Laughing With America’s Original Sweetheart

Over the years, the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra’s annual Silent Film Gala has showcased the classic comedies of such beloved movie clowns as Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton and Harold Lloyd. This year, the Silent Film Gala is screening a romantic farce starring Mary Pickford.

Although the golden-haired “America’s sweetheart” is best known for her dramatic work in such silent classics as “Stella Maris” and “Tess of the Storm Country,” Pickford could also cut loose on screen. The 12th annual Silent Film Gala, which takes place Saturday at UCLA’s Royce Hall, is reintroducing the lighter side of the diminutive superstar to a whole new audience.

The evening includes the charming 1927 romantic comedy “My Best Girl,” which co-stars Pickford’s future husband, Charles “Buddy” Rogers. In the film, which was Pickford’s last silent, Rogers plays a millionaire’s son posing as a stockroom worker in one of his father’s chain of dime stores in order to prove he can be a success on his own. While at work, he meets and quickly falls in love with the sweet, beautiful and pure stock girl, Maggie (Pickford).

“My Best Girl” will be preceded by a rare showing of the 1912 delight “The New York Hat,” directed by D.W. Griffith, that stars Pickford and Lionel Barrymore, plus a two-minute war bond “pitch” featuring Pickford.

Both “My Best Girl” and “The New York Hat” have been recently restored by the UCLA Film & Television Archive. Composer David Michael Frank will be the guest conductor.

The evening’s co-chairman, Turner Entertainment Co. President Roger Mayer, says that the gala chose “My Best Girl” because “the Mary Pickford Foundation has been doing so many restorations. It has been rather typical to do Keaton, Chaplin or Harold Lloyd. No one thinks of Mary Pickford in those terms.

“In fact, she was a very good comedienne. We wanted to make people aware of . . . how good Mary Pickford was. For some reason, her silent films do not have the same want-to-see or prestige that the other comedians do.”

Besides being one of the most popular stars of the silent era, Pickford was also one of the earliest female producers and the first woman in Hollywood to make $1 million in a year. In 1919, she and her husband, Douglas Fairbanks, Charlie Chaplin and Griffith co-founded United Artists.

Mayer has discovered over the years that audiences who attend the event have really grown to appreciate silent movies. “They are finding that they are more entertaining than they expect,” says Mayer, who is also chairman of the National Film Preservation Foundation.

The gala, he says, is a wonderful way to combine “a love of film preservation--or a dedication to it--with entertainment and music.” This year, Oscar-winning actor Gregory Peck is the honorary chairman.

Five years ago, Frank was commissioned by the Mary Pickford Foundation to compose a score to “My Best Girl” for its video release.

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The original score still existed. “There is a famous recording with an organ score done on one of those old--fashioned sounding organs,” says Frank.

“When I first saw the movie, it was with that score. It was very corny. It was not the way we would do it now.”

Frank says he decided to go fresh and new. “It is a little say, jazzier, than most of my other scores,” he explains.

“It is [set] in the Roaring ‘20s and there is a character in the movie who is also a floozy. So I did kind of Charleston-esque things.”

The Silent Film Gala marks the first time he’s conducted one of his film scores for a live audience. Because timing is everything, he says, he’s nervous.

“When I record [the score] I have it timed,” says Frank. “I have the beats playing in the headphones so when I record I know it will fit the picture exactly dead on. But it is impossible to do [that live].”

Frank also composed the score to “New York Hat.” “It’s a wonderful movie,” he says. “I wrote it with a live performance in mind. It plays off of the mood [of the film].”

“I am really happy they are doing Mary Pickford,” adds Frank. “She was an amazing person and this movie is very charming. To me it’s as good as, like, a Tracy or Hepburn movie. And when my kids say, ‘Where are you dragging us to?’ I tell them it’s like a Tom Hanks-Meg Ryan movie.”

* The Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra’s 12th annual Silent Film Gala, Saturday at 8 p.m. at UCLA’s Royce Hall. Tickets are $25 for general admission, $60 for priority seating, and $225 for the film and post-film supper. Information: (213) 622-7001, Ext. 275.