canadian stars Fay Wray, Lorne Greene and John Candy, Pickford was featured on a Canadian postage stamp. From January 2011 until July 2011, the Toronto International Film Festival is exhibiting a collection of Mary Pickford memorabilia in the Canadian Film Gallery of the TIFF Bell LightBox building. In February 2011, the Spadina Museum, a museum dedicated to the 1920s and 1930s era in Toronto, will stage performances of 'Sweetheart: The Mary Pickford Story.' The play is a one-woman musical based on the life and career of Pickford, and will use Pickford movies along with live performance.