'The Actress'

Toronto, Canada, 1900.

Little Gladys Smith is waiting for her cue to go on, her heart pounding fiercely. The curtain is about to go up! Mama had helped her with her lines so she is letter perfect, even though she can't read.

Not long ago, her father had passed away.

She thinks, "I must try to take my father's place . . . and prevent anything from breaking up my family." She thinks she can do this by making money acting in plays.

She is seven-years-old and is paid $8 a week. She plays the part of Ned, a little boy, in a play called "The Silver King."

"The Silver King" is a melodrama -- an old-fashioned play with heroes, bad guys and lovely ladies. Back then audiences were really rowdy. They loved to boo the villains. Sometimes they even threw food at the actors!

Mama didn't want her to take the acting job. She said, "The thought of those innocent babies making a spectacle of themselves on a public stage!"

But she likes Mr. Murphy, the stage manager. She even likes the actors in the company, and thinks they are respectable. So Gladys gets her first job, acting in the play. Mama plays the organ and Gladys' kid sister Lotte takes a small role.

There is a breathless silence as the lights dim. A thrill runs up Gladys' spine. She feels the theater darkening and hears the notes of the "sob music" from the organ. The lights blind Gladys as the curtain rises. Pinpoints of flame dance in her eyes. This is it. She is about to step into the "limelight" and nothing will ever be the same.

For years, Gladys and her family tour all over North America in melodramas. As the train passes through the many towns, she teaches herself to read. She is particularly proud when she is able to spell the town Schenectady in New York.

The family stays together, but the pay is low, the food bad and the lodging awful. At 15, Gladys is discouraged and wants to give up. She gives herself one last chance. She goes to see famous Broadway producer David Belasco to ask him for a job. Well, not really ask him. She demands a job and she gets it. She plays a child in the play "The Warrens of Virginia." She is on Broadway.

Later she says, "A spirit stronger than myself has always whipped me to action."

Back then, the only entertainment people had was going to the theater, reading and "the flickers," as the silent movies were called. Long before there were movies that had sound, there were movies with no sound at all. That is why they were called silent movies.

Gladys is discovered by the great filmmaking pioneer D.W. Griffith and appears in hundreds of "flickers." The audiences love her and she becomes known as "America's Sweetheart."

At the beginning of the 20th century, Gladys Smith is the most famous actress in the world. You could say that little Gladys Smith did all right for herself.

Of course, by then she had changed her name to Mary Pickford.

This month marks the 100th anniversary of Mary Pickford in film.

To learn more visit www.marypickford.com and www.marypickfordthemuse.com. To view scenes from the documentary "Mary Pickford: The Muse of the Movies," visit latimes.com/pickford. kidsreadingroom@latimes.com